Sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona: The Oldest Oracle in Greece

The Story of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona

In a green valley at the foot of Mount Tomaros, in the mountains of northwestern Greece, stood a great oak tree. For the ancient Greeks, it was no ordinary tree. They believed that Zeus spoke through the rustling of its leaves, and the priests and priestesses who served him interpreted the sounds as messages from the king of the gods. The historian Herodotus called Dodona the oldest oracle in Greece, and Homer already knew it as a holy place in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

In the Iliad, Achilles prays to Zeus of Dodona and mentions his priests, the Selloi, who slept on the ground and did not wash their feet. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is said to have gone to Dodona to hear the will of Zeus from the oak. At Dodona Zeus was worshipped together with Dione, an ancient goddess who was honored here as his consort.

Herodotus also recorded how the oracle was said to have begun. According to the priestesses of Dodona, a black dove flew from Thebes in Egypt, landed on the oak and declared in a human voice that an oracle of Zeus should be founded there. The oracle was also associated with the sound of bronze. A famous offering from the people of Corcyra showed a boy holding a whip of bronze chains, which struck a bronze cauldron when the wind blew, sending ringing sounds across the sanctuary.

Some of the most remarkable finds from Dodona are small strips of lead on which visitors wrote their questions to the god. Thousands of them have been found, and they reveal the everyday worries of ordinary people. Some asked whether to marry, whether a child was really theirs, whether to buy land or take a journey, or whether a business would succeed. These humble questions bring the ancient oracle vividly to life.

For centuries, the sanctuary consisted of little more than the sacred oak and simple altars. It grew grander in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, especially under King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who made Dodona the religious center of his kingdom. A great theater was built into the hillside, along with a small temple of Zeus, a council house and other buildings. A festival with athletic and musical contests, called the Naia, was celebrated in honor of Zeus.

The sanctuary suffered when it was sacked by the Aetolians in 219 BC and again by the Romans in 167 BC, but it was rebuilt and remained in use for several more centuries. In the Christian era a basilica was built on the site, and Dodona became the seat of a bishop. Eventually it was abandoned, and the sacred oak that had spoken for so long fell silent.

Today Dodona is a peaceful archaeological site about 22 kilometers southwest of Ioannina. The restored theater, set against the slopes of Mount Tomaros, is one of the largest ancient theaters in Greece and still hosts occasional performances. Near the foundations of the small temple, a young oak tree has been planted where the sacred one once stood. Sit in the shade, listen to the wind in its leaves and imagine the god speaking through them.