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Herodotus has thus explained the fable: there were formerly two
Priestesses of Thebes, who were carried off by Phenecian merchants. She
that was sold into Greece, settled in the forest of Dodona, where great
numbers of the ancient inhabitants of Greece went to gather acorns. She
there erected a little chapel at the foot of an oak, in honour of the
same Jupiter, whose priestess she had been; and here it was this ancient
oracle was established, which in after times became so famous. The
manner of delivering the oracles of Dodona was very singular. There were
a great number of kettles suspended from trees near a copper statue,
which was also suspended with a hunch of rods in its hand. When the wind
happened to put it in motion, it struck the first kettle, which
communicating its motion to the next, all of them tingled, and produced
a certain sound which continued for a long time; after which the oracle
spoke.

THE ORACLE OP JUPITER HAMMON.
This oracle, which was in the desert, in the midst of the burning sands
of Africa, declared to Alexander that Jupiter was his father.


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