138 On the Ancient HELLENES. 



a palm*tree. Herodotus tells us, that this was the moft an- 

 cient oracle of all Greece. The fame hi dorian gives us an ex- 

 act account of the tradition of the Egyptian eftablifliment of 

 that oracle * ; a tradition " which," fays he, " was authenticated 

 '* by the priefhs of Dodona in my days." 



It appears plainly from Herodotus, that this oracle was in- 

 ftituted by a prieftefs from Egypt f , and that it was copied 

 from that of Jupiter at Thebes, or Diospolis of Egypt- 

 Both were originally confecrated to the fun, who was undoubt- 

 edly the primary Jupiter of the Pagan world. Strabo in- 

 fers % t I believe not juftly, from Homer's account of the Selli 

 who miniftered in the temple of Dodona, that the original re- 

 tainers of that eftablifhment were men, and not women. He- 

 rodotus, who had a much fairer opportunity of difcovering 

 the genuine tradition, plainly intimates, that the perfon who 

 nrft inflituted the oracle, was one of the prieftefles of the E- 

 gyptian Thebes. Though the Greek poet mentions only " the 

 " Selli, who lay on the ground with feet unwarned,'' it does 

 not follow, that there were not likewife Sella of the like afcetic 

 character. The fame geographer informs us, " That in pro- 

 " cefs of time, when Dione was admitted to a (hare of that 

 " temple, three old women were appointed to officiate as her 

 '* priefteffes §." Thefe female minifters were called Peleiades, 

 which, in the language of Theffaly, fignifies doves ||, and hence 

 the origin of the fable concerning the oracular pigeons of Do- 

 dona. 



Herodotus, who had converfed with the Egyptian priefts 

 upon the fubject of the eftablifhment of the oracle and temple 

 of Dodona, informs us, in the paflage above quoted, that they 

 homologated the tradition of the Dodoneans with relation to 



the 

 * Lib. ii. cap. 55, 56, 57. § P. 329. 



f Ibid. I] Hesych. in voc. Usteia. 



t P. 3 2 9- 



