SEMINAR 1: COMMUNICATING WITH THE GODS:
In preparation for the seminar do the following:
1. Read the material below (and in the attached PDF).
2. Think about what kind of oracular consultation each source
discusses.
3. Think about the similarities and differences between the forms of
consultation and the knowledge requested and expected.
4. Think about the way in which the authors of each text have sought to
make use of oracular communication within their wider narrative
goals.
5. Which of these sources do you think tell us the most about oracular
communication in the Greek world?
Homer Odyssey 11.24-180
[24] "Here Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims, while I drew my sharp sword
from beside my thigh, and dug a pit of a cubit's length this way and that, and around it
poured a libation to all the dead, first with milk and honey, thereafter with sweet
wine, and in the third place with water, and I sprinkled thereon white barley meal.
And I earnestly entreated the powerless heads of the dead, vowing that when I came
to Ithaca I would sacrifice in my halls a barren heifer, the best I had, and pile the altar
with goodly gifts, and to Teiresias alone would sacrifice separately a ram, wholly
black, the goodliest of my flocks. But when with vows and prayers I had made
supplication to the tribes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats over the
pit, and the dark blood ran forth.
[37] "Then there gathered from out of Erebus the spirits of those that are dead, brides,
and unwedded youths, and toil-worn old men, and tender maidens with hearts yet new
to sorrow, and many, too, that had been wounded with bronze-tipped spears, men
slain in fight, wearing their blood-stained armour. These came thronging in crowds
about the pit from every side, with a wondrous cry; and pale fear seized me. Then I
called to my comrades and bade them flay and burn the sheep that lay there slain with
the pitiless bronze, and to make prayer to the gods, to mighty Hades and dread
Persephone. And I myself drew my sharp sword from beside my thigh and sat there,
and would not suffer the powerless heads of the dead to draw near to the blood until I
had enquired of Teiresias.
[51] “The first to come was the spirit of my comrade Elpenor. Not yet had he been
buried beneath the broad-wayed earth, for we had left his corpse behind us in the hall
of Circe, unwept and unburied, since another task was then urging us on. When I saw
him I wept, and my heart had compassion on him; and I spoke and addressed him
with winged words: `Elpenor, how didst thou come beneath the murky darkness?
Thou coming on foot hast out-stripped me in my black ship.’
[59] “So I spoke, and with a groan he answered me and said: ‘Son of Laertes, sprung
from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, an evil doom of some god was my undoing,
and measureless wine. When I had lain down to sleep in the house of Circe I did not
think to go to the long ladder that I might come down again, but fell headlong from
the roof, and my neck was broken away from the spine and my spirit went down to
the house of Hades. Now I beseech thee by those whom we left behind, who are not
present with us, by thy wife and thy father who reared thee when a babe, and by
Telemachus whom thou didst leave an only son in thy halls; for I know that as thou
goest hence from the house of Hades thou wilt touch at the Aeaean isle with thy wellbuilt ship. There, then, O prince, I bid thee remember me. Leave me not behind thee
unwept and unburied as thou goest thence, and turn not away from me, lest haply I
bring the wrath of the gods upon thee. Nay, burn me with my armour, all that is mine,
and heap up a mound for me on the shore of the grey sea, in memory of an unhappy
man, that men yet to be may learn of me. Fulfil this my prayer, and fix upon the
mound my oar wherewith I rowed in life when I was among my comrades.’
[79] “So he spoke, and I made answer and said: `All this, unhappy man, will I
perform and do.’ Thus we two sat and held sad converse one with the other, I on one
side holding my sword over the blood, while on the other side the phantom of my
comrade spoke at large.
[84] “Then there came up the spirit of my dead mother, Anticleia, the daughter of
great-hearted Autolycus, whom I had left alive when I departed for sacred Ilios. At
sight of her I wept, and my heart had compassion on her, but even so I would not
suffer her to come near the blood, for all my great sorrow, until I had enquired of
Teiresias.
[90] “Then there came up the spirit of the Theban Teiresias, bearing his golden staff
in his hand, and he knew me and spoke to me: `Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus,
Odysseus of many devices, what now, hapless man? Why hast thou left the light of
the sun and come hither to behold the dead and a region where is no joy? Nay, give
place from the pit and draw back thy sharp sword, that I may drink of the blood and
tell thee sooth.’
[97] “So he spoke, and I gave place and thrust my silver-studded sword into its
sheath, and when he had drunk the dark blood, then the blameless seer spoke to me
and said: ‘Thou askest of thy honey-sweet return, glorious Odysseus, but this shall a
god make grievous unto thee; for I think not that thou shalt elude the Earth-shaker,
seeing that he has laid up wrath in his heart against thee, angered that thou didst blind
his dear son. Yet even so ye may reach home, though in evil plight, if thou wilt curb
thine own spirit and that of thy comrades, as soon as thou shalt bring thy well-built
ship to the island Thrinacia, escaping from the violet sea, and ye find grazing there the
kine and goodly flocks of Helios, who over sees and overhears all things. If thou
leavest these unharmed and heedest thy homeward way, verily ye may yet reach
Ithaca, though in evil plight. But if thou harmest them, then I foresee ruin for thy ship
and thy comrades, and even if thou shalt thyself escape, late shalt thou come home
and in evil case, after losing all thy comrades, in a ship that is another's, and thou shalt
find woes in thy house—proud men that devour thy livelihood, wooing thy godlike
wife, and offering wooers' gifts. Yet verily on their violent deeds shalt thou take
vengeance when thou comest.
[119] "`But when thou hast slain the wooers in thy halls, whether by guile or openly
with the sharp sword, then do thou go forth, taking a shapely oar, until thou comest to
men that know naught of the sea and eat not of food mingled with salt, aye, and they
know naught of ships with purple cheeks, or of shapely oars that are as wings unto
ships. And I will tell thee a sign right manifest, which will not escape thee. When
another wayfarer, on meeting thee, shall say that thou hast a winnowing-fan on thy
stout shoulder, then do thou fix in the earth thy shapely oar and make goodly
offerings to lord Poseidon—a ram, and a bull, and a boar that mates with sows—and
depart for thy home and offer sacred hecatombs to the immortal gods who hold broad
heaven, to each one in due order. And death shall come to thee thyself far from the
sea, a death so gentle, that shall lay thee low when thou art overcome with sleek old
age, and thy people shall dwell in prosperity around thee. In this have I told thee
sooth.’
[138] “So he spoke, and I made answer and said: `Teiresias, of all this, I ween, the
gods themselves have spun the thread. But come, tell me this, and declare it truly. I
see here the spirit of my dead mother; she sits in silence near the blood, and deigns
not to look upon the face of her own son or to speak to him. Tell me, prince, how she
may recognize that I am he?’
[145] “So I spoke, and he straightway made answer, and said: `Easy is the word that I
shall say and put in thy mind. Whomsoever of those that are dead and gone thou shalt
suffer to draw near the blood, he will tell thee sooth; but whomsoever thou refusest,
he surely will go back again.’
[150] “So saying the spirit of the prince, Teiresias, went back into the house of Hades,
when he had declared his prophecies; but I remained there steadfastly until my mother
came up and drank the dark blood. At once then she knew me, and with wailing she
spoke to me winged words: `My child, how didst thou come beneath the murky
darkness, being still alive? Hard is it for those that live to behold these realms, for
between are great rivers and dread streams; Oceanus first, which one may in no wise
cross on foot, but only if one have a well-built ship. Art thou but now come hither
from Troy after long wanderings with thy ship and thy companions? and hast thou not
yet reached Ithaca, nor seen thy wife in thy halls?’
[163] “So she spoke, and I made answer and said: `My mother, necessity brought me
down to the house of Hades, to seek soothsaying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias. For
not yet have I come near to the shore of Achaea, nor have I as yet set foot on my own
land, but have ever been wandering, laden with woe, from the day when first I went
with goodly Agamemnon to Ilios, famed for its horses, to fight with the Trojans. But
come, tell me this, and declare it truly. What fate of grievous death overcame thee?
Was it long disease, or did the archer, Artemis, assail thee with her gentle shafts, and
slay thee? And tell me of my father and my son, whom I left behind me. Does the
honor that was mine still abide with them, or does some other man now possess it,
and do they say that I shall no more return? And tell me of my wedded wife, of her
purpose and of her mind. Does she abide with her son, and keep all things safe? or has
one already wedded her, whosoever is best of the Achaeans?’
Herodotus Histories 1.47-55.
And when he sent to test these shrines he gave the Lydians these instructions:
they were to keep track of the time from the day they left Sardis, and on the
hundredth day inquire of the oracles what Croesus, king of Lydia, son of Alyattes,
was doing then; then they were to write down whatever the oracles answered
and bring the reports back to him. Now none relate what answer was given by
the rest of the oracles. But at Delphi no sooner had the Lydians entered the hall
to inquire of the god and asked the question with which they were entrusted,
than the Pythian priestess uttered the following hexameter verses:“I know the
number of the grains of sand and the extent of the sea,
And understand the mute and hear the voiceless.
The smell has come to my senses of a strong-shelled tortoise
Boiling in a cauldron together with a lamb's flesh,
Under which is bronze and over which is bronze.”
Having written down this inspired utterance of the Pythian priestess, the Lydians
went back to Sardis. When the others as well who had been sent to various
places came bringing their oracles, Croesus then unfolded and examined all the
writings. Some of them in no way satisfied him. But when he read the Delphian
message, he acknowledged it with worship and welcome, considering Delphi as
the only true place of divination, because it had discovered what he himself had
done. For after sending his envoys to the oracles, he had thought up something
which no conjecture could discover, and carried it out on the appointed day:
namely, he had cut up a tortoise and a lamb, and then boiled them in a cauldron
of bronze covered with a lid of the same.
Such, then, was the answer from Delphi delivered to Croesus. As to the reply
which the Lydians received from the oracle of Amphiaraus when they had
followed the due custom of the temple, I cannot say what it was, for nothing is
recorded of it, except that Croesus believed that from this oracle too he had
obtained a true answer.
After this, he tried to win the favor of the Delphian god with great sacrifices. He
offered up three thousand beasts from all the kinds fit for sacrifice, and on a
great pyre burnt couches covered with gold and silver, golden goblets, and
purple cloaks and tunics; by these means he hoped the better to win the aid of
the god, to whom he also commanded that every Lydian sacrifice what he could.
[2] When the sacrifice was over, he melted down a vast store of gold and made
ingots of it, the longer sides of which were of six and the shorter of three palms'
length, and the height was one palm. There were a hundred and seventeen of
these. Four of them were of refined gold, each weighing two talents and a half;
the rest were of gold with silver alloy, each of two talents' weight. [3] He also had
a figure of a lion made of refined gold, weighing ten talents. When the temple of
Delphi was burnt, this lion fell from the ingots which were the base on which it
stood; and now it is in the treasury of the Corinthians, but weighs only six talents
and a half, for the fire melted away three and a half talents.
The Lydians who were to bring these gifts to the temples were instructed by
Croesus to inquire of the oracles whether he was to send an army against the
Persians and whether he was to add an army of allies. [2] When the Lydians
came to the places where they were sent, they presented the offerings, and
inquired of the oracles, in these words: “Croesus, king of Lydia and other nations,
believing that here are the only true places of divination among men, endows
you with such gifts as your wisdom deserves. And now he asks you whether he is
to send an army against the Persians, and whether he is to add an army of allies.”
Such was their inquiry; and the judgment given to Croesus by each of the two
oracles was the same: namely, that if he should send an army against the
Persians he would destroy a great empire. And they advised him to discover the
mightiest of the Greeks and make them his friends.
When the divine answers had been brought back and Croesus learned of them,
he was very pleased with the oracles. So, altogether expecting that he would
destroy the kingdom of Cyrus, he sent once again to Pytho and endowed the
Delphians, whose number he had learned, with two gold staters apiece. The
Delphians, in return, gave Croesus and all Lydians the right of first consulting the
oracle, exemption from all charges, the chief seats at festivals, and perpetual
right of Delphian citizenship to whoever should wish it.
After his gifts to the Delphians, Croesus made a third inquiry of the oracle, for he
wanted to use it to the full, having received true answers from it; and the
question which he asked was whether his sovereignty would be of long duration.
To this the Pythian priestess answered as follows: ““When the Medes have a
mule as king, Just then, tender-footed Lydian, by the stone-strewn Hermus
Flee and do not stay, and do not be ashamed to be a coward.”
Dodona consultation tablets:
SEG 43.323: “Whether it would be better for me if I go to Sybaris and if I do these
things?”
SEG 43.325: “About possessions and a place to live; whether it would be better
for him and his children and his wife in Kroton?
SEG 15.396: “Would I do better if I took a wife?”
SGDI 1561a: “Herakleides asks Zeus and Dione for good fortune and asks the god
about offspring. Will there be any from Aigle the wife he has now?
SGDI 1559: “Kleouts asks Zeus and Dione if it will be better and more profitable
for him if he keeps cattle?”
SGDI 1583: “God. To good fortune. Hippostratos asks Zeus Naios and Dione
whether he would not do better if he became a shipowner?”
SEG 15.389: “What will happen to me if I leave? Shall I make it happen?”
REVERSE SIDE (the response): “The woman remains!”
SGDI 1561b: “Nikokrateia asks by sacrificing to which of the gods would she do
better and be relieved of her disease?”
SGDI 1589: “Shall I request citizenship this year or not”?
Ep. Chron. 1935.259, 32: “Did Thorpion steal the silver?”
Oracles of Astrampsychus
Introduction:
“From Astrampsychus the Egyptian to king Ptolemy about the prediction of all
kinds of questions.
Because nothing may be hidden from you of what is good and useful to the
human life - after all I know you are very interested and watching out for things
like that - I took much trouble to send you another book once again. Indeed I'm
revealing a selection from the sacred writings that are still hidden from you, so
that nothing remains unknown to you of what you are entitled to. The book is an
invention of the philosopher Pythagoras, investigates the future through
numbers and if you run through it you will find out it works as follows.
In front there is a list of questions about every subject on the basis whereof the
one who turns to you asks questions and next to these questions are standing
numbers starting with 12 and increasing according to the order of the natural
numbers. Now take the number standing next to the question from the list, that
is the question previously chosen by the interrogator, remember it and tell the
interrogator to draw by lot and give you a number from ten to one as desired and
which the deity puts him in his mouth. Take this number and add it to the
previous number of the question. If you go ahead you will find a list containing
numbers in black, starting with 13 and in sequence according to the order of
numbers, and other numbers in red are standing next to them, not starting with
one according to the order of numbers, but mixed up according to the answers to
the questions. Thus after you have looked up the number in red standing next to
the number in black which is the sum of the number of the question and the
number the interrogator has told you, you will find it again in the ordered list of
decades. Search that decade, look at the numbers at the beginning of the lines
and look at the answer next to the number the interrogator has given you by lot.
Read this answer!
For instance suppose someone is asking whether he is rising in estimation, which
number 16 is standing next to. Now suppose the interrogator gives you number
5 by lot. You will add these up and get 21. After you have looked up this number
in black in the list of numbers as explained first, you will find number 8 standing
next to it. Then when you have looked up decade 8, you will find out next to lot
number 5 is standing the answer, namely "you are not making progress for the
time being."
On the other hand if the interrogator is giving you number 10 by lot for the same
question with number 16 (anyway he is not allowed to draw a higher number),
you will get number 26 adding them both up. When you look it up in the list of
numbers in black, you will find out the number in red 18 is standing next to it. So
if you have looked up decade 18, you will find the answer in it standing next to
lot number 10 "you will make progress as far as you wish." Always proceed
according to the same analogous method if the lot number would be any
different. Using this manner of decision your predecessor king Alexander of
Macedonia conquered the civilized world. You will also, if you use it in the same
way, achieve eternal fame with all people. Farewell!”
See attached PDF for the oracle book, questions and potential responses.