Oracle

Hellenic religion

• Oracle appears in Hellenic religion.

  The Greek oracle is a speaking institution. Pausanias’s Delphi is the type-site for this seed, not the only house of the word.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  appears in · sourced · documented

• Oracle is associated with Knowledge.

  An oracle claims to give knowledge on a god’s behalf. The claim is institutional, not a proof that the future is known.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  associated with · partially sourced · documented

• Prophecy is associated with Oracle.

  An oracle is one institutional form of prophecy. The word should not be stretched until every omen is an oracle.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  associated with · partially sourced · documented

• Divination is connected to Oracle.

  Oracle names a speaking house of answers. Divination is the broader craft. Delphi is one overlap, not the definition.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  connected to · partially sourced · documented

• Delphi is associated with Oracle.

  The oracle of Apollo at Delphi is the site’s most famous institution. The word oracle here has a Greek address.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Apollo is associated with Oracle.

  The Pythia answers in Apollo’s name. That is a Greek civic institution, not Ifá and not a raven’s cry.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

Yoruba Ifá

• Yoruba Ifá is connected to Oracle.

  English often calls Ifá an oracle. The comparison is a translation convenience; Ifá is a verse-and-lot system with a babaláwo, not a Pythia on a tripod.

  from William Bascom · Ifa Divination, 1969

  connected to · sourced · culturally specific