Oracle

Oracle, the answer of a supernatural being, generally through the medium of a priest or priestess, to some solemn and formal inquiry. The term is also used to denote the divinity or hero who gave such answers, and the temple or shrine where such answers were delivered. The divinity was supposed to inspiie the human medium, and to the state of mental exaltation thus produced

Tylor gives the name of oracle-possession. Xhe most celebrated oracles were those of the Greeks, notably that of Phcebus at Delphi and of Zeus .at Dodona. The practice of consulting oracles seems to have ceased soon after the beginning; of our era, and the early Christians accounted for this by attributing the responses to demons, who, they said, became silent when the Christ was born.