Bakis

Bakis or Bacis (i.e. "speaker," from the Greek βάζω) is a general name for the inspired prophets and dispensers of oracles who flourished in Greece from the 8th to the 6th century B.C. Suidas mentions three: a Boeotian, an Arcadian and an Athenian.

The Boeotian

The first Bakis, who was the most famous, was said to have been inspired by the nymphs of the Corycian Cave. His oracles, of which specimens are extant in Herodotus and Pausanias, were written in hexameter verse, and were considered to have been strikingly fulfilled. Apocryphal oracular pronouncements in dactylic hexameters circulated under his name during times of stress, such as the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.^{[citation needed]}

The Arcadian

The Arcadian was said to have cured the women of Sparta of a fit of madness. Many of the oracles which were current under his name have been attributed to Onomacritus.

Evolution of the term "Bakis"

According to Erwin Rohde, "Bakis" was a title originally applied to any one of a class of ecstatic seers, but later came to be thought of as the proper name of an individual.

References

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bakis". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.  which in turn cites:
  • Herodotus viii. 20, 77, ix. 43
  • Pausanias iv. 27, ix. 17, x. 12
  • Schol. Aristoph. Pax, 1070
  • Göttling, Opuscula Academica (1869)