Oracle: A shrine consecrated to a prophetic deity. A priest or priestess at such a shrine. A prophecy made known at such a shrine. A wise person.
Prophet: A person who speaks by divine inspiration. A woman predictor.
The oracle is often shown as the mediator or the mouthpiece who acts on behalf of a divine figure or a group of deities. Provided are some texts where the oracle has shown to reveal information and prophecies that have changed the whole course of destinies for some characters and the entire outcome of the future for many others.
Greek Mythology:
In the written work Mythology by Edith Hamilton, there are various stories of oracles, prophets and prophetesses that are told and scattered throughout the text.
Certain Greek Gods had their own different oracles, the oracle of the god Apollo, known as Delphi, was found under Parnasses.
The oracle of the god Zeus was Dodona, which resided in a landscape of many oak trees, his truth and revelation was made known through the rustling of the branches and the leaves, which were held sacred, and would be later interpreted by priests.
Perseus, who slayed the snake-haired Medusa, before he discovered the lair of the Gorgons, beseached both oracles Dodona and Delphi to the whereabouts of the monsters. Both oracles were vague and untelling, and it was only until Perseus encountered the God Hermes was he led to the dwelling of the monsters.
Hercules before subjecting himself to the twelve labors consulted the oracle at Delphi, who told him to go to the King of Mycenae and do the bidding of the leader, Eurystheus, his cousin.
It is at Delphi where the young man Ion learns that he is the son of the god Apollo, and had been birthed by Creusa, his mother in a cave and had been left to die. The baby was laid on the steps of the temple at Delphi and reared by the Pythoness, a priestess. Creusa later meets Ion as an adult when she goes to visit Delphi. Her son is in service to the temple, and while the two converse with one another, Athena appears before them and reveals their true identities to each other and all is forgiven between mother and son.
The God Dionysus in his travels among man on earth, went to Thebes accompanied by his train of singing and dancing women. The King at the time, Pentheus, did not approve of their parading about and their boisterous behaviour, and he had Dionysus seized, and the women imprisoned. It is here, the blind prophet of Thebes, Teiresias, a holy man advised against the king's decision. He revealed the identity of the god, Dionysus, and told Pentheus that he was his cousin as well. The king refused to believe that the haggard old man he had captured, who was covered in fawn skin and noisily playing the pipes was related to him, and Pentheus kept the troupe of partying strangers locked up. But the prisons of mortal men could not contain Dionysus and he escaped with his entourage of dancing women and they fled to the hills. Pentheus, angered by their escape, followed them, ultimately to his own peril. Dionysus had placed an enchantment of sorts upon the women, and when the King approached the followers of the god, the women believed Pentheus to be a lion. They attacked Pentheus and they brutally tore the man limb from limb under the belief he was a dangerous beast.
Teiresias also prophesized to Alcmena, the mother of Hercules and Iphicles, that her son would be the hero of all mankind.
When a thousand of Greek ships had been assembled to attack Troy, the great war host was caught by thunderous storms with heavy rain and winds that blew day after day and would not let them pass. The soothsayer, Calchas revealed that the gods had spoken to him; the goddess of the hunt, Artemis was angered because her sacred hare had been killed by one of the Greek soldiers. The ships would not be allowed to pass through calm seas unless the daughter of Agamemnon was sacrificed. He was the commander of the great fleet and Iphigenia, his daughter, was to be put to death. To protect his reputation as the general, with much riding on the battle that was to take place and to ensure Greece's victory over Troy, he yielded and arranged for his daughter to be killed, where she was put to death at the altar of her wedding. The Greek ships sailed to Troy through undisturbed waters.
Hamilton writes of the inescapable fate of Lauis, a King of Thebes, whose death had been prophesied by the oracle, and even though he endeavored to thwart the attempts made on his life, his death still came to pass;
"Apollo was the God of Truth. Whatever the priestess at Delphi said would happen, infallibly came to pass. To attempt to act in such a way that the prophecy would be made void was as futile as to set oneself against the decrees of fate. Nevertheless, when the oracle warned Laius that he would die at the hands of his son he determined that this should not be. When the child was born he bound its feet together and had it exposed on a lonely mountain where it must soon die. He felt no more fear; he was to sure that on this point he could foretell the future better than the god. His folly was not brought home to him. He was killed, indeed, but he thought the man who attacked him was a stranger. He never knew that in his death he had proved Apollo's truth."
The king believed he had been killed by a band of robbers, and this message had been relayed back to the palace, and the wife of the king, Jocasta and the whole city believed this outcome to be true. But Oedipus, his son, had been the one who had killed his father, king Lauis. They had crossed paths with one another at the place where the three roads meet, and in an attempt to dissuade the traveler from going any further, the father had beat the son with a stick, and Oedipus killed him. At the time of the death, neither the son nor the father knew who each person had been. Their identities were only revealed later.
Oedipus found his way into his father's court by killing the monster, the Sphinx, which had purged the city of Thebes. The creature had killed many lonely travelers on the roads that led into the city. Once caught by the Sphinx, they were expected to guess a riddle, and if their answers were wrong, the monster would kill them. Oedipus guessed the correct answer to the riddle and the Sphinx was killed. In ridding the city of the monster, Oedipus was welcomed into Thebes, he married Jocasta, his mother, without knowing who she was, and bore children with her. Oedipus, like his father, had been informed of the future of his fate by the oracle of Delphi. It had been foretold to him that he would murder his father, marry his mother, and have children with her that other men would shudder to look upon. They find out their true identities through a messenger and a shepherd who had protected the king's son as an infant, when Lauis had discarded him. The two servants in their reluctance unveiled the truth to Oedipus. Oedipus's wife, Jocasta, who had become the mother of his children committed suicide when all was revealed to her. And Oedipus upon learning the prophecy had been fulfilled, blinded himself by gouging out his eyes.
There is the prophet known as Sibyl, who traveled with the Trojan hero Aeneas into the underworld. In the adventures of Aeneas, son of Venus, he travels from Carthage to Italy. Hamilton writes in the section The Descent into the Lower World, of his journey with the prophetess into the layered depths of the underworld.
"Aeneas had been told by the prophet Helenus as soon as he reached the Italian land to seek the cave of the Sibyl of Cumae, a woman of deep wisdom, who could foretell the future and would advise him what to do. He found her and she told him she would guide him to the underworld where he would learn all he needed to know from his father Anchises, who had died just before the great storm. She warned him, however, that it was no light undertaking-
Trojan, Anchises' son, the descent of Avernus is easy.
All night long, all day, the doors of the dark Hades stand open,
But to retrace the path, to come up to the sweet air of heaven,
That is labor indeed."
Hamilton writes what was required of Aeneas;
"Nevertheless, if he was determined she would go with him. First he must find in the forest a golden bough growing on a tree, which he must break off and take with him. Only with this in his hand would he be admitted to Hades. He started at once to look for it, accompanied by the ever-faithful Achates. They went almost hopelessly into the great wilderness of trees where it seemed impossible to find anything. But suddenly they caught sight of two doves, the birds of Venus. The men followed as they flew slowly on until they were close to Lake Avernus, a dark foul smelling sheet of water where the Sibyl had told Aeneas was the cavern from which the road led down to the underworld. Here the doves soared up to a tree through whose foliage came a bright yellow gleam. It was the golden bough. Aeneas plucked it joyfully and took it to the Sibyl. Then, together, prophetess and hero started on their journey."
Hamilton tells of a portal into the world being opened up by Sibyl;
"The way the Sibyl thought it necessary to start was calculated to frighten any but the boldest. At the dead of night in front of the dark cavern on the bank of the somber lake, she slaughtered four coal-black bullocks to Hecate, the dread Goddess of Night. As she placed the sacrificial parts upon a blazing altar, the earth rumbled and quaked beneath their feet and from afar dogs howled through the darkness. With a cry to Aeneas, 'Now, will you need all your courage,' she rushed into the cave, and undaunted he followed her. They found themselves soon on a road wrapped in shadows which yet permitted them to see frightful forms on either side, pale Disease avenging Care, and Hunger that persuades to crime, and so on, a great company of terrors."
Hamilton describes their passage through the darkness;
"Death-dealing War was there and mad discord with snaky, bloodstained hair, and many another curse to mortals. They passed unmolested through them and finally reached a place where an old man was rowing a boat over stretched water. There they saw a pitiful sight, spirits on the shore innumerable as the leaves which fall in the forest at the first cold of winter, all stretching out their hands and praying the ferryman to carry them across to the farther bank. But the gloomy old man made his own choice among them; some admitted to his skiff, others he pushed away. As Aeneas stared in wonder the Sibyl told him they had reached the junction of the two great rivers of the underworld, the Cocytus, named of lamentation loud, and the Acheron. The ferryman was Charon and those he would not admit to his boat were the unfortunates who had not been duly buried. They were doomed to wander aimlessly for a hundred years, with never a place to rest in."
Hamilton writes of Aeneas and the ferry man of the underworld, and his encounter with his former beloved;
"Charon was inclined to refuse Aeneas and his guide when they came down to the boat. He bade them halt and told them he did not ferry the living, only the dead. At sight of the golden bough, however, he yielded and took them across. The dog Cerberus was there on the other bank to dispute the way, but they followed Psyche's example. The Sibyl, too, had some cake for him and he have them no trouble. As they went on they came to the solemn place in which Minos, Europa's son, the inflexible judge of the dead, was passing the final sentence on the souls before him. They hastened away from that inexorable presence and found themselves in the Fields of Mourning, where the unhappy lovers dwelt who had been driven by their misery to kill themselves. In that sorrowful but lovely spot, shaded with groves of myrtle, Aeneas caught sight of Dido. He wept as he greeted her. 'Was I the cause of your death?' he asked her. 'I swear I left you against my will.' She neither looked at him nor answered him. A piece of marble could not have seemed less moved. He, himself, however, was a good deal shaken, and he continued to shed tears for some time after he lost sight of her."
Their journey through the underworld continues, the Sibyl and Aeneas travel to nicer quarters in the underworld, and Aeneas meets his father;
"At last they reached a spot where the road divided. From the left branch came horrid sounds, groans and savage blows and the clanking of chains. Aeneas halted in terror. The Sibyl, however, bade him have no fear, but fasten boldly the golden bough on the wall that faced the cross-roads. The regions to the left, she said, were ruled over by stern Rhadamanthus, also a son of Europa, who punished the wicked for their misdeeds. But the road to the right led to the Elysian Fields where Aeneas would find his father. There when they arrived everything was delightful, soft green meadows, lovely groves, a delicious life-giving air, sunlight that glowed softly purple, an abode of peace and blessedness. Here dwelt the great and good dead, heroes, poets, priests, and all who had made men remember them by helping others. Among them Aeneas soon came upon Anchises, who greeted him with incredible joy. Father and son alike shed happy tears at this strange meeting between the dead and the living whose love had been strong enough to bring him down to the world of death."
His father instructs Aeneas on how to live out his life while in Italy. Aeneas and the Sibyl return to the land of the living;
"They had much, of course, to say to each other. Anchises led Aeneas to Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, of which the souls on their way to live again in the world, must all drink. 'A draught of long oblivion,' Anchises said. And he showed his son those who were to be their descendants, his own and Aeneas', now waiting by the river for their time to drink and lose the memory of what in former lives they had done and suffered. A magnificent company they were- the future Romans, the masters of the world. One by one Anchises pointed them out, and told of the deeds they would do which men would never through all time forget. Finally he gave his son instructions how he would best establish his home in Italy and how he could avoid or endure all the hardships that lay before him. Then they took leave of each other, but calmly, knowing that they were parting only for a time. Aeneas and the Sibyl made their way back to the earth and Aeneas returned to his ships. Next day, the Trojans sailed up the coast of Italy looking for their promised home."
Fictional References:
In the fantasy book series by David Eddings, The Belgariad, the character of Aunt Paul poses as a humble head cook and the lady of the house on a farm in a remote village. Her true identity is the daughter of the oldest and most powerful sorcerer known as Belgarath, she is also a very powerful sorceress herself. She is caretaker to a child named Garien, a young boy of about fifteen, he is the chosen one but grows up ignorant of this fact on the farm where they both live. In book one of the series, Pawn of Prophecy a dangerous quest is undertaken to remove the boy from the farm once word gets out they are being hunted by servants of the evil villain Torak, an ancient god. Aunt Paul, Garien, Belgarath and their associates leave the farm for a slow and painstaking journey as they try to move in secrecy through different cities and towns undetected. There is one specific event in the novel where Aunt Paul demonstrates the power of her sorcery, she does this as they take refuge in a city while they look to take shelter and restock their supplies. A crooning old blind woman named Martia who sits by the road side upon entrance to the city berates travelers who come into her path. Though she is blind, she has the gift of foresight and when she encounters the young boy Garien, she instantly recognizes he is the chosen one. She cries out to the young boy, "Remember me when thou comest into thy inheritance." Garien, who is not yet aware of his identity and the important role he has yet to play in the future, slowly becomes aware that his identity is not the lowly farm-hand that he was led to believe. As the entourage encounter the wailing Martia in more than one instance, Aunt Paul becomes fed up with the old blind woman and her cries to Garien. In a decisive move and with the dramatic flare one would expect from a sorceress, Aunt Paul restores the sight of the old blind woman. The blind woman's cloudy eyes turn from grey and white to blue, but in doing so, Aunt Paul deliberately strips Martia of her ability to foresee the future.