"Quand les feuilles du chêne de Dodone se mirent à bruire"
Résumé
The functioning of the oracle of Dodone remains obscure, but one often reads that the pilgrims came in this Epirote sanctuary to consult Zeus by listening to the rustling of the wind in the foliage of the sacred oak. An examination of the ancient evidence reveals, however, that nothing confirms this hypothesis: it is probably based on an amalgam of different testimonies. We try to understand the reasons for its success, by mobilizing on the one hand the origin of the history of religions, with the dendrolatry attributed to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and on the other hand the development of a form of ecological sensitivity in Modern times.