Editing Dodona (section)

==Strabo==
According to [[Strabo]], the oracle was founded by the Pelasgi:<ref name="Strabo7.7">Strabo. ''Geography'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text%3Fdoc%3DStrab.%25207.7 7.7].</ref>

<blockquote>
This oracle, according to Ephorus, was founded by the Pelasgi. And the Pelasgi are called the earliest of all peoples who have held dominion in Greece.
</blockquote>

The site of the oracle was dominated by Mount [[Tomaros]], the area being controlled by the [[Thesprotians]] and then the [[Molossians]]:<ref>Strabo. ''Geography'', [http://www.theoi.com/Cult/ZeusDodonaiosCult.html 7.7.9ff].</ref>

<blockquote>
In ancient times, then, Dodona was under the rule of the Thesprotians; and so was Mount Tomaros, or Tmaros (for it is called both ways), at the base of which the temple is situated. And both the tragic poets and [[Pindar]]os have called Dodona 'Thesprotian Dodona.' But later on it came under the rule of the Molossoi.
</blockquote>

According to Strabo, the prophecies were originally uttered by men:<ref name="Strabo7.7"/>

<blockquote>
At the outset, it is true, those who uttered the prophecies were men (this too perhaps the poet indicates, for he calls them “hypophetae” [interpreters] and the prophets might be ranked among these), but later on three old women were designated as prophets, after Dione also had been designated as temple-associate of Zeus.
</blockquote>

Strabo also reports as uncertain the story that the predecessor of Dodona oracle was located in [[Thessaly]]:<ref name="Strabo7.7"/>

<blockquote>
...the temple [oracle] was transferred from Thessaly, from the part of Pelasgia which is about [[Scotussa]] (and Scotussa does belong to the territory called [[Thessalia]] [[Pelasgiotis]]), and also that most of the women whose descendants are the prophetesses of today went along at the same time; and it is from this fact that Zeus was also called “Pelasgian.”
</blockquote>

In a fragment of Strabo we find the following:<ref>Strabo. ''Fragments'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/7Fragments*.html#ref476 Book VII].</ref>

<blockquote>
Among the Thesprotians and the Molossians old women are called "peliai" and old men "pelioi," as is also the case among the Macedonians; at any rate, those people call their dignitaries "peligones" (compare the ''gerontes''<ref>This was the name of the senators at Sparta, meaning 'the elders'.</ref> among the Laconians and the Massaliotes). And this, it is said, is the origin of the myth about the pigeons [peleiades] in the Dodonaean oak-tree.<ref>The similarity of these two words is pointed out here.</ref>
</blockquote>