CHAP. cv. co RYLANCE A:. QUE'RCUS. 17'23 



acquainted the inhabitants that Jupiter had consecrated the ground, which 

 would in future give oracles. All the trees in the grove became endowed with 

 the jrift of prophecy ; and the sacred oaks, not only spoke and delivered oracles 

 while in a living state, but, when some of them were cut down to build the 

 ship Argo the beams and mast of that ship frequently spoke, and warned 

 the Argonauts of approaching calamities. (See Horn. Odys , xiv. ; Lucan, vi. 

 427. ; Apoll. y book i., &c.) After giving the account above related, Herodotus 

 adds what he calls the explanation of it. He says that some Phoenician 

 merchants carried off an Egyptian priestess from Thebes into Greece, where 

 she took up her residence in the Forest of Dodona, and erected there, at the 

 foot of an old oak, a small temple in honour of Jupiter, whose priestess she 

 had been at Thebes. The town and temple of Dodona are said by others to 

 have been built by Deucalion, immediately after the great flood, when, in grati- 

 tude for his preservation, he raised a temple to Jupiter, and consecrated the 

 oak grove to his honour. This grove, or rather forest, extended from Dodona 

 to Chaonia, a mountainous district of Epirus, so called from Chaon, son of 

 Priam, who was accidentally killed there by ins brother Helenus. The forest 

 was, from this, sometimes called the Chaonian Forest; and Jupiter, Chaonian 

 father. (See Virgil t Ovid, &c.) The oracle of Dodona was not only the most 

 celebrated, but the richest, in Greece, from the offerings made by those who came 

 to it, to enquire into futurity. The prophecies were first delivered by doves, 

 which were always kept in the temple, in memory of the fabulous origin assigned 

 to the oracle : but, afterwards, the answers were delivered by the priestesses ; or, 

 according to Suidas, Homer, and others, by the oaks themselves ; hollow trees, 

 no doubt, being chosen, in which a priest might conceal himself. During the 

 Thracian war, a deputation of Boeotians consulting the oracle, the priestess 

 told them that, " if they would meet with success, they must be guilty of an 

 impious action : " when, in order to fulfil the oracle, they seized her, and 

 burnt her alive. Alter this, the Dodonian oracles were always delivered to 

 the Bceotians by men. The oracular powers of the Dodonian oaks are fre- 

 quently alluded to, not only by the Greek and Latin poets, but by those of 

 modern times. Cowper says, addressing the Yardley Oak, 



" Oh ! couldst thou speak 



As in Dodona once thy kindred trees 

 Oracular, I would not curious ask 

 The future, best unknown ; but, at thy mouth 

 Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past ! 

 TJy thec I might correct, erroneous oft, 

 The clock of history ; facts and events 

 Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts 

 Recovering; and misstated, setting right." 



And Wordsworth, in his lines addressed to a Spanish oak, celebrated as 

 having been the place of meeting of the ancient lawgivers of Biscay, exclaims, 



" Oak of Guernica ! tree of holier power 

 Than that which in Dodona did enshrine 

 (So faith too fondly deem'd) a voice divine, 

 Heard from the depths of its aerial bower, 

 How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour? 

 Stroke merciful and welcome would that be 

 Which would extend thy branches on the ground, 

 If never more within their shady round 

 Those lofty-minded lawgivers shall meet, 

 Peasant and lord, in their appointed seat ; 

 Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty." 



Milo of Croton was a celebrated athlete, whose strength and voracity 

 were so great, that it was said he could carry a bullock on his shoulders, kill 

 it with a blow of his fist, and afterwards eat it up in one day. In his old age, 

 Milo attempted to tear an old oak up by the roots ; but the trunk split, and 

 the cleft part uniting, his hands became locked in the body of the tree; and, 

 being unable to extricate himself, he was devoured by wild beasts. (Ovid 

 Met., xv. ; Strnb., xvi. ; Pans., vi. c. 11., &c.) 



The oak was considered by the ancients as the emblem of hospitality ; be- 

 cause, when Jupiter and Mercury were travelling in disguise, and arrived at 



