where prophecies were imparted to
inquiring souls through the instrumentality of the attendants of the
deity. The oldest and most venerated of the oracles was that of Zeus at
Dodona, mentioned by Homer. Here, among the prophetic oaks, priestesses
read the future in the rustling of the leaves and in the creaking of the
branches, in the bubbling of a spring and in the sounds made by brazen
cymbals hung near the sacred shrine. Herodotus visited this oracle, and
gives the names of the three priestesses who officiated in his time.
These priestesses--Promenia, Timarete, Nicandra--related to him a very
interesting story concerning the origin of the oracle. They traced its
sacred legends back to the worship in the famous temple of Thebes in
Egypt. Two doves, they said, flew away one day from the city of Thebes
and took their flight into distant lands. One alighted in Libya, on the
spot where the oracle of Jupiter Ammon was later established; while the
other, crossing the sea, flew as far as Dodona, where, perching on an
oak, in human voice she commanded those that heard her to establish
there an oracle of Zeus. For this reason the priestesses were known as
Peliades, or doves. When, however, Herodotus inquired of the priests in
Thebes about the tradition, they told a different story: that two
priestesses of their temple had once been carried off from Egypt by the
Phoenicians and sold into slavery, and that one of these priestesses
finally established herself at Dodona. So, whether dove or priestess,
the tradition of the Egyptian origin of the oracle seemed confirmed.

Apollo, however, rather than Zeus, was the god of prophecy, and it was
generally in connection with his shrines that oracles were spoken.
Usually, fountains whose water was supposed to influence the workings of
the mind, or caverns whence escaped a gas producing delirium or
hallucination, were regarded as places where the divinity was present.
Hence there existed numerous oracles of Apollo in Greece proper and in
Asia Minor. The most celebrated of the latter was the oracle of the
Didymжan Apollo at Branchidж, near Miletus, where a priestess uttered
prophecies, seated on a wheel-shaped disk, after she had bathed the hem
of her robe and her feet in the sacred spring and had breathed the
vapors arising from it.

The most illustrious of all the oracles of ancient Hellas was at Delphi,
which is situated, like a vast amphitheatre, above the beautiful plain
of Cirrha in Phocis, with the double summits of Parnassus forming the
background. Delphi became the centre of the Hellenic religion, and the
fame of its oracle extended as far as to Lydia in the east, and to Rome
and the Etruscans in the west. At first, a young maiden took the part of
the priestess of Apollo who gave the responses; but the authorities
realizing the dangers to which the beauty of the priestess might lead, a
woman of at least fifty years of age was later selected for the honor,
and finally, as one prophetess was not sufficient to answer the
questions of the vast crowd of pilgrims that assembled to consult the
oracle, three were chosen. The name given to the inspired priestess was
always the same, that of Pythia.

To prepare the priestess for the ordeal which was to make known the will
of the god, she was kept fasting for a number of days--a condition
favorable to hallucinations, and then was given laurel leaves to chew
because of their narcotic virtue. Then the Pythia was seated on a
tripod, placed in the middle of the sanctuary, over an opening in the
ground whence mephitic vapors were escaping. Her head was crowned with
a garland made from the tree of Apollo, and about the tripod coiled a
snake, the emblem of the art of divination. The exhalations from the
abyss were deemed to be the very breath of the god, with which he
inspired his priestess. Soon she grew pale and trembled with convulsive
movements; her only utterances at first were groans and sighs; and now,
with eyes aflame, with hair dishevelled, and with foam on her lips, amid
shrieks of anguish she gave forth a few incoherent, disconnected words.
The god had at last spoken through his priestess. The words were
carefully written down by the attendant priest, who gave a rhythmic form
to the response, and thus a revelation of the future was made known to
the anxious inquirer.

The Pythia was consulted by all the peoples of Greece, as well as by
kings and strangers from foreign lands. Colonies to Italy, to Africa, to
the regions about the Black Sea, were sent at her command; she
sanctioned laws; she taught Lycurgus that the best laws were those which
obliged rulers to rule well and subjects to obey well. To the conquered,
she counselled resignation and hope. Peoples lusting for conquest, she
bade revive their piety toward the gods and seek the mercy of heaven by
showing themselves merciful. She was also the guardian of individual
morality. To a king desiring peace of mind, she declared that his
unhappiness was due to his and his predecessors' wrong-doings, and
recommended the exercise of clemency when he returned home. Being asked:
"Who is the happiest of men?" she replied: "Phжdrus, who has died for
his country," A man named Glaucus wished to withhold a treasure which
had been confided to him, but decided first to get the sanction of the
oracle; the Pythia revealed to him the woes reserved for the perjured.
To the lot of Gyges, the wealthy and powerful king, she preferred that
of a poor Arcadian farmer who cultivated his plot of ground in peace of
mind. By pure and elevated moral teachings, the Pythia instructed the
bands of pilgrims who assembled at Delphi. Such was the power in the
hands of a woman. Frail and nervous, she yet represented a religious
institution the most influential in the pagan world; she largely
determined the destiny of Greeks and barbarians alike. The wisdom of
this oracular centre is generally ascribed in modern times to the
college of priests assembled at Delphi, who interpreted the responses of
the Pythia; but, whatever the nature of the mechanism by which this
oracle retained its influence for centuries, the people in general had,
for ages, perfect faith that the responses came directly from the god of
prophecy through his inspired priestess. It is undoubtedly true that the
Greeks, as well as the Hindoos, Gauls, and Germans, attributed to woman
the gift of second-sight; and the immaculate life which the Pythia was
required to lead attests the fact that to receive the inspiration of the
god of light there were needed a purity of heart and a devoutness of
spirit which could only be found in a woman. Strange to say, it was the
law that no woman could consult this oracle of Apollo, whose divine will
was revealed through a woman; women could, however, indirectly receive a
response through the mediation of a man.

The Greeks were fond of the pomp and splendor of religious festivals.
They celebrated such festivals whenever occasion offered, and during
their continuance all regular occupations ceased. Plato saw in the
prevailing custom other advantages besides the purely religious effect.
"The gods," he says, "touched with compassion for the human race, which
nature condemns to labor, have provided for intervals of repose in the
regular succession of festivals instituted in their own honor." These
festivities were not only a feature of the national religion; they were
the schools of patriotism, of poetry, and of art. Each city had its own
special festivals, and there were also those national celebrations in
which all people joined. Zeus was the national deity of the Greeks;
Olympia was his most sacred seat; and the Olympian festival was the
greatest event in Greece.

In the district of Elis, on the western side of the Peloponnesus, the
river Alpheus, after dashing and splashing down the mountains of
Arcadia, slackens its speed and meanders westwardly through the valley
in fantastic curves and windings. Soon it meets the quiet waters of the
Cladeus coming from the north. Between the two, and not far from their
confluence, lie the wooded slopes of Mount Cronion. In the triangular
space thus formed by the rivers and the mountain is situated the sacred
grove known as the Altis, the hallowed precinct of Olympian Zeus. Here
was his temple, and not far from it the shrine of his consort Hera; and
just outside the sacred precinct lay the racecourse, where were
celebrated the Olympic games which have made the name of Olympia famous
throughout the world. This was the national centre of Greece, where
citizens from all parts of the Greek world assembled to join in friendly
contests of physical prowess and poetry and song. The situation was
indeed a beautiful one. Northward and westward were the mountain peaks
of Achжa and the high tablelands of Arcadia; southward, the rugged
mountain chain of Messene; westward, the Ionian sea. The well-watered
valley, bounded by undulating hills, was covered with luxuriant
vegetation. The pine woods of Mount Cronion, the dense grove of plane
trees within and about the sacred precinct, the vine, the olive and the
myrtle of the valley, and the quiet waters of the sacred streams, were
elements that constituted a landscape of indescribable beauty, renowned
in ancient times and the delight of modern travellers.

The festival in honor of Olympian Zeus recurred every four years, at the
time of the full moon following the summer solstice. Sacred heralds
carried to all parts of the Greek world the official message announcing
the festival, and a sacred truce was declared for a sufficient length of
time to allow all desirous of doing so to attend the gathering and to
return home. As the great day approached, men and youths, matrons and
maidens, set out to take part in or to witness the various features of
the festival. Cities sent sacred embassies, or _theoriж_, resplendent in
purple and gold, bearing offerings to the god. Artists and poets,
merchants and manufacturers, found in this gathering of the Greeks a
great mart in which they could make known their talents or their wares
and receive lucrative orders, the former for a statue or an ode, the
latter for the sale of their merchandise. Tents stood in rows upon the
plain, and everywhere were scenes of busy traffic or of social
entertainment.

We are not concerned here with the various exercises that constituted
the festival, nor with the games which were celebrated in the stadium,
nor with the horse and chariot races in the hippodrome, except in so far
as women were participants; and their part was but slight. When the
games were held, a priestess of Demeter was present, seated on an altar
of white marble opposite the umpires' seats, but she was the only woman
to whom this privilege was granted. While their loved ones were
contending in the stadium, mothers and wives and sisters had to remain
on the southern bank of the Alpheus. Only one instance is recounted
where this rule was broken. "Pherenice, daughter of a celebrated
Rhodian wrestler, whose family boasted that they were descended from
Hercules, could not bear to leave her son while the contest was going
on, and disguising herself as a man, and pretending to be a teacher of
gymnastics, she mingled with the groups of gymnasts. When her son was
proclaimed victor, however, her feelings carried her away, and forgetful
of prudence she rushed to embrace her child. In her haste her robes
became disordered, and her sex was revealed. The law was explicit: every
woman found within the sacred precinct was condemned to death.
Nevertheless, the judges acquitted her, in recognition of the fame her
family had won; but to prevent any repetition of the occurrence, the
masters, as well as their pupils, had thenceforth to present themselves
naked."

Women could, however, run their horses in the hippodrome and thus win a
prize, as was done by Cynisca, daughter of Archidamnus, King of Sparta,
who was the first woman that bred horses and gained a chariot victory at
Olympia. After her,