Lot Oracles.
The sacred lot was used for determining
the will of God in ancient Israel (e.g. the Urim and Thummim used by priests)
and early Christianity (Acts 1;26) as well as in Greco-Roman religions. Many of
the oracle questions which have survived are phrased in such a way that the god
is presented with an alternative to which he may respond only positively or
negatively. Typical forms of such inquiries [are]: “Shall I, or shall I not, do
such and such?” or, “Is it better and more beneficial that the people of city X
found a colony at Y?” Such questions are obviously designed to require only a
year or no answer, a kind of response for which the lot was eminently suited.
Although the oracle of Apollo at Delhi is most famous for the inspired oracular
responses of the Pythia, a priestess of Apollo, the lot oracle was used more
frequently to provide oracular responses to inquiries than was the inspired
speech of the Pythia. At Dodona, a very ancient oracle of Zeus, an unusual form
of lot oracle was used. Oracle questions there were written on thin strips of
lead (many of which have survived), which were then rolled up and marked is not
known, it is probable that in another jar objects signifying a positive or negative
response (such as white and black beans) were stored. The priestess may then
have drawn the inquiry and the response simultaneously from both jars with her
hands.
An oracle which relied exclusively on
the lot without the aid of cult functionaries was the oracle of Herakles in a
cave near Bura. Inquirers first prayed before the image and then cast four
dice. The figures on the dice corresponded to explanations or responses on a
tablet in the shrine. This form of divination has been designated astragalomanteia,
from the Greek word astragaloi meaning “knucklebones” (i.e. dice). These
knucklebons had four flat sides with the numbers 1, 3, 6, and 4. One
knucklebone might be cast five times or five knucklebones could be thrown at
once; the object was to obtain a sequence of five numbers (totaling five to thirty,
in 1024 possible combinations) that would correspond to one of a series of
oracular inscriptions. The following quotation is a translation of one such lot
oracle found inscribed at Attalia in Pamphylia:
66633 24 From Pythian Apollo
Wait and do nothing, but obey the oracles of Phoebus.
Watch for another opportunity; for the present leave quietly.
Shortly all your concerns will find fulfilment.
The sequence of five numbers at the
left indicates the results of five casts of one knucklebone (or one cast of
five), the number in the middle indicates the total, and the inscription on the
top right indicates the divine sources of the oracular advice.
A different but related type of lot
oracle is the Sortes Astrampsychi, papyrus fragments on a series of
numbered oracle questions and answers. The inquirer noted the number of the question
selected, selected another number by lot, and through a fairly complicated
process arrived at the number of a response which was supposed to provide an answer
to his original inquiry. (David E. Aune, Prophecy in
Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983], 25)