Dodōna
（
Δωδώνη).
1.
A celebrated city and oracle of Epirus, whose exact position has only of late been
ascertained. We are not assisted here by any accurate ancient traveller like Pausanias, nor
have we any itineraries or faithful measurements of distances to guide us; all is vague and
indefinite. Dionysius of Halicarnassus placed it four days' journey from Buthrotum and two
from Ambracia (
Antiq. Rom. i. 5). It is universally allowed that the temple of
Dodona owed its origin to the Pelasgi at a period much anterior to the Trojan War; since many
writers represent it as existing in the time of Deucalion, and even of Inachus (
Prom.
Vinct. 679). Herodotus distinctly states that it was the most ancient oracle of
Greece, and represents the Pelasgi as consulting it on various occasions (ii. 52). Hence the
title of “Pelasgic” assigned to Zeus, to whom the temple was dedicated
(
Iliad, xvi. 233). Of the existence, however, of another oracle in Thessaly
of the same name no doubt can be entertained; and to this the prayer of Achilles, in Homer,
probably had reference. Setting aside the fables which Herodotus has transmitted to us, and
to which he evidently attached no belief, his report of the affinity which existed between
the service of this temple and that of Thebes in Egypt is deserving of attention. It appears
from this author that in his time the service of the temple was performed by women; and he
has recorded the names of the three priestesses who officiated when he visited Dodona (ii.
55). Strabo, however, asserts that these duties were originally allotted to men, from the
circumstance of Homer's mention of the Selli as being attendant upon the gods. The term Selli
was considered by many ancient writers to refer to a people of Pelasgic origin (
Soph. Trach. 1160 foll.; Aristot.
Meteorol. 1, 14).
The responses of the oracle were originally delivered from the sacred oak or beech
(
φηγός) (
Soph.
Trach. 173). The god revealed his message in the rustling of the
leaves, and the priests interpreted its meaning. Its reputation was at first confined to the
inhabitants of Epirus, Acarnania, Aetolia, and the western parts of Greece (Pausan. vii. 21),
but its fame was afterwards extended over the whole of that country, and even to Asia, as we
know that on one occasion the oracle was consulted by Croesus (
Herod.i.
46). The Boeotians were the only people who received the prophetic answers from the
mouth of men; to all other nations they were always communicated by the priestesses of the
temple. The reason of this exception is stated at length by Strabo (p. 401), on the authority
of Ephorus. Dodona was the first station in Greece to which the offerings of the Hyperboreans
were despatched, according to Herodotus; they arrived there from the Adriatic, and were
thence passed on to the Maliac Gulf (iv. 33). Among the several offerings presented to the
temple by various nations, one dedicated by the Corcyreans is particularly noticed. It
was a brazen figure placed over a caldron of the same metal; this statue held in its hand a
whip, the lash of which consisted of three chains, each having an astragalus fastened to the
end of it; these, when agitated by the wind, struck the caldron and produced so continued a
sound that 400 vibrations could be counted before it ceased. Hence arose the various proverbs
of the Dodonean caldron and the Corcyrean lash. Menander, in one of his plays, compared an
old nurse's chatter to the endless sound of this kettle (
Menand. Reliq. ed.
Meineke, p. 27). See
Oracula.
We hear of the oracle of Dodona at the time of the Persian invasion (
Herod.ix. 93); and again in the reign of Agesilaüs, who consulted it
previously to his expedition into Asia. It is stated by Diodorus Siculus (xiv. 13) that
Lysander was accused openly of having offered to bribe the priestess. The oracle which warned
the Molossian Alexander of his fate is well known from Livy (viii. 24). From Demosthenes we
learn that the answers delivered from time to time to the Athenians were laid up in the
public archives, and he himself appeals to their testimony on more than one occasion. At
length, during the Social War, Dodona was, according to Polybius (iv. 67), almost entirely
destroyed in an irruption of the Aetolians, under their leader Dorimachus, then at war with
Epirus. It is probable that the temple of Dodona never recovered from this disaster, as in
Strabo's time there was scarcely any trace left of the oracle, but the town must still have
existed, as it is mentioned by Hierocles among the cities of Epirus in the seventh century,
and we hear of a bishop of Dodona in the council of Ephesus. All accounts seem to agree that
Dodona stood either on the declivity or at the foot of an elevated mountain called Tomarus or
Tamarus. Hence the term Tomuri, supposed to be a contraction for Tomaruri (
Τομαρούροι), or guardians of Tomarus, which was given to the
priests of the temple. The site of Dodona was at one time supposed to be near Janina in
Epirus, but recent explorations in the valley of Dramisius at the foot of Mount Olytzika have
brought to light many dedicatory inscriptions to Zeus Naïos and Dioné,
with other evidences that make this the probable site of the oracle. See Leake,
Northern Greece, vols. i. and iv.; the
Revue
Archéologique for 1877, pp. 329, 397; and
Carapanos, Dodone
et ses Ruines (1878).
2.
A city and oracle of Thessaly. It has given rise to much controversy whether Homer (
Il. ii. 750) refers to this or the city of Epirus, and the scholiasts
and commentators are divided in their opinions.
