At the outset, it is true, those who uttered the prophecies were men (this too perhaps the poet indicates, for he calls them “hypophetae,” “interpreters.” and the prophets might be ranked among these), but later on three old women were designated as prophets, after Dione also had been designated as temple-associate of Zeus. Suidas, Little is known of this Suidas except that he wrote a History of Thessaly and a History of Euboea. however, in his desire to gratify the Thessalians with mythical stories, says that the temple was transferred from Thessaly, from the part of Pelasgia which is about Scotussa (and Scotussa does belong to the territory called Thessalia Pelasgiotis), and also that most of the women whose descendants are the prophetesses of today went along at the same time; and it is from this fact that Zeus was also called “Pelasgian.” But Cineas tells a story that is still more mythical. . .
 Cineas Corais and Groskurd offer only 27 Fragments; Kramer has 57, his numbers running from 1 to 58 inclusive, except that number 42 is missing; Müller-Dübner have the same 57, though they correct the numbering from 42 to 57; Meineke, like Kramer, has no number 42, but changes Kramer’s 1 to 1a and inserts seven new fragments,1, 11a, 16a, 16b, 23a, 58a, and 58b (the last two being 59 and 60 in the present edition). The present editor adds 28 more. Of these, five (1b, 16c, 27a, 55a, 61) are quotations from Strabo himself; nine (11b, 20a, 21a, 45a, 47a, 51a, 55b, 58) are from Stephanus Byzantinus; twelve (1c, 12a, 15a, 16d, 16e, 25a, 44a, 47b, 50a, 62, 63, 64) are from the notes of Eustathius on the Iliad and Odyssey; and two (65, 66) from his notes on the geographical poem of Dionysius Periegetes. All these fragments from Eustathius, except no. 62, are citations from “the Geographer,” not from “Strabo,” and so is 23a, which Meineke inserted; but with the help of the editor, John Paul Prichard, Fellow in Greek and Latin at Cornell University, starting with the able articles of Kunze on this subject ( Rheinisches Museum , 1902 , LVII, pp. 43 ff. and 1903 , LVIII, pp. 126 ff.), has established beyond all doubt that “the Geographer” is “Strabo,” and in due time the complete proof will be published. To him the editor is also indebted for fragment no. 66 (hitherto unnoticed, we believe), and for the elimination of certain doubtful passages suggester by Kunze. Meineke’s numbers, where different from those of the present edition, are given in parentheses.The rest of Book VII, containing the description of Macedonia and Thrace, has been lost, but the following fragments, gathered chiefly from the Vatican and Palatine Epitomes and from Eustathius, seem to preserve most of the original matter.Manuscript A has already lost a whole quaternion (about 13 Casaubon pages = about 26 Greek pages in the present edition) each of two places, namely, from ἡ Λιβύη (2. 5. 26) to περὶ αὐτῆς (3. 1. 6) and from καθ’ αὑτούς to ῥεντῖνος ἐνάμιλλος (5. 4. 3). In the present case A leaves off at μετὰ δέ (7. 7. 5) and resumes at the beginning of Book VIII. Assuming the loss of a third quaternion from A, and taking into account that portion of it which is preserved in other manuscripts, Ὄγχησμον (7. 7. 5) to μυθωδέστερον (7. 7. 12), only about one-sixth of Book VII is missing; and if this is true the fragments here, although they contain some repetitions, account for most of the original matter of the missing one-sixth. says that there was a city in Thessaly, i.e., a city called Dodona. and that an oak-tree and the oracle of Zeus were transferred from there to Epeirus. In earlier times the oracle was in the neighborhood of Scotussa, a city of Pelasgiotis; but when the tree was set on fire by certain people the oracle was transferred in accordance with an oracle which Apollo gave out at Dodona. However, he gave out the oracle, not through words, but through certain symbols, as was the case at the oracle of Zeus Ammon in Libya. Perhaps there was something exceptional about the flight of the three pigeons from which the priestesses were wont to make observations and to prophesy. It is further said that in the language of the Molossians and the Thesprotians old women are called “peliai” “Pigeons.” and old men “pelioi.” “Pigeons.” And perhaps the much talked of Peleiades were not birds, but three old women who busied themselves about the temple. I mentioned Scotussa also in my discussion of Dodona and of the oracle in Thessaly, because the oracle was originally in the latter region. According to the Geographer, a sacred oak tree is revered in Dodona, because it was thought to be the earliest plant created and the first to supply men with food. And the same writer also says in reference to the oracular doves there, as they are called, that the doves are observed for the purposes of augury, just as there were some seers who divined from ravens.