In Ancient Greece there were several oracles, the most important being dedicated to Zeus or Apollo. However, the oldest Greek oracle was that of Dodoni in Epirus.
There are various myths and tales about its origin, but also specifics regarding the oracles it gave. For example, it is said that in the ancient oracle of Dodoni the leaves and the flowing water were used.
How the Oracle of Dodoni was founded
Herodotus mentions two different versions about the foundation of the oracle. The first states that Phoenician pirates kidnapped two women from Thebes in Egypt. Much later, however, it became known that one had been sold in Libya and the other in Greece, and that the two had founded the first oracles in those countries. The first built the temple of Ammon Zeus in Siva, the second the temple of Zeus in Dodoni. The priestesses of the temple told that two black doves left Thebes, the first went to Libya where the temple of Zeus was founded and the second went and sat on an oak tree and told the Dodonians in a human voice to build an oracle for Zeus. So according to this version, the women had been turned into doves.
According to another version, the doves, which had a human voice, brought gifts from Zeus to his daughter Ivi. One of them went to Dodoni. As soon as he arrived, a woodcutter prepared to cut down the sacred oak of Zeus, and the dove stopped him. The same bird plays the same role in another myth, when a shepherd came to ask Zeus to tell him the name of the one who had stolen a sheep from him.
According to another legend, the first monks are the Sellos, whose ancestor Ellos, not knowing the meaning of the sacred tree, tried to cut it down. But a dove that nested there stopped him from this unholy deed. Then Ellos became the first priest of the temple.
How the leaves and the water gave pleasure
In the early years there were only male priests in the oracle. They slept on the ground to listen to the messages sent to them by the gods and to answer the questions of the faithful. This is because Dodoni was one of the places where Zeus, as the friend of men, appeared to them with the voice of nature.
For this reason it is said that in Dodoni the oracles were given with the rustling of the leaves of the trees and the sound of a spring. Besides Zeus, a goddess was also worshipped in Dodoni, Dioni, who was considered to be the wife of Zeus. According to tradition, the goddess Athena took the piece of wood from Sacred Figo, that is, the oak of the oracle of Dodoni and placed it in the ship Argo before the Argonaut Campaign journey started. Odysseus had also come to the oracle of Dodoni to receive an oracle concerning his return to Ithaca.
Legend has it that the hero Aeneas also went from Troy. It was when, after its destruction, he received an oracle for the place where he would build his new city, Rome.
