ORACLE

(Lat. oraculum; from os, a mouth.) The name primarily given to the response delivered by the ancient heathen divinities to those who consulted them respecting the future, but afterwards applied both to the place where responses were given as well as to the divinities from whom the responses were supposed to proceed. To the desire so natural to man to obtain a glimpse into futurity, coupled with the ennobling belief that his destiny was predetermined in a higher spiiere, is doubtle to be traced the origin of the art of divination, which has in all, but more especially in the earlier stages of society, exercised so powerful an influence over the human mind. But, of all the modes of divination, that by consulting the oracle was the most popular. In other cases, as the interpretation of events depended on man alone, there might be mistake or deception; but in the oracle, when the deity was believed to pronounce either m his own voice or in that of a consecrated agent, it was supposed there could be none. Hence oracles obtained such credit and celebrity in antiquity, but more especially among the Greeks, that they were resorted to on every occasion of doubt and emergency, both by princes and states, as well as by private individuals. The general characteristics of oracles were ambiguity, obscurity, and convertibility; so that one answer would agree with several various and sometimes directly opposite events. Thus, when Croesus was on the point of invading the Medes, he consulted the oracle of Delphi as to the succe of the enterprise, and received for answer*, that by pa ing the river Halys he would ruin a great empire. But whether it was his own empire or that of his enemies that was destined to be ruined was not intimated; and, in either case, the oracle could not fail to be right. The answer of the oracle to Pyrrhus is another well-known instance of this sort of ambiguity, — Aio, te, ^acid a, Romanos vincere po e, as it might either be interpreted in favour of or against Pyrrhus. This ambiguity and equivocation was not, however, the worst feature that characterized the oracles of antiquity. They were at once ambiguous and venal. A rich or a powerful individual seldom found much difficulty in obtaining a response favourable to his projects, how unjust or objectionable soever. Such, for instance, were unquestionably the motives that dictated the favourable responses of the Pythia at Delphi to Philip of Macedon, which drew from Demosthenes the famous declaration, that the godde Philippised. But such and so powerful is the influence of superstition, that this system of fraud and imposture maintained a lengthened ascendency, and the interested responses of the oracles frequently sufficed to excite bloody wars, and to spread desolation through extensive states. The first oracles had their origin in the East, at a period to which the monuments of profane history do not ascend. The most ancient oracle is supposed to be that of Meroe; to which were afterwards added those of Thebes and Ammon, in all of which places the worship of Jupiter Ammon prevailed. From the Egyptians the use of oracles, along with a knowledge of many arts and sciences, pa ed to the Greeks, who soon surpa ed every other nation both in the number and celebrity of their oracles. It has been affirmed that no fewer than three hundred oracles were established in different parts of Greece; but of those the oracles of Jupiter at Dodona, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Trophonius near Lebadeia (see these articles), maybe mentioned as having enjoyed the highest reputation.f The oracles of antiquity had many leading features in common; but there were also several peculiarities about them, of which the variety of modes in which the oracular responses were delivered is one of the most striking. At Delphi responses were delivered by the Pythia, at Ammon by the priests, and at Dodona they i ued from the hollow of an oak. Sometimes the response was communicated by letter; sometimes the desired information could only be obtained by casting lots; and sometimes the divinities chose to announce their will by dreams, visions, and preternatural voices. Among the Jews there were several sorts of oracles: of these the Urim and Thummim (which see) bore a striking analogy to the heathen oracles; and the oracle of Bath-Kol, or Daughter of the Foice (mentioned in the Talmud, and other Jewish works), which originated after the time of Malachi, may be regarded as completely identical with them. The Old Testament teems with • The Greek verse is, K/ooto-o; KKvv Siafiaf fityaXtjv apxv «araXva«. Thus rendered in Latin, Croesus Haljn superans magnarum evertet opum vim t It does not appear that the Romans ever had regularly established oracles among themselves; but on various important cmerftenciea they had recourse to those of Greece, arid especially to that of Delphi. (Lit;. V. 15. .) 3 I [s. 862]