Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Mythology for wider area of: "ELEON Ancient city VIOTIA" .
Bacis (Bakis), seems to have been originally only a common noun derived from bazein
to speak, and to have signified any prophet or speaker. In later times, however,
Bacis was regarded as a proper noun, and the ancients distinguish several seers
of this name.
1. The Boeotian, the most celebrated of them, was believed to have lived and given
his oracles at Heleon in Boeotia, being inspired by the nymphs of the Corycian
cave. His oracles were held in high esteem, and, from the specimens we still possess
in Herodotus and Pausanias, we see that, like the Delphic oracles, they were composed
in hexameter verse. (Paus. iv. 27.2, ix. 17.4, x. 12.6, 14.3, 32.6; Herod. viii.
20, 77, ix. 43; Aristoph. Pax, 1009 with the Schol., Equit. 123, Av. 907) From
these passages it seems evident, that in Boeotia Bacis was regarded as an ancient
prophet, of whose oracles there existed a collection made either by himself or
by others, similar to the Sibylline books at Rome; and, in fact, Cicero (de Divin.
i. 18), Aelian (V.H. xii. 25), Tzetzes (ad Lycoph,. 1278), and other writers,
mention this Bacis always as a being of the same class with the Sibyls.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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