herodotus

set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. 52. Now the Pelasgiansformerly were wont to make all their sacrifices calling upon the godsin prayer, as I know from that which I heard at Dodona, but they gaveno title or name to any of them, for they had not yet heard any, butthey called them gods ({theous}) from some such notion as this, thatthey had set ({thentes}) in order all things and so had thedistribution of everything. Afterwards, when much time had elapsed,they learnt from Egypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, forhis name they learnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgiansconsulted the Oracle at Dodona about the names, for this propheticseat is accounted to be the most ancient of the Oracles which areamong the Hellenes, and at that time it was the only one. So when thePelasgians asked the Oracle at Dodona whether they should adopt thenames which had come from the Barbarians, the Oracle in reply badethem make use of the names. From this time they sacrificed using thenames of the gods, and from the Pelasgians the Hellenes afterwardsreceived them: 53, but whence the several gods had their birth, orwhether they all were from the beginning, and of what form they are,they did not learn till yesterday, as it were, or the day before: forHesiod and Homer I suppose were four hundred years before my time andnot more, and these are they who made a theogony for the Hellenes andgave the titles to the gods and distributed to them honours and arts,and set forth their forms: but the poets who are said to have beenbefore these men were really in my opinion after them. Of these thingsthe first are said by the priestesses of Dodona, and the latterthings, those namely which have regard to Hesiod and Homer, by myself.54. As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that inLibya, the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priests of theTheban Zeus told me that two women in the service of the temple hadbeen carried away from Thebes by Phenicians, and that they had heardthat one of them had been sold to go into Libya and the other to theHellenes; and these women, they said, were they who first founded theprophetic seats among the nations which have been named: and when Iinquired whence they knew so perfectly of this tale which they told,they said in reply that a great search had been made by the priestsafter these women, and that they had not been able to find them, butthey had heard afterwards this tale about them which they weretelling. 55. This I heard from the priests at Thebes, and what followsis said by the prophetesses[52] of Dodona. They say that two blackdoves flew from Thebes to Egypt, and came one of them to Libya and theother to their land. And this latter settled upon an oak-tree[53] andspoke with human voice, saying that it was necessary that a propheticseat of Zeus should be established in that place; and they supposedthat that was of the gods which was announced to them, and made oneaccordingly: and the dove which went away to the Libyans, they say,