center of the earth,
which of course they considered as one vast plain. There was an
ancient story that Jupiter, in order to determine the central point of
creation, liberated two eagles at the same time, in opposite quarters
of the heavens, that they might fly toward one another, and so mark
the middle point by the place of their meeting. They met at Delphi.

Another of the most celebrated oracles was at Dodona. Dodona was
northwest of Delphi, in the Epirus, which was a country in the western
part of what is now Turkey in Europe, and on the shores of the
Adriatic Sea. The origin of the oracle at Dodona was, as the
priestesses there told Herodotus, as follows: In very ancient times,
two black doves were set at liberty in Thebes, which was a very
venerable and sacred city of Egypt. One flew toward the north and the
other toward the west. The former crossed the Mediterranean, and then
continued its flight over the Peloponnesus, and over all the southern
provinces of Greece, until it reached Dodona. There it alighted on a
beech-tree, and said, in a human voice, that that spot was divinely
appointed for the seat of a sacred oracle. The other dove flew to the
Oasis of Jupiter Ammon.

There were three priestesses at Dodona in the days of Herodotus. Their
names were Promenea, Timarete, and Nicandre. The answers of the oracle
were, for a time, obtained by the priestesses from some appearances
which they observed in the sacred beech on which the dove alighted,
when the tree was agitated by the wind. In later times, however, the
responses were obtained in a still more singular manner. Then was a
brazen statue of a man, holding a whip in his hand. The whip had three
lashes, which were formed of brazen chains. At the end of each chain
was an _astragalus_, as it was called, which was a row of little knots
or knobs, such as were commonly appended to the lashes of whips used
in those days for scourging criminals.

These heavy lashes hung suspended in the hand of the statue over a
great brazen caldron, in such a manner that the wind would impel them,
from time to time, against its sides, causing the caldron to ring and
resound like a gong. There was, however, something in this resonance
supernatural and divine; for, though it was not loud, it was very
long continued, when once the margin of the caldron was touched,
however gently, by the lashes. In fact, it was commonly said that if
touched in the morning, it would be night before t