Classical oracles

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; ) is a Titan responsible for creating or aiding humanity in its earliest days. He defied the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization.

thumb|upright=1.75|Delphi among the main Greek sanctuaries Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct in central Greece. It was the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi. The term omphalos was the Greek word for "navel".

In Greek mythology, Cassandra, also spelled Kassandra or Casandra, (; , , or referred to as Alexandra; ) was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies, but never be believed. Cassandra lived through the Trojan War and survived the sack of the city, but was murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus when Agamemnon brought her to Mycenae as a pallake.

municipality in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain

legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus

titan in Greek mythology

thumb|upright=1.2|Consulting the Oracle by [[John William Waterhouse, showing eight priestesses in a temple of prophecy]]

depression in the Western Desert of Egypt

thumb|The Kiss of the Enchantress (Isobel Lilian Gloag, ), inspired by Keats's "Lamia", depicts Lamia as half-serpent, half-woman

Pythia (; ) was the title of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in central Greece. She served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was sometimes historically glossed in English as the Pythoness.

In Greek mythology, Pasiphaë (, derived from the dative plural 'for all' and 'light'; , or , ) was the daughter of Helios, queen of Crete, and mother of the Minotaur. After her husband Minos failed to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Poseidon as promised, the god cursed Pasiphaë to fall in love with the bull. She had Daedalus build a hollow wooden cow for her to hide in, which she then used to mate with the bull; afterwards, she gave birth to the Minotaur.

The sibyls were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.

Greek goddess, mother of Aphrodite

thumb|300px|right|alt=A person with flowing robes holding a staff strikes two intertwined snakes on the ground|Tiresias strikes two snakes with a stick, and is transformed into a woman by Hera. Engraving by Johann Ulrich Kraus c. 1690. Taken from Die Verwandlungen des Ovidii (The Metamorphoses of Ovid). thumb|300px|alt=A baroque painting showing a male and female figure together|Pietro della Vecchia, Tiresias Transformed into a Woman, 17th century. In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; ) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven

In Greek mythology, Astraeus () or Astraios () is the son of Crius and Eurybia and the consort of Eos (goddess of the dawn). He is said to be the father of the winds.

one of the Delphic maxims

Dodona (; , Ionic and , ) in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the 2nd millennium BCE according to Herodotus. The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. Situated in a remote region away from the main Greek poleis, it was considered second only to the Oracle of Delphi in prestige.

thumb|200px|Epimenides of Knossos Epimenides of Knossos (or Epimenides of Crete) (; ) was a semi-mythical 7th- or 6th-century BC Greek seer and philosopher-poet, from Knossos or Phaistos.

thumb|right|250px|Amphiaraus on his chariot. Amphiaraus or Amphiaraos (; ) was in Greek mythology the son of Oicles, a seer, and one of the leaders of the Seven against Thebes. Amphiaraus at first refused to go with Adrastus on this expedition against Thebes as he foresaw the death of everyone who joined the expedition. His wife, Eriphyle, eventually compelled him to go.

legendary wife of Roman king Numa and minor goddess

collection of prophecies used in Rome

thumb|180px|An augur with sacred chicken; he holds a lituus, the curved wand often used as a symbol of augury on Roman coins Augury was the Roman religious practice of observing the behavior of birds to receive omens. When the individual, known as the augur, read these signs, it was referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" () means "looking at birds". Auspex, another word for augur, can be translated to "one who looks at birds". Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods could be favorable or unfavorable (auspicious or inauspicious). Sometimes politically motivated augurs wou

Greek professional diviner (2nd century)

In Greek mythology, Melampus (; ) was a legendary soothsayer and healer, originally of Pylos, who ruled at Argos. He was the introducer of the worship of Dionysus, according to Herodotus, who asserted that his powers as a seer were derived from the Egyptians and that he could understand the language of animals. A number of pseudepigraphal works of divination were circulated in Classical and Hellenistic times under the name Melampus. According to Herodotus and Pausanias (vi.17.6), on the authority of Hesiod, his father was Amythaon, whose name implies the "ineffable" or "unspeakably great"; thu

An omphalos is a religious stone artefact. In Ancient Greek, the word () means "navel". Among the Ancient Greeks, it was a widespread belief that Delphi was the center of the world. According to the myths regarding the founding of the Delphic Oracle, Zeus, in his attempt to locate the center of the Earth, launched two eagles from the two ends of the world, and the eagles, starting simultaneously and flying at equal speed, crossed their paths above the area of Delphi, and so that was the place where Zeus placed the stone. The Latin term is umbilicus mundi, 'navel of the world'.

collection of oracular utterances in Greek hexameter, containing Hellenistic/Roman mythology with Jewish, Gnostic and Christian stories

legendary ancient poet and musician

Trophonius (; Ancient Greek: Τροφώνιος Trophōnios) was a Greek hero or daimon or god—it was never certain which one—with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadea () in Boeotia, Greece.

Abae (, '''') was an ancient town in the northeastern corner of ancient Phocis, in Greece, near the frontiers of the Opuntian Locrians, said to have been built by the Argive Abas, son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. This bit of legend suggests an origin or at least an existence in the Bronze Age, and sites protohistory supports a continued existence in Iron-Age antiquity. It was famous for its oracle of Apollo Abaeus, one of those consulted by Croesus, king of Lydia, and Mardonius, among others. The site of the oracle was rediscovered at Kalapodi and excavated in modern ti

Claros (; , Klaros; ) was an ancient Greek sanctuary on the coast of Ionia. It contained a temple and oracle of Apollo, honored here as Apollo Clarius. It was located in the territory of Colophon, which lay twelve kilometers to the north, one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. The coastal city Notion lay two kilometers to the south. The ruins of the sanctuary are now found north of the modern town Ahmetbeyli in the Menderes district of İzmir Province, Turkey.

Onomacritus (; c. 530 – c. 480 BC), also spelled Onomacritos and Onomakritos, was a Greek chresmologue, or compiler of oracles, who lived at the court of the tyrant Pisistratus in Athens and prepared an edition of the Homeric poems. He was a collector and forger of oracles and poems.

thumb|Foundation of Etruscan temple at Tarquinia, scene of the Tages legend. thumb|Furrows of the arable land in Umbria

In Greek mythology, Phemonoe ( ; ) was a Greek poet of the ante-Homeric period. She was said to have been the daughter of Apollo, his first priestess at Delphi, or of his possible son Delphus, and the inventor of the hexameter verses, a type of poetic metre.

set of spiritual and philosophical texts widely used by Neoplatonist philosophers from the 3rd to the 6th century CE

200px|thumb|Βee goddesses, perhaps one of the Thriae, found at Camiros, [[Rhodes, dated to 7th century BCE (British Museum)]]

thumb|upright=1.5|Coinage of Thessaly, possibly king Hellokrates, with portrait of Aleuas. Obv: Head of Aleuas facing slightly left, wearing conical helmet, ALEU to right; labrys behind. Rev: Eagle standing right, head left, on thunderbolt; ELLA to left, LARISAIA to right. Thessaly, Larissa. Circa 370-360 BC

archaeological site in Greece

thumb|200px|alt=The site of the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios at the western end of mount Ptoion|The site of the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios at the western end of mount Ptoion

idol statue godess

Tegyra ( or Τέγυρα), also: Tegyrae () was a town of ancient Boeotia, the site of an oracle and temple of Apollo, who was even said to have been born there. It was the site of the Battle of Tegyra in 375 BCE. It was located north of Lake Copais, above the marshes of the river Melas. Its location has been identified with sparse remains 5 km (3 mi) northeast of Orchomenus, a hill with springs at the base, the head of the Polygira tributary of the Melas. J.M. Fossey, however, placed Tegyra at modern Pyrgos, 7 km. further east, and thought the Polygira site was Homeric Aspledon.

Peleiades (Greek: , "doves") were the sacred women of Zeus and the Mother Goddess, Dione, at the Oracle at Dodona. Pindar made a reference to the Pleiades as the "peleiades" a flock of doves, but the connection seems witty and poetical, rather than mythic. The chariot of Aphrodite was drawn by a flock of doves, however. A mythic element of a black dove that initiated the oracle at Dodona, which Herodotus was told in the 5th century BC may be an attempt to account for a folk etymology applied to the archaic name of the sacred women that no longer made sense (an aitiological myth). Perhaps the p

ancient Greek writer

Roman divination method

Gryneium or Gryneum or Gryneion (), also Grynium or Grynion (Γρύνιον), Grynia or Gryneia (Γρύνεια) and Grynoi (Γρῦνοι), was a city of ancient Aeolis. It was located 40 stadia from Myrina and 70 from Elaea. In early times it was independent, one of the 12 important cities of Aeolis, but afterwards became subject to Myrina. It contained a sanctuary of Apollo with an ancient oracle and a splendid temple of white marble. Because of the city Apollo derived the surname of Gryneus. Pausanias wrote that at Gryneium, where there was an amazing grove of Apollo, with cultivated trees, and all those which

seer, son of Smicrus in Greek mythology

Acharaca () was a village of ancient Lydia, Anatolia on the road from Tralles (modern Aydın, Turkey) to Nysa on the Maeander, with a Ploutonion or a temple of Pluto, and a cave, named Charonium (), where the sick were healed under the direction of the priests. There is some indication that it once bore the name Charax (Χάραξ), but that name may have belonged to Tralles. Its location is now the site of the modern town of Salavatlı. Recoveries from archaeological excavations are housed at the Aydın Archaeological Museum.

thumb|300px|Cities of ancient Lycia. Red dots: mountain peaks, white dots: ancient cities

thumb|The Bacidae 1883 by Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson (two soothsayers, called Bacidae, in a prophetic ecstasy reading chicken entrails). Bakis (also Bacis; ) is a general name for the inspired prophets and dispensers of oracles who flourished in Greece from the 8th to the 6th century B.C. Philetas of Ephesus, Aelian and John Tzetzes distinguish between three: a Boeotian, an Arcadian and an Athenian.

Vegoia (Etruscan: Vecu) is a sibyl, prophet, or nymph within the Etruscan religious framework. She is identified as the author of parts of their large and complex set of sacred books, detailing the religiously correct methods of founding cities and shrines, draining fields, formulating laws and ordinances, measuring space and dividing time; she initiated the Etruscan people to the arts, as originating the rules and rituals of land marking, and as presiding over the observance, respect, and preservation of boundaries.