ancient sanctuary of the chief Greek god, Zeus, in Epirus, Greece; the ceremonies held there had many remarkable and abnormal features. The earliest mention of Dodona is in the Iliad (Book XVI, line 234), where its priests are called the Selloi (or Helloi) and are described as “of unwashen feet, sleeping on the ground.” The description suggests worshipers or servants of an earth goddess or of some chthonian power with whom they kept in continual contact, day and night. Homer (Odyssey, Book XIV, line 327) was also the first to mention the oracle at Dodona. A tree (or trees) was reputed to give oracles, presumably through the rustling of leaves and other sounds. Herodotus, but no earlier writer, mentions priestesses, whom he describes as the givers of the oracles, doubtless under some kind of inspiration from the god. A further peculiarity of Dodona was the “bronze,” a large gong set vibrating at every breeze by a scourge held in the hand of a figure standing over it; the persistent ringing passed into a Greek proverbial phrase—Khalkos Dodones (“Brass of Dodona”)—for a continuous talker who has nothing to say.

Dodona had a famous oracle, but being somewhat inaccessible, the site came to be eclipsed by Delphi.