Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

I expect that these women were called “doves” by the people of Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus)Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds;

then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies that the woman was Egyptian [*](Perhaps Herodotus' explanation is right. But the name “doves” may be purely symbolic; thus priestesses of Demeter and Artemis were sometimes called Bees.).

The fashions of divination at Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, AfricaThebes of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt and at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus)Dodona are like one another; moreover, the practice of divining from the sacrificed victim has also come from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.