Dodoni

The sanctuary of Dodona, was the religious centre for northwestern Greece, closely related to the cult of Zeus, father of the gods. Dodona was also known for its famous oracle, traditionally considered as the most ancient one in Greece and referred to by Homer in his epics.

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The oracles were based on the murmuring of the waters from the ancient spring and on the sound produced by bronze cauldrons standing on tripods around the sacred tree. According to ancient sources, the priests of the oracle were originally only men, but priestesses, the so-called Peleiades, appear in later times. The priests and priestesses were famous for walking barefoot and for sleeping on the ground so as to be in immediate contact with the earth.

Just as Jerusalem today is considered the “Holy Land” of the Christians and Mecca of the Muslims, so Dodoni, both in prehistoric times and in historical times, was a sacred place and eminently the spiritual center of the Hellenism of antiquity.