Greek Oracles
Page revised by Anna Vlasyuk
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The ancient Greeks felt a deep need for guidance in the problems of life, but, unlike believers in the modern world who are guided by the Bible, the Koran or the holy books of Eastern religions, the Greeks had no such sacred writings. Greek poets were often thought to be inspired by the Muses, but this did not make their poetry the work of God. Even their priests were of little help. Their function was to perform public worship, mostly by offering sacrifices to particular gods, but they delivered no sermons and heard no confessions. At best they could decide the questions of religious law - whether a certain act had made the inquirer impure and how he could be cleansed. But at a number of temples throughout the Greek world there were oracles to which the inquirer, whether a private individual or a state, could bring a question and receive an answer which was supposed to express the will of the gods. These temples were mostly dedicated to Apollo, whose cult had spread from Asia Minor to Greece.
Oracles played a very important role throughout Greek history. Many important choices made by prominent Greeks came from the advice of oracles. Herodotus, a Greek historian, gives many accounts of events that took place in ancient Greece in which oracles played a major role. Playwrights like Sophocles, and other authors like Homer, in two of his works the Iliad and the Odyssey, have given many examples of how oracles could and sometimes did affect the Greeks.
For example in Sophocles'
play Oedipus Rex,
the protagonist (leading character) named Oedipus was abandoned at birth (exposed)
by his parents. This was not an unusual practice of the Greeks at this time. He
was found and adopted by a couple and when he had grown up he visited an oracle
which told him that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He of course
said that this would never happen, but to be sure he left his adopted parents.
He didn't know that he was adopted, so he thought that the oracle was referring
to his adopted parents, not his real parents. As the play progresses he ends up
killing his father and marrying his mother just as the oracle had said. He of
course did not know that he had fulfilled the oracle until later in the play when
he learned who his real parents were. Oracles were considered to be words from
the gods and indisputable, or unquestionable. Oracles played a very important
rule in Greek history through the many decisions that were made as well as some
of the philosophical ideas that surfaced.
Definition
of the word oracle
The age of the oracles
dates from around 700 BC to about 300 AD.
The word oracles describes three things. It describes
the person through which the god speaks. It also describes the actual temple or
shrine of the god. Lastly it describes the answer given by the god through the
prophet.
In Western civilization the connotations of the word oracles have been largely determined by traditional perceptions of ancient Greek oracles, particularly the oracles of Apollo at Delphi. The term prophecy, on the other hand has been more closely associated with traditions of divine revelation through human mediums in ancient Israel and easily Christianity. Since most oracles in the Greek world were given in response to inquiries, oracles were often regarded as verbal responses by a supernatural being, in contrast to prophecy, which is thought of as unsolicited verbal revelations given through human mediums and often directed toward instigating social change. In actuality, question-and -answer revelations were common in ancient Israel and it was only with appearance in the eighth century BCE (Before Christian Era) of free prophets such as Amos, Isaiah, and Hosea that unsolicited prophecy became common. Modern distinctions between oracles and prophecy are largely based on the discrete conventions of classical and biblical tradition rather than upon a cross-cultural study of the subject, though the terms themselves are often used and interchanged indiscriminately n modern anthropological studies.
Oracles are but one of several types of divination, which is the art or science of interpreting symbols understood as messages from the gods. Such symbols often require the interpretive expertise of a trained specialist and are frequently based on phenomena of an unpredictable or even trivial nature. The more common types of divination in the Greco-Roman worlds included the casting of lots, the flight and behavior of birds, the behavior of sacrificial animals and the condition of their vital organs, various omens or sounds and dreams.
Professional diviners and intermediaries had no permanent relationship to temples or shrines. They may have practiced their divinatory and oracular arts in their homes, in the marketplace, or in various places of employment such as army posts or governmental offices.
Oracles were usually associated either with a sacred place where they were available in the setting of a public religious institution or with a specially endowed person who acted as a paid functionary or a freelance practitioner. In the Mediterranean world three distinctive techniques were used at oracular shrines to secure three kinds of oracles: the lot oracles, the incubation (or dream) oracles, and the inspired oracles.
Lot oracles: The process of random selection that is the basis of all lot oracles is based on the supposition that the result either expresses the will of the gods or occasions insight into the course of events by providing a clue to an aspect of that interrelated chain of events that constitutes the cosmic harmony.
Incubation oracles: Incubation oracles in the ancient Mediterranean worlds were revelatory dreams sought in temples after completion of preliminary ritual requirements. Most incubation oracles were sought in connectioni to healing. Preparation for the ritual included a ritual bath and a sacrificial offering, and fees were paid only if the healing was successful .
Inspired Oracles: In the Greco-Roman world many of the local oracles of Apollo employed a cult functionary who acted as an intermediary of the god and responded to questions with oracular reposes pronounced in the god's name.
In the ancient Mediterranean world certain places were thought to enjoy a special sanctity, particularly cabes, springs, elevations, and places struck by lightning (especially oak trees). The emphasis on the oracular powers inherent in particular sites is due to the ancient Greek belief that the primal goddess Gaia was the source of oracular inspiration. While oracles' shrines were rare among the Romans, they were very common in the Greek world. Apollo, the primary oracular divinity among the Greeks, had oracles at Delphi, Claros, and Didyma. Zeus had oracles at Dodona, Olympia, and the Oasis of Siwa in Libya. The healing god Askelepois had them at Epidaurus and Rome, and the heroes Amphiaraos and Tophonios had oracular grottoes in Lebadea and Oropus respectively. In addition to Delphi there were less frequented oracles at Theves, Tegyra, and Ptoon in Boeotia, at Abae in Phocis, Corope in Thessaly, and in Delos, Apollo's birthplace.
The answers of the medium when in a trace might often be confused. This was satisfactorily explained to the ancient Greeks by the belief that the gods, and particularly Apollo, did not answer man's questions candidly, but could be expected to bewilder and even mislead the rash inquirer by ambiguous and enigmatic answers. The man or the state was too trustworthy in thinking that "the oracles are the surest thing in the world," forgetting that it's "also the most ambiguous" and ambiguous in such a way that there could have been two meanings derived from the oracle. But on the other hand the mediums were the ones who perhaps should not have been trusted because some "prophesied under the influence of honey" according to Adrienne Mayor. Nancy Demand tells us stories about the oracles which were spoken, and in Chapter 13 there is a good example of how an unfavorable oracles can be turned into a favorable one and the other was around. Actually, the inquirer did not usually receive the medium's utterance directly. He was allowed to listen when the question was put and then after the medium had spoken: but a priestly functionary would convey the official version of the answer, often in verse. Particularly when the inquirer had not been a private individual, but an embassy from a state presenting a political question the priests might very well have wished for reasons of policy to favor one particular line. Then the confused words of the medium were shaped by the priest to express the official view.
It is not surprising that this rather elaborate ritual of inquiry was expensive for the private individual and could only be used rather infrequently. At Delphi, for instance, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC the minimum charge was the equivalent of two days' wages for an Athenian, and he would have to pay additional sums in freewill offerings, as well as his traveling expenses. States were charged by the priests at ten times the rate for private persons. This full-scale form of consultation was only available on one day a month - the seventh, which was traditionally Apollo's birthday - and the oracle was closed for the three months during the winter when Delphi was difficult to reach by sea or by the mountain roads. On the actual day consultations went on from morning to night. Two women, with a third in reserve, acted as mediums on a shift system for it must have been exhausting work even if the mediums were accustomed to it. If there were many inquirers or if the ceremonies did not go smoothly, some applicants would be left disappointed at the end of the day before their turn had arrived. Because of this, the Delphians used to confer on some states or individuals an honorary precedence which evidently guaranteed them a high place in the queue. Other wise positions were determined by a ballot. Simple and cheaper forms of oracles were available more frequently. The most common was by a process of drawing lots.
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