Resources and Sacralization in Greek Oracular Sanctuaries of the Imperial Age and Late Antiquity

Abstract

In the Imperial and late Antique periods, the great Apolline oracle centers—especially
Klaros and Didyma in Asia Minor—having surpassed ancient Delphi in importance,
functioned as important nodes within a wide-ranging network in which questions of a
religious, philosophical, and sometimes political nature, relevant to both the individual
and society, were negotiated. While this is largely attested in contemporary literary
discussions of oracular texts, most prominently between pagan and Christian authors,
we must not forget that these texts themselves were inseparably bound to the cult
places from which they purported to have originated. In other words, oracular texts
as literary resources are to be considered parts of wider, complex networks, or ResourceComplexes,
evolving around those same sanctuaries. Like all cult places, oracle
sanctuaries are thus themselves to be conceived as human-environmental networks,
grounded upon the topographical features of a particular landscape considered as
sacred. This article will seek to shed light on how to understand the agency of landscapes
and the sacralization of resources located within them, not only from a modern
perspective but from discussions within the works of ancient writers themselves. Our
survey will attempt to clarify how, by combining archaeological and textual evidence,
we can gain a more fleshed-out picture of the ResourceCultures emerging around oracles
and the dynamics shaping them in the transition from the pagan to the Christian
era.

Keywords: ResourceCultures, Oracles, Delphi, Klaros, Plutarch