Dodone

Dodone (in Greek old Δωδώνη / Dôdốnê ) is an oracular sanctuary dedicated to Zeus and the Goddess-Mother, révérée under the name of Dioné. It is located in Épire on the slopes of the Tomaros mount at the south of the lake Pambotis, with 22 km in the south of Ioannina. It is oldest Greek oracle, according to Hérodote, going back perhaps to the second front millenium J. - C., and one of most famous with those of Delphes and Ammon. The Priest S and the priestesses of the crowned thicket interpreted the rustle of the sheets of Chêne under the wind. Located at the variation of Greece of the quoted , there suffers from the development of the oracle of Delphes to the traditional time but remains important until the Roman time .

Legendary origins of oracle

Hérodote brings back the following tradition on the oracle of Dodone, which he had already heard with Thèbes in Egypt ( Histoires , II, 52):

“The priestesses of Dodonéens report that it flew away of Thèbes in Egypt two black doves; that one went to Libya, and the other on their premises; that this one, being perched on a oak, articulated of a human voice that the destinies wanted that one established in this place a Jupiter oracle; that Dodonéens, looking at that like an order of the gods, carried out it then. They also tell that the dove which flew away in Libya ordered with the Libyans to establish the oracle of Ammon, which is also an oracle of Jupiter. Here what the priestesses of Dodonéens said to me, of which oldest was called Preuménia; that according to, Timarété; and young person, Nicandra. Their account was confirmed by the testimony of the remainder of Dodonéens, Ministers for the temple. ”

The mythological account is worth especially for the link which it establishes between two great oracles of Zeus, that of Ammon in the oasis of Siwah in Libya, and that of Dodone. It seems to also show that in the beginning, the service of the divinity is the prerogative of priestesses, and that the institution of priests is posterior. One indeed knows by Strabon that they are the priestesses who delivered the answers of oracle, except if he acted of Béotie NS. The priestesses of Zeus are the three Peleiades (in Greek αἱ πελειάδες / hai peleiades ) named by Hérodote, Preuménia, Timarété and Nicandre.

With, at the time of Homère, they are joined by divinateurs, the Selles (in Greek οἱ Σελλοί / hoi Selloí ). In the work of Homère, Dodone indeed twice appears in Iliade :

In the Catalog of the vessels (II, 749-750):

τῷ δ' Ἐνιῆνες ἕποντο μενεπτόλεμοί τε Περαιβοὶ'/οἳ περὶ Δωδώνην δυσχείμερον οἰκί' ἔθεντο
“(...) Énièmes, valiant Perrhèbes commendait,/which had been established in the rough country of Dodone (...)”

In the prayer that Achille addresses to Zeus whereas Patrocle is on the point of facing Hector (XVI, 231-235):

Ζεῦ ἄνα Δωδωναῖε Πελασγικὲ τηλόθι ναίων/Δωδώνης μεδέων δυσχειμέρου, ἀμφὶ δὲ Σελλοὶ/σοὶ ναίουσ' ὑποφῆται ἀνιπτόποδες χαμαιεῦναι
“Zeus the Almighty, Dodonéen, remote god, Pélasgique,/which reigns on Dodone, in this hard country of the Saddles/soothsayers to the feet ever washed, which sleep on the ground! (...)”

In the Odyssey , Homère still shows Ulysses to go there to consult oracle on the means of turning over to Ithaque (XIV, 327; XIX, 296-298):

τὸν δ' ἐς Δωδώνην φάτο βήμεναι, ὄφρα θεοῖο'/ἐκ δρυὸς ὑψικόμοιο Διὸς βουλὴν ἐπακούσαι/ὅππως νοστήσει' Ἰθάκης ἐς πίονα δῆμον
“(...) he said to me that had gone in Dodone/to learn from the large Oak the will of Zeus/and to know how he would return in the ground of Ithaque (...)”

In fact thus the Saddles, maintaining a contact ritual permanent with the ground, interpreted the word of Zeus. This one reached them several manners: the rustle of the sheets of the crowned Oak, noise caused by one or more bronze cauldrons (according to the times, to see will infra ), and perhaps also flight of doves, if one interprets thus the etymology of the peleiades .

History of the sanctuary

Archeology did not bring a satisfactory answer yet on the creation date of the sanctuary. No trace of Neolithic establishment for the moment was found in Dodone. The oldest archaeological traces of occupation (ceramic, bronze swords and knives) date from the time mycénienne and are not former to the worship of Zeus Dodonéen would have arrived in Épire with the Thesprotes at the recent Helladique towards 1200. But there existed then already on the site a pre-Hellenic worship chtonien of a goddess of abundance and fertility related to the roots of the large oak. The two divinities, the god ouranien of the thunder and the storm, and the divinity chtonienne of the vegetation thus form in Dodone a couple révéré under the names of Zeus Naïos (literally “Zeus residing”) and Dioné Naïa (the female form of the name Zeus), in relation to a crowned oak.

Although excentré compared to Greece of the quoted , oracle enjoys a great fame as of: he is regularly consulted by the Athéniens which send an annual embassy to him. Sophocle mentions it in the Trachiniennes (v. 1164 sq. ) and Eschyle in Prométhée connected (v. 829 sq. ). The king of Lydie Crésus consults it, in the same way later, as the Spartans Agésilas and Lysandre.

This celebrity does not result in an ambitious program architectural, contrary to what occurs for the sanctuary from Delphes, which gradually supplants Dodone like the primary source of oracles for the Greek cities. At fourth century BC still, the sanctuary seems to be reduced to a modest temple set up near the crowned Oak.

The apogee of the sanctuary corresponds to that of the kingdom of Épire under the reign of Pyrrhus which, between 297 and 272, almost rebuilt all the buildings of Dodone, on a monumental scale more in connection with its role of national sanctuary épirote: the temple of Zeus, those of Héraclès and THEMIS profit from its generosities, as well as the civic buildings, the bouleuterion and the academy. It is also Pyrrhus who makes build the theater to accommodate the dramatic and musical contests accompanying the festival by Naïa in the honor of the triad consisted Zeus and his two Parèdre S, Dioné and THEMIS.

The sudden death of Pyrrhus with Argos in 272 and the weakening of the kingdom of Épire which follows, taken in the vice consisted its two powerful neighbors, the Macedonia in the east and the Étolie in the south, involve the decline of the sanctuary. In 219 - 218, it is plundered by the Étoliens under the command of their new Stratège Dorimachus which makes destroy the temple of Zeus, but saving, seems it, the crowned Oak. The Roman historian Polybe is the indirect source of this information: he specifies that Étoliens burned the sanctuary, except Hiéra Oikia which they dismantled. According to the archeologist S. Dakaris, the treatment difference is explained by the will not to be likely to burn the crowned Oak, which would have constituted a sacrilege much more important. The excavations of Hiéra Oikia showed the absence of level of destruction per fire at that time, which appears to confirm the testimony of Polybe. The young king de Macédoine Philippe V, combined for Épirotes, avenges the Sacrilège by putting at bag the federal capital étolienne Thermos the following year (218). With the spoils taken on Étoliens, it then makes rebuild the sanctuary of Dodone and a Stade for the annual plays adds to it.

Despite everything, the sanctuary is never concerned completely the bag étolien, more especially as it is once again destroyed a half-century later, this time by the Romains, at the time of the Third war of Macedonia (168 - 167). One finds then mention of the sanctuary in the sources at the time of the invasion of Greece by the armies of Mithridate in 88. When Octave remains in Épire at the time of the war against Marc Antoine in 31, it probably makes rebuild the sanctuary partly that the contemporary geographer Strabon describes as ruined. It is as at the time imperial as the theater is transformed into arena. The emperor Hadrian visit oracle towards 132 a. J. - C., just as Pausanias, shortly after. The festival of Naïa is always celebrated towards 240 a. J. - C.

The final ruin of oracle intervenes in 391 a. J. - C. when the crowned Oak is cut following the edicts of Théodose I {{er}} prohibiting the pagan worships. It is not however the end of the occupation of the site: construction, partly on the vestiges of the temple of Héraclès, of large a Christian Basilica at 5th century a. J. - C. testifies to the occupation of Dodone in the late Antiquité, just as the mention of the city in the list of Hiéroklès (6th century a. J. - C.), and the presence of several bishop S of Dodone to the oecumenical Concile S, in particular that of Éphèse in 431 a. J. - C.

Organization of the sanctuary

The sanctuary was closed as of second half of fourth century BC by a Enceinte prolonging in the valley the fortifications of the Acropole (plane, 1). The latter includes the top of the small hill (altitude: 350 m) dominating the site. Built in isodomic Apparatus, the acropolis was the strengthened refuge of the city of Dodonéens, furnished with 10 turns quadrangular, and accessible by two entries, one in the North-East, the other in south-east. It had a cistern to feed the water inhabitants in the event of seat. Starting from the south-western and south-eastern angles of the acropolis, two Courtine S went down in the valley to enclose the surface of the sanctuary. Three doors were bored there, including two, in the east and in the south (except plan), were protected by turns. The western door (plan 19) had to be moved towards the west (18) at the time of the phase of enlarging of the sanctuary at the beginning of third century BC, to release sufficient space with the construction of the Bouleuterion (4) and of the Prytanée (6). The new Western curtain (17) circumvented them to come to join the building identified at the house of the priests (5).

Buildings of worship

The various monuments of the sanctuary were distributed with the foot of the hill in this strengthened space. In the center was the téménos of Zeus Dodonéen, the Hiéra Oikia ( ἡ Ἱερά Οἰκία , “crowned House”, plan 11) mentioned by Polybe (IV, 67,3). The oldest identified monumental phase is a small rectangular temple (20,80 X 19,20 m) built in first half of beside the crowned oak, when the Molosses take the control of the sanctuary thesprote. There was then no fence, but the oak was surrounded by a series of tripods supporting of the bronze cauldrons in contact the ones with the others: when one ran up against one of them, the sound was reverberated by all the series. It is this noise which the priests interpreted, with that of the wind in the sheets, like demonstrator will of Zeus. Fragments of cauldron going back to were found, confirming this tradition and the seniority of oracle.

In the middle of, the téménos is materialized by a wall of masonry. The cauldrons then left the place to a device more sophisticated: there at the top of a column rose a bronze statue representing a young boy (an offering of the Corcyréens) holding a whip with three chains of astragale S. the wind also agitated these chains against a bronze cauldron laid out him on a column, producing still a continuous sound, interpreted by the priests to answer the questions which were asked to them. Those were transmitted on lead plates, of which the excavations put at the day a great number.

Under the reign of the king Pyrrhus, the surrounding wall is replaced by an ionic gantry on three sides of the court, in pi , surrounding the oak. As an offering of recognition to the god, Pyrrhus makes suspend on the colonnades the Roman shields taken at the time of his victory of Héraclée in 280 - the National museum of Athens has the fragment of the one of these shields, identified by a fragment of inscription. He reiterated this gesture in 274 after a victory over Antigone II Gonatas, as this time an inscription found with the bouleuterion attests it.

After the systematic dismantling of the Hiéra Oikia by the Étoliens in 219, the Macedonians make rebuild the sanctuary on a more imposing scale: the temple is a tripartite building (Pronaos, Naos, Adyton) ionic Tétrastyle .

Several secondary temples surrounded the Hiéra Oikia . In the North-East, was the first temple of Dioné (plane 13), a small monument equipped with an ionic tetrastyle pronaos sheltering, with the back of the concealed the statue of the goddess. It is known in an indirect way that the temple existed already in second half of: the Athéniens sent to it each year an embassy to honor the statue with Dioné, a practice that Olympias, the mother of Alexandre Large the condemned like an interference in the businesses of the kingdom molosse of Épire, that it controlled between 330 and 324. The sanctuary is abandoned after its destruction in 219: a new temple of Dioné is built ten meters more in the South (plane 12). It is about a small temple ionic tetrastyle prostyle including/understanding a pronaos and one concealed.

Between these two temples and the door Is enclosure was the temple of Héraclès (plane 14), high under the reign of Pyrrhus (297 - 272) in the honor of the hero considered as the mythical ancestor of the dynasty of the Argéades, the royal house of Macedonia: this one was allied with the dynasty éacide of Épire since the marriage of Olympias and Philippe II of Macedonia. It is a small tetrastyle temple doric - the only one of the sanctuary - which was destroyed in 219 then rebuilt partly with plundered materials with Thermos. It was partly covered by the basilica paléochrétienne in the late Antiquité. The temple could be identified thanks to the discovery of a Métope Héraclès representative against the Hydre de Lerne, like by various offerings. A base of furnace bridge discovered in the East of the temple is probably associated for him.

Two other temples were put at the day in the west of Hiéra Oikia: the temple of THEMIS (10) is very close by its plan to the new temple of Dioné. The religious organization of the two goddesses Parèdre S of Zeus is confirmed by an oracular lead inscription, dated from the first half of, which mentions this qualified triad gods naïens.

A little further in south-west, a last pertaining to worship building (8) is identified with a temple Aphrodite : the worship of this goddess is attested in Dodone by an inscription like by offerings of small clay statuettes representing it holding in its right hand a dove in front of its chest. Two drums of column coming from this temple were employed again in the close building (9), of unknown function, at the time Roman.

Civic buildings

The largest building will intra muros sanctuary is the bouleuterion (plane 4) built at the beginning of third century BC beside the theater. It is a rectangular big room (43,60 X 32,35 m) preceded in frontage by a doric Stoa. The roof of this imposing construction was supported by eight ionic columns laid out in three lines in the room. It was however necessary to reinforce the walls by 14 buttresses to withstand the roof pressure. It was the meeting room of the members of the council ( bouleutes ) of the city of Dodonéens: they took seat on stone benches of which there remain some traces in place, on the northern side. The speakers took seat in the southern part of the part, where one also found places a furnace bridge from there dedicated to Zeus Naïos and Bouleus , a decisive element in the functional identification of the building. The author of this dedication was certain Charops wire of Machatas, a Thesprote mentioned by Plutarque to have helped Flamininus at the time of the countryside of 198 against Philippe V.

Outside the bouleuterion, along its frontage is, were found four bases engraved of decrees honorary of the Ligue épirote. The object of two of them was to reward, in their raising a statue of bronze, generals to have fought, one the Illyriens towards 230, the other Éacides, at the time of the proclamation of the Republic épirote (between 234 and 168). Various fragments of these statues were found near the bases.

The other large civic building, the academy (plane 6 and 7) was at some distance to the south of the bouleuterion, on the other side of the sacred way and old western door of the ramparts which had to be moved to build this monument. It is in this building that met the prytanes and the archontes, the higher magistrates of Dodone, and that the files of their decisions were preserved. The building, ordered around a court peristyle, was increased at the end of by the addition of a series of small square parts on its northern side: this enlarging was most probably made necessary by the extension of the League épirote towards the south at that time. Destroyed in 167, it was after a fashion repaired, but the northern part remained in ruin.

Buildings of spectacle: the theater and the stage

The two most massive buildings of Dodone are located outside the enclosure of the sanctuary, on the south-western slopes of the hill.

The theater (plane 2) is one of vastest of Greece, with a capacity estimated at 17 000 spectators. It was built under the reign of Pyrrhus on the southern slopes of the hill, to accommodate the four-year festival of Naïa. The hill not being broad enough for this building, a wall retaining was built to retain the embankment, reinforced in frontage by massive buttresses, of appearance similar to turns, which contribute to the impressive monumental appearance of the frontage. The auditorium is divided by alleys ( diazomata ) into three zones respectively of 9,15 and 21 lines of seats, themselves separated by staircases in 9 sectors ( cunei ) in the lower part, and 18 in the upper part. The lower lines of seats were reserved to the holders of the privilege of Proédrie.

They were removed, just as the proskenion and the frontage of the building of scene, at the time of the transformation of the theater into arena at the time augustéenne: one then built a high wall of 2,80 m to convert orchestrated it in a vast oval arena, where could be organized combat of wild beasts without danger to the public.

In the south-west of the theater the stage is (plane 3), comprising 21 or 22 lines of seats, and built at the beginning of third century BC to accommodate the athletic plays who accompanied the festival by Naïa.

Archaeological exploration

The site of Dodone is located by the travellers (Leake, François Pouqueville) at the beginning of the 19th century without however being formally identified with oracle.

The first systematic excavations of the sanctuary take place as of 1873 - 1875 under the direction of the antique dealer and politician Constantin Carapanos: undertaken on a considerable scale, they release the main part of the structures on a surface of 20 000 m, but do not reach everywhere the levels of occupation - for the happiness of the posterior archeologists. They allow however, thanks to the discovery of Décret S épirotes engraved on bronze plates, as well as many oracular lead plates, to confirm the identification of the site with the famous oracular sanctuary. The setting at the day of an important deposit of this material in the ruins of the basilica paléochrétienne leads the archeologist then to wrongly identify it with the temple of Zeus.

The excavations take again first once after 1921 under the aegis of the archaeological Société of Athens, directed by G. Soteriades, and must stop because of the gréco-Turkish war. After a first series of campaigns in 1929 - 1932, it is the D. archeologist; Evangelides which starts again in a decisive way systematic exploration of the site after the creation of the regional archaeological authority, XIIe Éphorie of the Prehistoric antiquities and traditional of Épire: in the years 1950, it continues the excavation of the sanctuary, of which it shows the continuity of operation since the Bronze Age until the late Antiquité. After its disappearance, it is his/her S. collaborator; Dakaris which takes again the direction of the excavations, again with the assistance (since 1981) of the archaeological Company, until its death in 2004.

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