oracle

Sacred site where a deity gives answers or oracles, through the mouth of its priest, to a supplicant's questions about personal affairs or state policy. These were often ambivalent. There were more than 250 oracular seats in the Greek world. The earliest example was probably at Dodona (in Epirus), where priests interpreted the sounds made by the sacred oaks of Zeus, but the most celebrated was that of Apollo, god of prophecy, at Delphi.

In August 2001, US archaeologists and geologists found evidence of the gas ethylene in a spring close to Delphi where, according to the Greek writers Aeschylus and Plutarch, the priestesses at Delphi inhaled fumes from either a crack in the ground or natural spring. Ethylene affects the central nervous system causing feelings of euphoria and delirium.

Other sites with their associated deities included Branchidae (Apollo), Epidaurus (Asclepius, god of medicine), Lebadea (Trophonius, a follower of Apollo), and Ammonium (Zeus Ammon).

The practice of seeking divine oracles was found among most ancient peoples.