26O	RELIGION    AND     EDUCATION
because to them there was no dividing line between 'true*
beliefs and mere superstitions.   The divine oracle which was
first taught to men by Mousaios and thus considered to belong
to the oldest and most sacred traditions of mankind, was not
only on the same level as the usual rites of worship,^1 but almost
on the same level as the utterances of professional prophets
and vagrant soothsayers, or the omens given by birds, by
dreams and even by prophetic fish.^2    The Athenian people
were, in fact, greedy for omens and oracles, and it is under-
standable that the comic poet directed his satire against this
attitude.  He certainly distinguished between the pronounce-
ments of Delphi and the ordinary pronouncements and omens
which in the eyes of the people had something of the same
validity.^3   When the owl, the bird of Athena, appeared, the
goddess and her help were near.^4   The oracles given in the
name of Balds or a Sibyl, and spread by the book-trade, came
to have great influence on public opinion ^5   The soothsayers
liked to emphasize, if possible, that their words corresponded
with some of Apollo's oracles, and sometimes they pretended
that their utterances were of Delphic origin.^6  This shows that
their patrons still preferred Apollo's authority, but it must
have been obvious to almost everybody that most of these pro-
nouncements were not Delphic    Of course, the more am-
biguous, the more puzzling and mysterious the sayings were,
so much the better, it was then easy to interpret them in
the most appropriate way.^7   Sacrifices and prophecies were the
natural prelude to any great enterprise ^8    In war-time the
practice of consulting the oracles became exceedingly popular
with both State and individuals, and Thucydides as well as
^1 F.I033.— 'K&n.mem 1,4,2
^3 0.332, P.io46ff, B 521, 9591!, Eupolis 211-12, 297, Ameips 10, Kallias
14, L7sipp 6 — Pherekr 39, Archipp 1 5, also B 719:8:" On the prophetic fish cf
O Wemreich, Arch f Ret -wtss. XXVII (1929), 57.
^8 Cf H W Parke, The Delphic Oracle* 207 f, who perhaps overstresses the
satirical attitude of Aristophanes towards Delphi
^5K6i, lopff, 1955 997-9; P ic^off, 1095, 1116, 1119, 6962, 970.  Cf
O. Kern, Religion der Gnechen^ II, 140*1".
^8 K.220 — 1015$ 1047, 1072, 1229.
^8 C£, e g., Eur. HerakL 399ff. In 443 b c it was the colonization of Thounoi,
in 41 5 the Sicilian expedition, which caused the same kind of activity   Cf A JP,
(1948), 1646