The telling of fortunes and the predicting of the future in ancient
times was the work of the Oracles. In the ancient religions the
Oracle was believed to be a revelation made by some god or divinity
in reply to the questions of men. The word “oracle” was applied both
to the answer and to the sacred place where the answer was given. The
responses were made either by priests and priestesses or by signs and
portents.
At the Oracle of Dodona the responses were given either by the
movements of leaves, the noise of brazen vessels, or the murmurings
of the waters of a fountain. Usually springs or grottos of which the
waters were known to have delirious effects were selected for the sites
of the oracles. At Dydima the vapor of the water affected both the
priestess and person who consulted her. At Delphi the priestess, who
was called the “Pythia,” delivered her utterances from a tripod placed
over a chasm, from which intoxicating vapors arose. In some of the
oracles, incense and artificial fumigations were used.
The answers of the oracles were famous for their obscurity and lack
of meaning. They were often susceptible of two or more meanings.
When King Crœsus asked of the oracle whether he should make war
against Alexander, the reply was: “If you make war you destroy a
great kingdom.” Crœsus began the war thinking that he would destroy
Alexander, but it was his own kingdom that he destroyed.
The responses of the Pythia were not considered authoritative till they
had been submitted and approved by the presiding priest. Delphi was the
most famous oracle and became the center of all the Greek oracles. Even
the Romans believed in its power.
With the coming of Christianity, the oracles lost much of their
influence. Eusebius affirms that Christ put an end to the reign of
Satan on earth and thereafter the oracles became silent.
In Greece there were altogether twenty-two oracles to Apollo, which
were consulted for various purposes. One was used exclusively for the
interpretation of dreams, another for the foretelling of battles,
still another was consulted by those who went into the Olympian games
to find out whether they would be victorious. At Patræ sick persons
came to inquire whether they would get well. At Nysa the priests would
take patients and induce a cataleptic sleep, during which the sick man
prescribed his own remedy.
It is easy to see why many of the utterances of the oracles came true.
They appealed to the superstition of the primitive people, who took the
replies as coming from their gods, and tried to live up to them. The
will to see the prophecy fulfilled was often sufficient to make it come
true.