969J, Fontenelle, Le Bovuer DeBeranard (1657-1757); Aphra Behn (1640-1689), tr. Antonius van Dale (1638-1708)
The History of Oracles, and the CHEATS of the pagan priests. In two parts. Made English.
London : printed in the year, 1688. and sold by most booksellers, [1688] Price $4,900
Octavo A8 a2 B-P8 Q4; $4 (-a2, Q2,Q3,Q4. First edition. Bound in contemporary speckled calf, corners rubbed, occasional light foxing, title stabilised with tissue, repairs to front and rear gutters, light pencil annotations and manicules.
This text is a translation of Bernard Le Bouvier de Fontenelle’s Histoire De Oracles (1687) by Aphra Behn. This work on debunking the Oracles of Ancient Greece and Rome as frauds of the priests used to manipulate the masses, rather than under Demonic influence as suggested by the Church. This is an abridged version of Antonius van Dale’s’ Latin work De Oraculis Ethnicorum (1683). Van Dales argument against the supernatural and the role of the Devil in the pagan oracular tradition was highly influential but was not popularized until Fontelle s adapted version two decades later. Appearing a generation after Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World (1666), Behn’s translation of Fontenelle participates in the same reconfiguration of authority—no longer imagining new worlds of knowledge but actively dismantling inherited systems of belief.” Aphra Behn was one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing. She broke cultural barriers and opened public space for women writers. She was employed by Charles II to work as a spy in Antwerp. During the turbulent political times of the Exclusion Crisis, she wrote an epilogue and prologue that brought her into legal trouble; she thereafter devoted most of her writing to prose genres and translations. Issued in 1688, Behn’s translation of Fontenelle stands at the intersection of Restoration literary culture and the emerging skepticism of the Royal Society—here transforming classical oracles from sites of divine speech into instruments of human deception. The History of Oracles… was the penultimate work to be published before her death in 1689. The dedication by Behn is to Lord Jeffreys, known as the “hanging judge”. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor. His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy, resulting in a historical reputation for severity and bias. Jeffreys historical notoriety comes from his actions in 1685, after Monmouth s Rebellion, where he was responsible for a high number of executions. Estimates of the numbers executed for treason have been given as high as 700. Behn’s dedication has been criticised as a “triumph of sycophancy”. Her name does not appear in the work, but the dedication is signed A.B. This dedication was removed from later editions.
Behn s decision to translate the book -and her translation- shed light on her philosophical, religious, and political views. The controversial nature of the book is perhaps reflected in Behn s decision to sign the translation only as “A. B.” See Mary Todd’s discussion of the book, below, for Behn s translation, her alignment with Hobbes, Lucretius, and Fontenelle, etc. Fontenelle s Oracles: Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle s The History of Oracles (1687) is a rationalist critique of ancient pagan oracles, challenging the belief that they were supernatural communications from demons. The work is structured into two dissertations: Demons and Possession: Fontenelle argues that oracles were not delivered by demons but were fabrications by pagan priests to manipulate the populace. He critiques the Christian tradition that attributes oracular messages to demonic forces, suggesting instead that these were human deceptions. He emphasizes the importance of verifying facts before attributing unexplained phenomena to supernatural causes. The oracles did not suddenly fall silent when Christ was born; they sputtered on for centuries until paganism itself died out. Fontenelle frames “The History of Oracles” as two long “discourses.” In the first he tackles a question that had exercised both pagan philosophers and early Christian apologists: were the famous responses of Delphi, Dodona, and the rest of the ancient oracles really spoken by demons? Fontenelle’s reply is an unequivocal No. He points out that Scripture never states that demons managed pagan shrines and therefore leaves Christians free to judge the matter on rational grounds. Because the Bible is silent, Fontenelle argues, it would be rash to fill the gap with tales of invisible spirits; in fact, the very silence obliges us to take the contrary position and assume no such license was ever granted to malevolent beings. He notes, too, that the Fathers of the Church had relied on impressive stories rather than evidence, and that respect for their authority has allowed the notion to stagger on long after its foundations had crumbled. Having dismissed the demon-hypothesis, Fontenelle attributes the workings of oracles to priestly fraud. He shows how oracular colleges controlled access to the god, gathered private intelligence from travelers, opened sealed letters by night, and manufactured ambiguous verses to fit every possible outcome. The Pythian shrine at Delphi is his favorite example. There, the lone figure visible to the worshippers was a woman perched on a tripod; her writhing, shrieks and contorted gestures served as a public display of “possession,” while the real authors of the oracle male priests remained hidden. The same pattern recurs elsewhere: at Trophonius in Boeotia crowds were first stupefied with perfumes, drug-laced waters and frightening noises before being lowered through a shaft and brought up half-dazed, ready for any interpretation the priests cared to impose. Fontenelle is alert to the fact that women figure prominently in this theatre yet wield little authority.
O’Donnell BA6; Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), F1413; ESTC: R13813; T.C. 2:230
https://datb.cerl.org/estc/R13813
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