What are oracles in ancient Greece?

Answer 1

In Ancient Greek literature and life alike, the famous (or, perhaps in some cases, infamous) 'oracles' encountered by literary heroes or real-life seekers of knowledge served a fundamentally divine role on earth. As mouth-pieces of the gods, perhaps even as windows into the superhuman world, oracles were sources of guidance and wisdom, speakers of blessings and curses and warnings, for mortals who were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to gain intimate access to them.

Answer 2

Oracles were people who had been choosen by the gods and goddess to see the future and the greek people would rely on these oracles to know weather their crops would be good and stuff like that.

Answer 3

When there was doubt or dissent on the correct course of action to take on an important issue, the appropriate god or goddess was asked, by sending emissaries bearing gifts to the god's temple. Cities such as Delphi made such a god profit from this that they maintained agents in the main other cities in order to get early notice of upcoming questions and prepare appropriate answers for the priest/priestess to deliver on behalf of the god. The answers usually were capable of multiple interpretations so that the god was always correct no matter what. This is carried on today by weather forecasters (/prophets), whose predictions are usually vague enough for them to claim correctness rather than the barely 50 percent they should score - no better than tossing a coin. So it was with the gods.

Answer 4

Female prophets/fortunetellers that would give supplicants a very ambiguous "prediction" for a fee. They usually operated at a specific location with some significance to the god the were supposedly acting in the name of.

Answer 5

The oracles were mortals who were supposed to be in contact with the gods and could predict the future. The most famous order of oracles was that of Delphi.

Answer 6

they were important because greeks used them for leadership and roles.