The site of an oracle of Zeus in Epirus.
The oracle at Dodona was established by the will of Zeus because he found the land and people pleasing; two black doves flew from Thebes, Egypt, to establish oracle sites for Zeus; one dove went to Libya and the other flew to Dodona; the dove of Dodona landed in an oak tree and, speaking with a human voice, announced that Zeus desired an oracular site be built in that place; the people complied without hesitation; priestesses were initiated and the will of Zeus was thereafter available to all pious and reverent people.
The arrival of the dove and the establishment of the Oracle at Dodona must have happened prior to The Deluge which flooded the earth; the date of The Deluge is the subject of an ongoing debate but 11,000 BCE seems like a reasonable possibility; the only humans to survive The Deluge were Deukalion (Deucalion) and Pyrrha, and they were the first to consult the oracle at Dodona after The Deluge.
When the Oracle at Dodona was established, the Pelasgians inhabited all of Greece; the Pelasgians knew that there were gods and goddesses because they could perceive the order and harmony of nature but they had no names for the divinities; they consulted the Oracle at Dodona and asked by what names they should pray to the Immortals; the Pelasgians were instructed to adopt the names given to the Immortals by the Barbarians, presumably the Egyptians.
The most noted Immortal for prophecy is Apollon; as the son of Zeus, Apollon simply relates the will of Zeus and might be thought of as an intermediary and not the actual source of the foreknowledge; the island of Delos was Apollon's birthplace and has always been sacred; when the Hyperboreans (the people of the extreme north) sent emissaries to Delos, Dodona was their first stop as they journeyed south; it seems obvious that the Hyperboreans wanted to pay their respects to Zeus before they ventured on to the Temple of Apollon on Delos.
Akhilleus (Achilles) prayed to Zeus as the king ruling over wintry Dodona and Odysseus consulted the oracle at Dodona to learn his fate.
King Kroesus (Croesus) of Lydia found fault with the answers provided by the priestesses of Dodona and preferred the Oracle at Delphi; Kroesus devised a plan where he could test the veracity of various oracles without seeming to be irreverent; he sent messengers to numerous oracles, including Dodona and its counterpart in Libya, with instructions to consult the oracles at a specific time on a specific day; the messengers were instructed to ask, "What am I doing right now?"; at the exact time the question was asked of the oracles, Kroesus had been cooking a tortoise and a lamb in a covered bronze pot; the Pythia (priestess of Apollon) at Delphi answered the question with unfailing accuracy but the priestess at Dodona did not answer the question correctly; we need to ask whether Zeus deliberately misdirected Kroesus in order to achieve a higher objective; from that time on, Kroesus trusted the Oracle at Delphi completely and eventually lost his kingdom because he misinterpreted the oracle's pronouncement.
The historian Herodotus relates an interesting story where the Oracles of Dodona and Delphi were in complete agreement; the land of Apollonia was selected as the grazing land for the sacred sheep of Helios (Sun); Helios would watch his sheep during the day and prominent men of Apollonia were chosen to tend the sheep at night; the task of watching the sheep was given to the men of Apollonia by an unnamed oracle; each evening, the sheep were put in a cave some distance from the city; a man named Euenios (Evenius) was on guard one evening and fell asleep; wolves attacked the sheep and killed about sixty of the sacred animals; Euenios did not want his neighbors to know of his error and planned to replace the sheep at his own expense but before he could conceal his blunder, the people of Apollonia found out what had happened and put Euenios on trial; he was found guilty and sentenced to be blinded for his crime; as soon as the punishment was carried out, the sheep ceased to bare young and the crops failed to grow; the people of Apollonia consulted the Oracles at Dodona and Delphi and received the same response from both; the wolves had been sent by the Immortals and Euenios was simply an instrument of their divine will; in order to lift the curse from their city, it would necessary for the people of Apollonia to give Euenios anything he deemed fair compensation for his harsh treatment; the people of Apollonia wanted to obey the oracles but they decided to do so in a rather underhanded way; they did not tell Euenios what the oracles had commanded but simply asked him what it would take to make him lay aside his anger for what had been done to him; Euenios asked for some choice property and a fine home; the Apollonians readily agreed and the will of the oracles had been done; the sheep became fertile and the crops began to grow again; when Euenios found out that he had been tricked, became irate but there was nothing he could do; to make all things just and fair, the Immortals gave Euenios the gift of prophecy.
The original sacred buildings of Dodona stood for thousands of years but circa 119 BCE an Aetolian Strategus named Dorimachus attacked Epirus with the intention of destroying everything he found there; with complete disregarded for the laws of civilized behavior, Dorimachus's army burned the colonnades of the temple and destroyed the sacred offerings of Dodona; although still revered by the Greeks, Dodona never regained its former glory.
The exact location of the Oracle of Dodona was lost until 1878 CE when Constantine Caraponos found numerous inscriptions indicating that the site of the Oracle was on Mount Tamaros about 13.7 miles (22 kilometers) south and east of the modern city of Ioannina and approximately 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) northwest of modern Dodona.