1. Aristophanes, Birds, 982, 962 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 962. ὡς ἔστι Βάκιδος χρησμὸς ἄντικρυς λέγων | |
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2. Aristophanes, Knights, 123 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 123. ὦ Βάκι. τί ἔστι; δὸς τὸ ποτήριον ταχύ. | |
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3. Aristophanes, Peace, 1095, 1071 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 1071. μηδὲ Βάκις θνητούς, μηδ' αὖ νύμφαι Βάκιν αὐτὸν— | |
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4. Aristophanes, Frogs, 1032-1035, 1031 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 1031. ὡς ὠφέλιμοι τῶν ποιητῶν οἱ γενναῖοι γεγένηνται. | |
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5. Herodotus, Histories, 5.90.2, 6.57.4, 7.6.3, 8.77.2, 8.96.2, 9.43.2 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 5.90.2. Furthermore, they were spurred on by the oracles which foretold that many deeds of enmity would be perpetrated against them by the Athenians. Previously they had had no knowledge of these oracles but now Cleomenes brought them to Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians learned their contents. It was from the Athenian acropolis that Cleomenes took the oracles, which had been in the possession of the Pisistratidae earlier. When they were exiled, they left them in the temple from where they were retrieved by Cleomenes. 6.57.4. They keep all oracles that are given, though the Pythians also know them. The kings alone judge cases concerning the rightful possessor of an unwedded heiress, if her father has not betrothed her, and cases concerning public roads. 7.6.3. They had come up to Sardis with Onomacritus, an Athenian diviner who had set in order the oracles of Musaeus. They had reconciled their previous hostility with him; Onomacritus had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus' son Hipparchus, when he was caught by Lasus of Hermione in the act of interpolating into the writings of Musaeus an oracle showing that the islands off Lemnos would disappear into the sea. 8.77.2. quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Bronze will come together with bronze, and Ares /l lWill redden the sea with blood. To Hellas the day of freedom /l lFar-seeing Zeus and august Victory will bring. /l /quote Considering this, I dare to say nothing against Bacis concerning oracles when he speaks so plainly, nor will I consent to it by others. 8.96.2. A west wind had caught many of the wrecks and carried them to the shore in Attica called Colias. Thus not only was all the rest of the oracle fulfilled which Bacis and Musaeus had spoken about this battle, but also what had been said many years before this in an oracle by Lysistratus, an Athenian soothsayer, concerning the wrecks carried to shore there. Its meaning had eluded all the Hellenes: quote type="oracle" l met="dact"The Colian women will cook with oars. /l lBut this was to happen after the king had marched away. /l /quote 9.43.2. quote type="oracle" l met="dact"By Thermodon's stream and the grass-grown banks of Asopus, /l lWill be a gathering of Greeks for fight and the ring of the barbarian's war-cry; /l lMany a Median archer, by death untimely overtaken will fall /l lThere in the battle when the day of his doom is upon him. /l /quote I know that these verses and others very similar to them from Musaeus referred to the Persians. As for the river Thermodon, it flows between Tanagra and Glisas. |
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6. Plato, Republic, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 364b. and disregard those who are in any way weak or poor, even while admitting that they are better men than the others. But the strangest of all these speeches are the things they say about the gods and virtue, how so it is that the gods themselves assign to many good men misfortunes and an evil life but to their opposites a contrary lot; and begging priests and soothsayers go to rich men’s doors and make them believe that they by means of sacrifices and incantations have accumulated a treasure of power from the gods that can expiate and cure with pleasurable festival |
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7. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, 8.1.1 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 8.1.1. Such were the events in Sicily . When the news was brought to Athens, for a long while they disbelieved even the most respectable of the soldiers who had themselves escaped from the scene of action and clearly reported the matter, a destruction so complete not being thought credible. When the conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators who had joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not themselves voted it, and were enraged also with the reciters of oracles and soothsayers, and all other omenmongers of the time who had encouraged them to hope that they should conquer Sicily . |
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8. Anon., Sibylline Oracles, 3.419-3.425 (1st cent. BCE - 5th cent. CE)
| 3.419. Shall leave Mæotis's lake, and there shall be 3.420. 420 Down the deep stream a fruitful, furrow's track 3.421. And the vast flow shall hold a neck of land. 3.422. And there are hollow chasms and yawning pits; 3.423. And many cities, men and all, shall fall:– 3.424. In Asia–Iassus, Cebren, Pandonia 3.425. 425 Colophon, Ephesus, Nicæa, Antioch |
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9. Plutarch, Oracles At Delphi No Longer Given In Verse, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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10. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.5.7, 10.12.2 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 10.5.7. I have heard too that shepherds feeding their flocks came upon the oracle, were inspired by the vapor, and prophesied as the mouthpiece of Apollo. The most prevalent view, however, is that Phemonoe was the first prophetess of the god, and first sang in hexameter verse. Boeo, a native woman who composed a hymn for the Delphians, said that the oracle was established for the god by comers from the Hyperboreans, Olen and others, and that he was the first to prophesy and the first to chant the hexameter oracles. 10.12.2. Herophile was younger than she was, but nevertheless she too was clearly born before the Trojan war, as she foretold in her oracles that Helen would be brought up in Sparta to be the ruin of Asia and of Europe, and that for her sake the Greeks would capture Troy . The Delians remember also a hymn this woman composed to Apollo. In her poem she calls herself not only Herophile but also Artemis, and the wedded wife of Apollo, saying too sometimes that she is his sister, and sometimes that she is his daughter. |
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