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SONJA CHEUNG DID ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY ERODE POPULAR BELIEF IN DIVINATION? IF SO WHY? Divination was a prevalent feature in Archaic Greece, as it provided objective advice, to assist people in making appropriate decisions in problematic predicaments. In certain situations its ambiguity allowed decisions to be postponed, or blame to be assigned to others. Divination was also used to explain matters that seemed unexplainable, such as crop failure or drought. This is illustrated in the Homeric epics, which depicts numerous oracle interpreters, such as Calchas, consulting oracles on domestic, as well as, military decisions. Divination was a guiding authority in ancient society. However, during the fifth and fourth century BC, the democratic establishment and the dominance of politics, overtook the importance of divination, so that decision making occurred in democratic assemblies, with the use of rhetoric. Unexplainable matters were now approached by cults, such as the Sophists, and the increase in scientific knowledge...

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