Oracular Tales in Pausanias (University of Southern Denmark Classical Studies)

Pausanias' Description of Greece is the most important source to more than 60 percent of the oracular tales. Description of Greece is crucial to everybody who wishes to study the oracular tales in the form in which they have been handed down from the antique written sources. This book - Oracular Tales in Pausanias - is a unique study of the collected oracular tales in Description of Greece. Until now, research into the history of the oracles has been emphasized either by the archaeology of the oracle sites or by the degree of authenticity of the oracular responses. Oracular Tales in Pausanias provides a new approach, by not only focusing on the gods' oracular responses, but also by viewing the entire oracle consultation as a narrative with a certain narrative structure, which makes it possible to view the oracular tales as a specific, orally transmitted literary genre.