The Greeks regarded as supernatural signs, dreams, the flight of birds in the heavens, the entrails of animals sacrificed—­in a word, everything that they saw, from the tremblings of the earth and eclipses to a simple sneeze.  In the expedition to Sicily, Nicias, the general of the Athenians, at the moment of embarking his army for the retreat, was arrested by an eclipse of the moon; the gods, thought he, had sent this prodigy to warn the Athenians not to continue their enterprise.  And so Nicias waited; he waited twenty-seven days offering sacrifices to appease the gods.  During this inactivity the enemy closed the port, destroyed the fleet, and exterminated his army.  The Athenians on learning this news found but one thing with which to reproach Nicias:  he should have known that for an army in retreat the eclipse of the moon was a favorable sign.  During the retreat of the Ten Thousand, Xenophon, the general, making an address to his soldiers, uttered this sentiment:  “With the help of the gods we have the surest hope that we shall save ourselves with glory.”  At this point a soldier sneezed.  At once all adored the god who had sent this omen.  “Since at the very instant when we are deliberating concerning our safety,” exclaimed Xenophon, “Zeus the savior has sent us an omen, let us with one consent offer sacrifices to him."[58]

=The Oracles.=—­Often the god replies to the faithful who consult him not by a mute sign, but by the mouth of an inspired person.  The faithful enter the sanctuary of the god seeking responses and counsel.  These are Oracles.

There were oracles in many places in Greece and Asia.  The most noted were at Dodona in Epirus, and at Delphi, at the foot of Mount Parnassus.  At Dodona it was Zeus who spoke by the rustling of the sacred oaks.  At Delphi it was Apollo who was consulted.  Below his temple, in a grotto, a current of cool air issued from a rift in the ground.  This air the Greeks thought[59] was sent by the god, for he threw into a frenzy those who inhaled it.  A tripod was placed over the orifice, a woman (the Pythia), prepared by a bath in the sacred spring, took her seat on the tripod, and received the inspiration.  At once, seized with a nervous frenzy, she uttered cries and broken sentences.  Priests sitting about her caught these expressions, set them to verse, and brought them to him who sought advice of the god.

The oracles of the Pythia were often obscure and ambiguous.  When Croesus asked if he should make war on the Persians, the reply was, “Croesus will destroy a great empire.”  In fact, a great empire was destroyed, but it was that of Croesus.

The Spartans had great confidence in the Pythia, and never initiated an expedition without consulting her.  The other Greeks imitated them, and Delphi thus became a sort of national oracle.