State
matters they found the Sibylline oracles sufficient.[1686] Later, with
the widening of the horizon of religion, the resort to Greek and other
oracular shrines became general--a departure from the old Roman
constitution.[1687] The greatest development of oracular service took
place in Greece. The Greek gods, with their anthropomorphically
emotional characters, entered intimately and sympathetically into human
life, communal and individual. The great shrines of Zeus at Dodona and
Apollo at Delphi were centers of Hellenistic religious life, and there
were others of less importance.[1688] Zeus, as head of the pantheon,
naturally took a distinguished place as patron of oracles; and Apollo's
relation to music and inspiration may account in part for the
preeminence of his oracular shrine. In many cases, however, the grounds
of the choice of a particular deity as oracle-giver escape us.

The human demand for divine guidance long maintained the influence of
oracles everywhere, and it is not improbable that in general they
furthered what was good religiously and socially. They were bonds of
union between communities, and their authoritative role would naturally
force on them a certain sense of responsibility. As to the character of
the mouthpieces of the gods and the material on which they based their
answers to questions we have not the means of forming a definite
opinion. There can be little doubt that the official persons were
sometimes sincere in the belief that they were inspired--such is the
testimony of observers for both savage and civilized communities--and
many modern instances bear out this view. On the other hand, there is
reason to suppose that pretense and fraud often crept into the
administration of the oracles. When the questions were known beforehand
the responses may have been based on information that came from various
quarters and on insight into the particular situation about which the
inquiry was made. When the questions were not known beforehand we are in
the dark as to the source of the answers. Sometimes, doubtless, they
were happy or unhappy guesses; sometimes they were enigmatical or
ambiguous in form, so that they could be made to agree with the events
that actually occurred. In most cases the authorities would know how to
explain the issue in such a way as to maintain the credit of the oracle.
The best-known and the most impressive of the utterers of oracles is the
priestess of Apollo at Delphi,