Note 22 — Chapter XVII · ION.
Reading edition
Not only the χρησμολόγοι, μάντεις oracular temples, &c., are often mentioned in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, &c., but Aristotle also recognises οἱ νυμφόληπτοι καὶ θεόληπτοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἐπιπνοίᾳ δαιμονίου τινὸς ὥσπερ ἐνθουσιάζοντες, as a real and known class of persons. See Ethic. Eudem. i. p. 1214, a. 23; Ethic. Magna, ii. p. 1207, b. 8.
The μάντις is a recognised profession, the gift of Apollo, not merely according to Homer, but according to Solon (Frag. xi. 52, Schn.):
Ἄλλον μάντιν ἔθηκεν ἄναξ ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων, ἔγνω δ’ ἀνδρὶ κακὸν τηλόθεν ἐρχόμενον, &c.