Divination and Society at Delphi and Didyma

Abstract

in the Greek world operated, as a prelude to the more generalised study of the role of divination. I suggested that undue attention has been paid to superficial comparison of Greek oracles, and that there has as yet been no serious attempt to use the underlying principles governing their operation as a basis for examining their role in different social situations. I have recently had cause to examine the development of the Delphic oracle and the origin of its relationship with Greek city states, and I am grateful to the editor of Hermathena for the chance to develop these ideas further in considering the ostensibly very different oracle at Didyma, on the coast of Asia Minor in the territory of Miletos.1 Using evidence from ancient Greek sources and the modern ethnographical record, it is possible to advance a series of gen eralised propositions concerning the operation and function of divi nation in its most prestigious form. Oracles are regulatory mechanisms which enable community authorities to use divine sanction to achieve a consensus of opinion over difficult, often unprecedented, and potentially divisive decisions. They commonly deal with exceptional problems outside the collective wisdom of the community elite, sanctioning already formulated decisions on problems concerning the past or present conduct of the community; oracles do not bestow overall divine authority upon particular rulers, nor do they predict the future. Divination is no substitute for political institutions, and it is rare for oracles to contravene generally accepted moral principles (in fact sanctions are often applied against improper subjects of consultation, below p. 25). Consideration of the way in which oracles function as regulatory mechanisms therefore enables us to examine their roles in a variety of different situations in the ancient world, situations where perhaps the only common factor was the existence of a threat of a lack of consensus between social groups with different interests.2 It is likely that divination of various forms and degrees of respect ability was common in the Greek world from an early date, perhaps 17

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