Ancient tradition held Dodona to be the oldest of the Greek oracles and unique in its time.
The Pelasgians had consulted it on whether they should adopt the names of the gods from the barbarians, and the oracle had answered in the affirmative (Herodotus II, 52).
When Herodotus visited Dodona himself, the priests recounted to him a local tradition, a variant of one he had already heard at Egyptian Thebes: two black doves (Peleiades) flew from Thebes, and one of them founded the sanctuary of Zeus Ammon in Libya, while the other alighted in an Oak-tree at Dodona, and announced in human speech that the oracle of Zeus was to be built in that place. This tradition was corroborated by the other Dodoneans at the Oracle. However, Herodotus` information concerning the connection between the Oracle at Dodona and Egypt has not been confirmed by the excavations.
The Dodona Oracle was mentioned in the `Argonautica`, an epic now lost and known to us only from summaries by ancient writers, and in the Homeric epics. [...]

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