Oracle

== Description ==
The word ''oracle'' comes from the [[Latin]] verb ''ōrāre'', "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, ''oracle'' may also refer to the ''site of the oracle'', and to the oracular utterances themselves, called ''khrēsmoí'' (χρησμοί) in Greek.

Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers (''manteis'', μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, [[Haruspex|animal entrails]], and other various methods.<ref name=flower>Flower, Michael Attyah. ''The Seer in Ancient Greece.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.</ref>

The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were [[Pythia]] (priestess to [[Apollo]] at [[Delphi]]), and the oracle of [[Dione (Titaness)|Dione]] and [[Zeus]] at [[Dodona]] in [[Epirus]]. Other oracles of Apollo were located at [[Didyma]] and [[Mallus (city)|Mallus]] on the coast of [[Anatolia]], at [[ancient Corinth|Corinth]] and [[Bassae]] in the [[Peloponnese]], and at the islands of [[Delos]] and [[Aegina]] in the Aegean Sea.

The [[Sibylline Oracles]] are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek [[hexameter]]s, ascribed to the [[Sibyl]]s, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in frenzied states.