Oak from Dodona
The oak of Dodona stood in a famous - and the oldest - Greek oracle shrine in Epirus , which was consecrated to Gaia and later to Zeus and Dione and was looked after by three priestesses.
The oracle located here spoke through the rustling of the oak leaves and the cooing of the pigeons, since one of these is said to have settled on this oak and ordered the construction of the oracle. The visitors' questions to the god were written on lead tablets and thrown into a jug, so some of these questions have survived to this day and some of them can be read in the Museum of Ioannina .
When Argos built the Argo with the help of Athena , wood from this oak was built into the bow of the ship so that it could warn the Argonauts of dangers. It was felled by Christian zealots in 392 AD.
literature
- Karl Kerényi : The mythology of the Greeks - The stories of gods and mankind , dtv, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-423-30030-2 .
- Michael Grant and John Hazel: Lexicon of Ancient Myths and Figures . dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-32508-9 .
- Robert von Ranke-Graves : Greek Mythology - Sources and Interpretation . rororo, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-55404-6 .
- Martina Dieterle: Dodona. Religious-historical and historical studies on the origin and development of the Zeus sanctuary . Olms, Hildesheim, 2007.
- Petra Hartmann : Under the oak by Dodona . In: Elfenschrift 31, September 2011, pp. 10–12.
Web links
- Mythologica ( Memento from April 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 39 ° 32 ′ 50 " N , 20 ° 47 ′ 23.3" E