The names of the gods
Temple of Diona
The confusion about who is who in Dodona is old. The Pelasgians, as all the forerunners of the Greeks were called by later authors, prayed to the gods and offered sacrifices without any distinction of name or title. They simply called them “theoi” (disposers). Eventually the names were brought into Greece from Egypt and the Pelasgians finally learned them. But they were still not quite sure they were doings things properly, so they sent to the oracle at Dodona (at the time the only oracle in Greece) and asked advice about the propriety of adopting names which had come from abroad. The oracle told them that they would be right to use them and so the names passed to the Greeks.
As seen on
Dodona: in the shade of the sacred oak tree
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