Sources and Fountains in the Oracular Sanctuaries: a “Mantic” Water ?

Résumé

Résumé. — Dans son ouvrage de référence : Python. A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, Joseph Fontenrose écrit (p. 548) : Springs rise from the lower depths, the realm of death, and are therefore chthonian powers … So the spring, a living deity that rises from the lower world, must have prophetic powers … So oracular shrines grow up around springs … Cette affirmation (associée souvent à la quête d’une puissance féminine aux origines des sanctuaires oraculaires) résume par­faitement une opinio communis, qu’on aimerait reconsidérer et discuter, en inter­rogeant les données grecques relatives à la présence et à la signification de l’eau, dans ou près d’un nombre de centres oraculaire grecs (oracles et sources en Béotie, ainsi qu’à Delphes, Dodone, Didymes, Claros etc.).

Abstract. — In his book of reference: Python. A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, Joseph Fontenrose writes (p. 548): “Springs rise from the lower depths, the realm of death, and are therefore chthonian powers … So the spring, a living deity that rises from the lower world, must have prophetic powers … So oracular shrines grow up around springs …”. This assertion (frequently associated with the search of a feminine power at the origins of the oracular sanctuaries) sums up perfectly an opinio communis, reconsidered and discussed in this paper, on the basis of Greek evidence relative to the presence and the meaning of water, inside or near of certain oracular centers (oracles and springs in Boeotia, as at Delphi, Dodona, Didyma, Claros etc.).

Stella GEORGOUDI
EPHE-ANHIMA, Paris
stgeorg@ehess.fr