pax Romana, ‘‘questions. .. bear upon the petty concerns of the individual; one asks
whether one should marry, make a certain trip, lend money, and the most important
consultations made by cities address matters of the harvest, livestock and health’’
(Pythian Oracles408bc). This is the origin of the notion that the end of freedom
for the cities had confined oracles to a trivial role, and this seemed to be supported
by the corpus of Delphic oracles collected by Fontenrose: the majority of the
political oracles, often in an obscure form, addressed events prior to the Roman
domination (there are two principal sources for these, both moralizing: theHistories
of Herodotus and theLivesof Plutarch).
The tablets from the Dodona oracle, inscribed between the sixth and the third
centuries BC, the age in which the cities were at their height, vitiate this seemingly
infallible reasoning (Rougemont 1998). A striking majority are concerned with daily
life: ‘‘Agis asks Zeus Naios and Dione about his blankets and pillows, whether he has
lost them or whether someone else has stolen them’’ (Syll.^3 1163). Uncertainties
about voyages, commercial enterprises, choice of trade or craft, marriage, succession
rights, or the paternity of children and anxiety over disease: the full range of questions
was put to the supposedly diminished Delphic oracle. Plutarch is mistaken, therefore,
when he finds something new in these banalities. What, then, was the political
influence of oracles in antiquity?
This difficult question is clarified by epigraphy. At Delphi, Didyma, Dodona, and
elsewhere, archaic or classical inscriptions only exceptionally address matters of state
(the importance of which, however, caused them to be inscribed), but they frequently
address religious crises or troubles of an unusual sort, and this is well supported by
Plato (Republic427bc). When cities and leagues did pose political questions, we
know, thanks principally to Thucydides, that in referring to oracles they were looking
for arbitration in settlement of an insoluble problem (1.24.6–1.25.2, 1.28.2–3).
There is a marked tendency, particularly in the third and second centuries BC, for
the sanctuaries to ratify treaties and obtainasylia(Fontenrose 1978: nos. H41–43,
71, 1988: nos. 5–7, 9, 11–12; Parke 1967: 262 no 8). Demosthenes’ accusation,
‘‘The Pythia Philip-izes,’’ is noteworthy, to be sure, but we must take into account
Demosthenes’ own political and rhetorical tricks (Philippics3.32). Once Philip II was
installed in the amphictyony, he effectively controlled central Greece, but this does
not mean that the prophetess was corrupted.
On top of these doubts about the extent of the political role of oracles comes the
consideration that the majority of prophecies in literature are bogus ones, in which
the Greeks were quick to place trust. Sparta’s victory over Arcadia at Eutresis in 367
BC without loss illustrates the case. According to Xenophon (Hellenica7.1.27–32),
the warring parties had been too proud to consult Delphi. But according to Diodorus
(15.72.3), Dodona predicted to the Spartans ‘‘a war without tears,’’ which strangely
recalls a point made by Xenophon: Agesilaus, the ephors, and thegerousia, trauma-
tized by the defeat at Leuctra, dissolved in tears at the announcement of total victory.
The religious tradition was strong enough to justify the outcome with an oracle that
set everything in order: the Spartans valiant and pious, the sanctuary perceptive, and
the Arcadians, whose lot, decided by the gods, seemed less humiliating. And all
the elements of the puzzle were in place for the creation of the prediction from the
time of Xenophon. Evenpost eventum, oracles had their influence on ‘‘great history.’’
The Delphic oracles on the colonization of the seventh and sixth centuries pose the
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