1

Dodona BCE depicts the oak with three doves (Figure 1).
Ancient sources call these the “Peleiades,” who
MARTINA DIETERLE
are either prophetic doves living in the oak
tree (Soph. Trach. 172) or human priestesses
Ancient sources – the first mention comes in serving the oracle (Hdt. 2.57; Paus. 10.12.10).
HOMER – identify the shrine of ZEUS at By the fifth century BCE, literary sources cite
Dodona (in EPIRUS, 600 masl, under Mount Dione as Zeus’ wife (Eur. TrGF 228a Kannicht)
Tomaros) as uniquely significant in the and give him the epithet Naios (Soph. TrGF
Hellenic world and equal to DELPHI and DELOS 455 Radt), an obscure name with connotations
(Pl. Phdr. 244b; Cic. Div. 1.3; Diod. Sic. 18.4.4; of fertility; Naian Games were held in his
Plut. Lys. 25.1; Paus. 8.23.5). Despite this richly honor from the third century BCE to the third
documented heritage, Dodona has largely been century CE. The oak was always the focal point
ignored by modern scholarship. Homer ascribes of the sanctuary and was probably surrounded
three unusual features to Zeus in Dodona: he is by tripods used to produce a curious sound,
termed pelasgian (i.e., pre-Greek; see PELASGI); the dodonaion chalkeion (Suda s.v.; Steph. Byz.
his prophets, called Selloi or Helloi, had s.v. Dodona); no evidence exists for a major
unwashed feet and slept on the ground building on the site prior to 400 BCE.
(Hom. Il. 16.233–5); he is described as oracular Once Thesprotian, Dodona was taken by the
and associated with an oak tree (Hom. Od. Molossians in the fifth century BCE; building
14.327–8). These curious elements indicate then began, initially with a naiskos for Zeus
that even in Homeric times the shrine at (E1), and continued intermittently for over
Dodona was viewed as very old and of uncer- 900 years, ending with a Byzantine basilica in
tain origins; archaeological evidence (pottery, the fifth to sixth centuries CE. Dodona reached
bronze knives, and traces of buildings) sup- its architectural apogee under king Pyrrhos
ports this and shows that Dodona already
existed during the Bronze Age (2100–1200/
1100 BCE). Whether Dodona originated as a
settlement, a tree sanctuary, or an oracle, and
whether the site’s use and meaning changed
over time is uncertain.
Literary sources and excavated artifacts
from all over the Greek world (including
BRONZE tripod fragments, figurines and
weapons, jewelry, as well as more than 4,000
oracular inscriptions on LEAD tablets and sev-
eral inscribed votives) indicate Dodona’s
Panhellenic importance. By the eighth century
BCE Dodona was already an oracular sanctuary
of Zeus with an oak tree. The sacred oak’s
original location is known (analysis has iden-
tified it as a Quercus trojana); since normal oak
trees do not live much longer than 700 years,
the tree in Dodona may have already been
replaced in ancient times. It was finally cut Figure 1 Tetrachalkon (AE; 24mm; 13.11g)
down during the consulate of Symmachus in ca. 300 BCE. Oak of Dodona with one dove in
391 CE (Serv. Aen. 3.466) when the pagan sanc- branches and one to either side. Private collection,
tuary was closed. A coin of the fourth century Germany.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2184–2186.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04090
2
Figure 2 Dodona: plan of the sanctuary and the acropolis. Courtesy of M. Faraguna and Martina Dieterle.
(297–272), who consulted the oracle (Cass.
Dio 9.40.6) and donated his personal weapons
as votives (Paus. 1.13.3), fragments of which
have been excavated. Pyrrhos made Dodona
a site where political power was revealed
through the medium of architecture (see
Figure 2): he enlarged the temple of Zeus
(E1), and built new naiskoi (G, Α, Ζ, L), the
bouleuterion (E2), the prytaneion (O/O1), and
the theater(TH) – one of the largest in Greece.
Modern excavations, begun in 1875, were
restarted in the 1920s and are now run by the
University of Ioannina.
SEE ALSO: Pyrrhos, king.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Carapanos, C. (1878) Dodone et ses ruines. Paris.
Dakaris, S., Tzorvara-Souli, C., Vlachopoulou-
Oikonomou, A., and Gravani-Katsiki, K. (1999)
“The Prytaneion of Dodona.” In P. Cabanes, ed.,

L’Illyrie méridionale et l’Épire dans l’Antiquité:
149–59. Paris.
Dieterle, M. (2007) Dodona. Religionsgeschichtliche
und historische Untersuchungen zur Entstehung
und Entwicklung des Zeus-Heiligtums. Hildesheim.
3
Evangelides, D. and Dakaris, S. (1959) “To hieron
tes Dodones. A. Hiera Oikia.” Archaiologike
Ephemeris 1959: 1–194.
Lhôte, E. (2006) Les Lamelles oraculaires de
Dodone. Geneva.