DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DODONA; WITH An Appendix ON THE SITE OF THAT OF DELPHI. BY SAMUEL BUTLER, D. D. HEAD MASTER OF SHREWSBURY SCHOOL. A DISSERTATION, &c. &c. THE oracle of Dodona is often mentioned in Homer, and was the most ancient and most celebrated in the early ages of Greece. In after times the glory of the Delphic oracle eclipsed that of the Dodonean, which by degrees fell into comparative neglect, partly on account of the superior splendour of Delphi, partly on account of the superior skill or charlatanerie of the priests there, and perhaps principally on account of the much greater facility of access to a city situated like Delphi in civilized Greece, than to one in an almost barbarous and impracticable country. As so little is known of Dodona, it may perhaps be acceptable to give such an account of it as can be gleaned from the scattered notices in ancient writers with regard to Delphi I shall confine myself to conjectures on its site alone. The first mention of Dodona in Homer is Il. B'. 749: - μενεπτόλεμοί τε Περαιβοὶ Οἱ περὶ Δωδώνην δυσχείμερον οἴκι' ἔθεντο. Where from the epithet durxegos we must conclude that it stood in an elevated situation much exposed to winds. The lesser scholiast here calls it a place i gCogé Oσmplías, in the extreme north of Thesprotia; but Thesprotia is a vague term, the limits of that region having been changed according to the prosperous or adverse circumstances of the nation, and though it certainly at one time comprehended Dodona, because it then comprised also Molossia, it is no less certain that at other periods Dodona was not comprehended in its jurisdiction. Undoubtedly Dodona was on the confines of these Perrhæbi, who are not to be confounded with the Perrhæbi in the north of Thessaly, about Larissa, and though a branch of that nation, were separated from them by the chain of 512 DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DODONA. Mount Pindus, and lay to the south-west of them, near the Athamanes. Eustathius in confirmation of the epithet durys, alludes to a circumstance which we shall hereafter notice more fully, of brazen vessels being hung at Dodona and struck by pellets suspended near, and driven against them by the wind. May we not, by the way, trace in this the origin of bells, as well as of the vocal oak? In fact, I may remark that Pliny, or rather Varro, whom he copies in his description of the fabulous tomb of Porsena at Clusium, tells us that "from each of the five pyramids on this tomb were suspended a number of bells by chains, which being blown against each other by the wind, made a long continued sound, as was anciently the case at Dodona." The next mention we have of Dodona is II. II. 233, in the celebrated passage: Ζεῦ ἄνα, Δωδωναῖε, Πελασγικέ, τηλόθι ναίων, Where we find Dodona marked again by the epitheton perpetuum of δυσχείμερος, as llion is by that of ἠνεμόεσσα. The minor scholiast here says, ἐν χωρίῳ τῶν Ὑπερβορέων τῇ Δωδώνη τιμώμενε. But Υπερβόρεοι can only mean here a people to the north of civilized Greece, for he cannot be supposed to make any reference here to the transmission of the Hyperborean sacrifices through Dodona to Delos, of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. The scholiast proceeds to teli us that the city of Dodona was founded by Deucalion, who came to Epirus after the deluge, and consulted the oracular oak, when he was directed by the dove to build the city, which was named Dodona from one of the Oceanides. He adds, that the Pelasgi settled near Dodona, being originally a Thessalian nation, and thus, though his account is a little different, confirms what we have before mentioned of the Perrhæbi. The Selli he informs us, were an ἔθνος Ηπειρωτικὸν τῆς Θεσπρωτίας, κληθὲν ἀπὸ τὸ Tagαppéolos Tolaμs Tos. Though, he adds, Pindar calls them Helli, from Hellus the son of Drytomus (or the wood cutter), who first discovered the oracle, whence we may understand that he first cleared the forests about the oracle and with this account the Venetian scholiast also in the main agrees. Eustathius observes that some say there were two Dodonas, a Thessalian and Molossian, but that Achilles here means the Molossian, because he calls it Juxiuegos. In fact I find this notice of the two Dodonas in other authors, DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DODONA. 518 but we may be sure that the Thessalian was an obscure place without an oracle, if indeed it ever existed, and did not owe its origin to the circumstance of the real Dodona more than once changing masters, according as the limits of Thesprotia were extended or reduced. Eustathius farther informs us that Dodona was anciently called Hellopia, and quotes an author unnamed, to shew that the Selli or Helli, and Dolopes, are near the Pæonians, about Dodona and the river Achelous. These Pæonians, however, must be a branch of the great tribe of that name, which lay farther north. The oak, Eustathius calls μavτixn onyos, a prophetic beech, which is the term adopted by much the greater number of writers, and is most probably the correct one, being the species of which deus is the genus. With regard to the term Πελασγικέ, he observes that some write Пagyixi, because there was a white hill so called in the TéμEvos of Dodonean Jupiter. Dodona is again mentioned in the Odyssey E. 327 and T'. 296, as being in Thesprotia. The Scholiast on the former passage tells us, on the authority of Proxenus, that the oracle was discovered by a shepherd who, while feeding his flocks in the marsh Dodon, lost some of his best cattle, and that on invoking Jupiter the oak spoke for the first time, and told him that he had been robbed by the youngest of the axoxo, a term which in that country signified a shepherd. Having thus discovered the thief in the person of Mardylas, Mardylas, in revenge, attempted to cut down the oak in the night time, hut was forbidden by a dove which perched upon the branches. The account given by Eustathius, principally from Strabo, is that Dodona was originally a city of Thesprotia, though afterwards under the dominion of the Molossi; that the oracular oak there was the first from which men eat acorns (upon which we may recollect Virgil, Georg. i. 146, -cum jam glandes atque arbuta sacra Deficerent sylva, et victum Dodona negaret) and that the doves there, which must have been wood-pigeons, were used for auguries. He then adds, that others say men were the first prophets there, but that three old women afterwards were prophetesses, and that wiλ and widɛiai are the names for old men and women in the Molossian tongue. We need not pursue the account in Eustathius farther, as it is principally extracted from Strabo, and will be more properly introduced in another part of this Essay. SU VOL. I. |