d other leaders on affairs of importance, and thus came to exert
a great influence on the course of events.[1679] The stars also, though
they had no earthly habitations, were consulted through their
interpreters. Such astrological oracles, as used by men like Posidonius,
the teacher of Cicero, might be morally inspiring; but when, at a later
time, the consultation of heavenly bodies fell into the hands of
wandering "Chaldeans" (who might be of any nation) it became a system of
charlatanry, and thus morally debasing.[1680]

The greater nations of antiquity differed considerably among themselves
in regard to the part played in their lives by oracles. In general, the
organization of oracular shrines grew in proportion to the rise of
manlike gods--deities whose relation to men was socially intimate. In
Egypt such shrines were not of prime importance;[1681] the functions of
the gods were mainly governmental--the most human of them, Osiris,
became an ethical judge rather than a personal friend. The
pre-Mohammedan Arabs did not create great gods, and their resort to
local divinities was commonly in order to ask whether or not a proposed
course of action was desirable; the answer was "yes" or "no."[1682] The
famous warrior and poet, Imru'l-Kais, desiring to go to war to avenge
his father's death, received at a shrine three times a negative answer,
whereupon, hurling abusive epithets at the god, he exclaimed, "If it
were your father, you would not say 'no.'" Such independence was
probably rare; most men would have accepted the divine decision. The
answer of the Hebrew oracle was, as among the Arabs, "yes" or "no" (by
urim and thummim)--the gods were remote, and the oracle, whose minister
was a priest, gradually yielded to the prophet, the human interpreter
of the deity.[1683] The Philistines appear to have had well-organized
oracles; when King Ahaziah was sick he sent to inquire of Baalzebub, god
of Ekron, whether or not he should recover.[1684] Many Babylonian and
Assyrian deities gave oracular responses;[1685] it is not known whether
the shrines were resorted to by the people at large, and their
importance was probably diminished by the great role played by the
priestly interpretation of omens, whereby the will of the gods was held
to be clearly revealed. The Romans under the republic were practically
independent of oracles at shrines: in household affairs they had a
family god for every department and every situation, and for