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DODONA

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 373 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DODONA , in See also:

Epirus, the seat of the most See also:ancient and See also:venerable of all Hellenic sanctuaries. Its ruins are at Dramisos, near Tsacharovista. In later times the Greeks of the See also:south looked on the inhabitants of Epirus as barbarians; nevertheless for Dodona they always preserved a certain reverence, and the See also:temple there was the See also:object of frequent See also:missions from them. This temple was dedicated to See also:Zeus, and connected with the temple was an See also:oracle 1 Voyage et aventures de See also:Francois Leguat, &c. (2 vols., See also:London, 1708). An See also:English See also:translation, edited with many additional illustrations by See also:Captain See also:Oliver, has been published by the See also:Hakluyt Society (2 vols., 1891). 2 E. See also:Newton and J. W. See also:Clark, Phil. Trans. clix. (1869), pp.

327-362 ; clxviii. (1879), pp. 448-451.which enjoyed more reputation in See also:

Greece than any other See also:save that at See also:Delphi, and which would seem to date from earlier times than the See also:worship of Zeus; for the normal method of gathering the responses of the oracle was by listening to the rustling of an old See also:oak See also:tree, which was supposed to be the seat of the deity. We seem here to have a remnant of the very ancient and widely diffused tree-worship. Sometimes, however, auguries were taken in other See also:manners, being See also:drawn from the moaning of doves in the branches, the murmur of a See also:fountain which See also:rose See also:close by, or the resounding of the See also:wind in the brazen caldrons which formed a circle all See also:round the temple. See also:Croesus proposed to the oracle his well-known question; See also:Lysander sought to obtain from it a See also:sanction for his ambitious views; the Athenians frequently appealed to its authority during the Peloponnesian See also:War. But the most frequent votaries were the neighbouring tribes of the Acarnanians and Aetolians, together with the Boeotians, who claimed a See also:special connexion with the See also:district. Dodona is not unfrequently mentioned by ancient writers. It is spoken of in the Iliad as the stormy See also:abode of Selli who See also:sleep on the ground and See also:wash not their feet, and in the Odyssey an imaginary visit of See also:Odysseus to the oracle is referred to. A Hesiodic fragment gives a See also:complete description of the Dodonaea or Hellopia, which is called a district full of See also:corn-See also:fields, of herds and flocks and of shepherds, where is built on an extremity (See also:Ear' kxarip) Dodona, where Zeus dwells in the See also:stem of an oak (ryos). The priestesses were called doves (rraecai) and See also:Herodotus tells a See also:story which he learned at See also:Egyptian See also:Thebes, that the oracle of Dodona was founded by an Egyptian priestess who was carried away by the Phoenicians, but says that the See also:local See also:legend substitutes for this priestess a See also:black See also:dove, a substitution in which he tries to find a rational meaning. From See also:inscriptions and later writers we learn that in See also:historical times there was worshipped, together with Zeus, a See also:consort named See also:Dione (see further ZEUS; ORACLE; DIONE).

The ruins, consisting of a See also:

theatre, the walls of a See also:town, and some other buildings, had been conjectured to be those of Dodona by See also:Wordsworth in 1832, but the conjecture was changed into ascertained fact by the excavations of Constantin Carapanos. In 1875 he made some preliminary investigations; soon after, an extensive See also:discovery of antiquities was made by peasants, digging without authority; and after this M. Carapanos made a systematic excavation of the whole site to a considerable See also:depth. The topographical and architectural results are disappointing, and show either that the site always retained its See also:primitive simplicity, or else that whatever buildings once existed have been very completely destroyed. To the south of the See also:hill, on which are the walls of the town, and to the See also:east of the theatre, is a See also:plateau about 200 yds. See also:long and 50 yds. wide. Towards the eastern end of this See also:terrace are the scanty remains of a See also:building which can hardly be anything but the temple of Zeus; it appears to have consisted of pronaos, naos or See also:cella, and opisthodomus, and some of the See also:lower drums of the See also:internal columns of the cella were still resting on their See also:foundations. No trace of any See also:external See also:colonnade was found. The temple was about 130 ft. by 8o ft. It had been converted into a See also:Christian See also:church, and hardly anything of its See also:architecture seems to have survived. In it and around it were found the most interesting products of excavation—statuettes and decorative bronzes, many of them bearing dedications to Zeus Naius and Dione, and inscriptions, including many small tablets of See also:lead which contained the questions put to the oracle. Farther to the See also:west, on the same terrace, were two rectangular buildings, which M. Carapanos conjectures to have been connected with the oracle, but which show no distinguishing features.

Below the terrace was a See also:

precinct, surrounded by walls and flanked with porticoes and other buildings; it is over See also:loo yds. in length and breadth, and of irregular shape. One of the buildings .on the south-western See also:side contained a See also:pedestal or See also:altar, and is identified by M. Carapanos as a temple of See also:Aphrodite, on the insufficient See also:evidence of a single dedicated object; it does not seem to have any of the characteristics of a temple. In front of the porticoes are rows of pedestals, which once See also:bore statues and other dedications. At the See also:southern corner of the precinct is a See also:kind of See also:gate or propylaeum, flanked with two towers, between which are plated two coarse See also:limestone drums. If these are in situ and belong to the See also:original gateway, it must have been of a very rough See also:character; it does not seem probable that they carried, as M. Carapanos suggests, the statuette and See also:bronze bowl by which divinations were carried on. The See also:chief See also:interest of the excavation centres in the smaller antiquities discovered, which have now been transferred from M. Carapanos's collection to the See also:National Museum in See also:Athens. Among the dedications, the most interesting historically are a set of weapons dedicated by See also:King See also:Pyrrhus from the spoils of the See also:Romans, including characteristic specimens of the pilum. The leaden tablets of the oracle contain no certain example of a response, though there are many questions, varying from matters of public policy or private enterprise to inquiries after stolen goods. The temple of Dodona was destroyed by the Aetolians in 219 B.C., but the oracle survived to the times of See also:Pausanias and even of the See also:emperor See also:Julian.

See C. Wordsworth, Greece (1839), p. 247; Constantin Carapanos, Dodone et ses ruins (See also:

Paris, 1878). For the oracle inscriptions, see E. S. See also:Roberts in See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. i. p. 228. (E.

End of Article: DODONA

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