Note 205 — LETTER III. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The allusion is to the ancient and famous oracle of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, which is mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The god, according to one legend, was said to dwell in an ancient oak tree, and to give oracles by the rustlings of the branches. These ‘talking oaks’ are alluded to by Æschylus in the Prometheus Vinctus, and by Sophocles in the Trachiniæ. Busbecq’s Latin, ‘A quo in rebus dubiis responsa petuntur,’ is suggested by Virgil’s lines—
‘Hinc Italæ gentes omnisque Œnotria tellus In dubiis responsa petunt.’ Æneid, vii. 85.