Kitap 7
7.12
The first prophets were men, and this the poet perhaps indicates, for he calls the persons interpreters,ὺποφῆται. among whom the prophetsποͅοφῆται. might be classed. In after-times three old women were appointed to this office, after even Dione had a common temple with Jupiter.
7.12
Suidas, in order to court the favour of the Thessalians by fabulous stories, says, that the temple was transported from Scotussa of the Thessalian Pelasgiotis, accompanied by a great multitude, chiefly of women, whose descendants are the present prophetesses, and that hence Jupiter had the epithet Pelasgic. Cineas relates what is still more fabulous * * * * * * * * * * [With the exception of the following Fragments, the rest of this book is lost.]
FRAGMENTS.
fragments.1a
THE oracle was formerly at Scotussa, a city of Pelasgiotis, but was transferred to Dodona by the command of Apollo, after some persons had burnt down the tree. The oracular answers were not conveyed by words, but by certain signs, as at the oracle of Ammon in Libya. Probably the three doves made some peculiar flight, which, observed by the priestesses, suggested the oracular answer. Some say that, in the language of the Molotti and Thesprote, old women are called peliae, and old men pelii, so that the celebrated doves were probably not birds, but three old women who passed an idle time about the temple. EPIT.
