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Dodona

Accepted12/12HighMainland GreeceHomeric name(s): Δωδώνη

The oracle of Zeus in the Epirote mountains, and one of the few Homeric institutions we can excavate: the same god, the same oak, the same valley.

Achilles prays to Zeus of Dodona in the Iliad, calling on the Selloi who sleep on the ground and do not wash their feet. In the Odyssey, Odysseus twice tells a story in which he goes to Dodona to hear Zeus' will from the oak. The oracle is a normal part of the poems' world, not a marvel.

The sanctuary was excavated, and the practice of inscribing questions on lead tablets is attested there in later centuries. It is a rare case where a Homeric religious institution has a findable address.

Identifications proposed

  • The sanctuary at Dodona, Epirus

    Proposed by: Continuous identification; excavated from the nineteenth century

    Accepted12/12High

    An excavated sanctuary of Zeus in a mountain valley south of Ioannina, with material reaching back before the archaic oracle and a documented oracular practice. Achilles prays to 'Zeus of Dodona' and Odysseus twice claims to have gone there to consult the oak — the same institution, in the same place.

    39.5464, 20.7875· Site

    • ArchaeologyExcavations at Dodona, Epirus — sanctuary of Zeus with Bronze Age and early Iron Age material and later oracular installations
    • Primary textHerodotus, Histories 2.52-57 — the oracle of Dodona and its origins
    • Primary textHomer, Iliad (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924)
    Confidence
    12/12 · High confidence
    Textual
    3
    Archaeological
    3
    Scholarly
    3
    Geographic
    3

Why this class

Accepted: a named, excavated sanctuary whose Homeric description matches its documented practice.

What is disputed

How far back the oracle goes, and whether the Selloi of the Iliad reflect a real archaic priesthood or an already-antique memory when the poem was composed.

Sources

  • Primary textHomer, Iliad (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924)
  • Primary textHomer, Odyssey (trans. A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1919)
  • ArchaeologyExcavations at Dodona, Epirus — sanctuary of Zeus with Bronze Age and early Iron Age material and later oracular installations
  • Primary textHerodotus, Histories 2.52-57 — the oracle of Dodona and its origins