pPanC "bore, Iseyel^^/, aasl laijrie/*, 465 



supported almost wholly upon the fruit of the Oak ; these primitive 

 people were called Balaiiophagi (eaters of Acorns). 



Homer mentions people entering into compacts under Oaks as 

 places of security, for the tree was highly reverenced by the 

 Greeks, and held a prominent place in their religious and other 

 ceremonies. The Arcadians believed that by stirring with an Oak- 

 branch the waters of a fountain near a temple of Jupiter, on Mount 

 Lycius, rain could be caused to fall. The Fates and Hecate were 

 crowned with Oak-leaves ; and a chaplet of Oak adorned the brow 

 of the Dodona'an Jove. 



The Pelasgic oracle of Jupiter, or Zeus, at Dodona, was situated 

 at the foot of Mount Tamarus, in a wood of Oaks, and the answers 

 were given by an aged woman, called Pelias : and mspelias, in the 

 Attic dialecft, means dove, the fable arose that the doves prophesied 

 in the Oak groves of Dodona. Respecfting the origin of this oracle, 

 Herodotus narrates that two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes were 

 carried away by Phoenician merchants : one of these was conveyed 

 to Libya, where she founded the oracle of Jupiter Amnion ; the 

 other to Greece. The latter remained in the Dodonaean wood, 

 which was much frequented on account of the Acorns. There she 

 had a temple built at the foot of an Oak in honour of Jupiter, whose 

 priestess she had been in Thebes, and here afterwards the oracle 

 was foimded. This far-spreading speaking Oak was a lofty and 

 beautiful tree, with evergreen leaves and sweet edible Acorns (the 

 first sustenance of mankind). The Pelasgi regarded this tree as the 

 tree of life. In it the god was supposed to reside, and the rustling 

 of its leaves and the voices of birds showed his presence. When 

 the questioners entered, the Oak rustled, and the Peliades said, 

 " Thus speaks Zeus." Incense was burned beneath the tree, and 

 sacred doves continually inhabited it ; and at its foot a cold spring 

 gushed, as it were, from its roots, and from its murmur the inspired 

 priestesses prophesied. The ship Argo having been built with 

 the wood of trees felled in the Dodonaean grove, one of its beams 

 was endowed with prophetic or oracular power, and counselled the 

 hardy voyagers. Socrates swore by the Oak, the sacred tree of the 

 oracles, and consequently the tree of knowledge. 



The Romans regarded the Oak as sacred, and the chosen tree 

 of Jupiter, who was sheltered by it at his birth. Thus Lucan 

 mentions " Jove's Dodonaean tree," and Ovid, m alluding to the 

 primitive food of man, speaks of Acorns dropping from the tree of 

 Jove. The Oak, says Virgil, is 



" Jove's own tree 

 That holds the worlds in awful sovereignty. 

 • •♦••••• 



For length of ages lasts his happy reign, 

 And lives of mortal men contend in vain ; 

 Full in the midst of his own strength he stands. 

 Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands ; 

 His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands." 



2 H 



