Editing Oracle (section)

==Origins==
[[Walter Burkert]] observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the God speaks" are recorded in the [[Near East]] as in [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC.<ref>Walter Burkert.''Greek Religion''. Harvard University Press.1985.p 116-118</ref> In Egypt, the goddess [[Wadjet]] (eye of the moon) was depicted as a snake-headed woman or a woman with two snake-heads. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in [[Per-Wadjet]] (Greek name [[Buto]]). The oracle of Wadjet may have been the source for the oracular tradition which spread from Egypt to Greece.<ref>[[Herodotus]], ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', ii 55, and vii 134.</ref> Evans linked Wadjet with the "[[Minoan snake goddess figurines|Minoan Snake Goddess]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women in the Aegean: Minoan Snake Goddess: 8. Snakes, Egypt, Magic & Women |url=http://arthistoryresources.net/snakegoddess/snakesegypt.html |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=arthistoryresources.net}}</ref>

At the oracle of [[Dodona]], she is called [[Dione (Titaness/Oceanid)|Diōnē]] (the feminine form of ''Diós'', [[genitive]] of ''Zeus''; or of ''dīos'', "godly", literally "heavenly"), who represents the earth-fertile soil, probably the chief female goddess of the [[Proto-Indo-European language|proto-Indo-European]] pantheon{{fact|date=June 2020}}. [[Python (mythology)|Python]], daughter (or son) of [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] was the earth dragon of [[Delphi]] represented as a [[serpent (symbolism)|serpent]] and became the chthonic deity, enemy of [[Apollo]], who slew her and possessed the oracle.<ref>''Hymn to Pythian Apollo''.363,369</ref>