Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

9125

Pausanias, Description Of Greece, 7.21.12

πρὸ δὲ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Δήμητρός ἐστι πηγή· ταύτης τὰ μὲν πρὸς τοῦ ναοῦ λίθων ἀνέστηκεν αἱμασιά, κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἐκτὸς κάθοδος ἐς αὐτὴν πεποίηται. μαντεῖον δὲ ἐνταῦθά ἐστιν ἀψευδές, οὐ μὲν ἐπὶ παντί γε πράγματι, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ τῶν καμνόντων. κάτοπτρον καλῳδίῳ τῶν λεπτῶν δήσαντες καθιᾶσι, σταθμώμενοι μὴ πρόσω καθικέσθαι τῆς πηγῆς, ἀλλʼ ὅσον ἐπιψαῦσαι τοῦ ὕδατος τῷ κύκλῳ τοῦ κατόπτρου. τὸ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν εὐξάμενοι τῇ θεῷ καὶ θυμιάσαντες ἐς τὸ κάτοπτρον βλέπουσι· τὸ δέ σφισι τὸν νοσοῦντα ἤτοι ζῶντα ἢ καὶ τεθνεῶτα ἐπιδείκνυσι. Before the sanctuary of Demeter is a spring. On the side of this towards the temple stands a wall of stones, while on the outer side has been made a descent to the spring. Here there is an infallible oracle, not indeed for everything, but only in the case of sick folk. They tie a mirror to a fine cord and let it down, judging the distance so that it does not sink deep into the spring, but just far enough to touch the water with its rim. Or, possibly “disk.” The round mirror might be lowered vertically or horizontally (face upwards). Then they pray to the goddess and burn incense, after which they look into the mirror, which shows them the patient either alive or dead.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

9 results
1. Homer, Odyssey, 11.51-11.80, 11.90-11.151 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
2. Pindar, Olympian Odes, 6.68-6.74, 8.1-8.7 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
3. Herodotus, Histories, 8.134 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) 8.134. This man Mys is known to have gone to Lebadea and to have bribed a man of the country to go down into the cave of Trophonius and to have gone to the place of divination at Abae in Phocis. He went first to Thebes where he inquired of Ismenian Apollo (sacrifice is there the way of divination, as at Olympia), and moreover he bribed one who was no Theban but a stranger to lie down to sleep in the shrine of Amphiaraus. ,No Theban may seek a prophecy there, for Amphiaraus bade them by an oracle to choose which of the two they wanted and forgo the other, and take him either for their prophet or for their ally. They chose that he should be their ally. Therefore no Theban may lie down to sleep in that place.
4. Sophocles, Antigone, 1006-1011, 1005 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
5. Sophocles, Oedipus The King, 21 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
6. Vergil, Georgics, 1.390-1.392 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 1.390. While snow lies deep, and streams are drifting ice. 1.391. What need to tell of autumn's storms and stars 1.392. And wherefore men must watch, when now the day
7. Lucian, A True Story, 1.26 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
8. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7.25.10 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 7.25.10. On descending from Bura towards the sea you come to a river called Buraicus, and to a small Heracles in a cave. He too is surnamed Buraicus, and here one can divine by means of a tablet and dice. He who inquires of the god offers up a prayer in front of the image, and after the prayer he takes four dice, a plentiful supply of which are placed by Heracles, and throws them upon the table. For every figure made by the dice there is an explanation expressly written on the tablet. I am very uncertain about the meaning of this passage. Frazer's note shows that divination by dice usually took the form of interpreting the sequences of numbers obtained by throwing several dice on to a board. This cannot be the meaning here, as σχῆμα can hardly denote a number on the face of a die, and in any case ἐξήγησιν τοῦ σχήματος must mean “explanation of the shape.” I have accordingly adopted the emendation ἀστραγάλων, but ἐπίτηδες seems to have no point. Frazer, reading apparently ἐπὶ δὲ παντὶ ἀστραγάλῳ σχῆμά τι κ.τ.ἕ, translates: “Each die has a certain figure marked upon it, and the meaning of each figure is explained on the tablet.”
9. Papyri, Papyri Graecae Magicae, 4.1103, 7.540-7.578, 15.1-15.21 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
altar	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
apollo, and the dead	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
apollo, ismenios, oracle of	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
apollo, thyrxeus, oracle of	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 99
apollo	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
apuleius	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
baptism	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
bowls	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
catoptromancy (mirror divination)	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98, 99
demeter	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
dice oracles	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 99
divination	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
empyromancy, empura (fire divination)	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
enthusiastic prophecy	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98, 99
euripides	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
greek magical papyri, xiii, xv	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
herodotus	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
heterotopias, comic	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 63
hydromancy (water divination)	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98, 99
identity, christian identity	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
identity	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
incense	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
lucius	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
moon and oracle	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 99
necromancy'	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
novel	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
olympia, oracle and sanctuary of zeus at	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
olympia	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
omens	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
osiris	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
pamphile	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
parody, of classical literature	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 63
periander and his wife	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
revelation of john	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
satire	Alexiou and Cairns, Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After (2017) 63
temple (in jerusalem)	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
thebes	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
tiresias	Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 98
witches	Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 211
worship, heavenly worship	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195
worship, jewish worship	Sandnes and Hvalvik, Early Christian Prayer and Identity Formation (2014) 195