PHILOSOPHERS'STONE.PART 11

Many heads of states dared not go to war without consulting the oracle to take decisive steps,with the priests of Apollo the diplomats and advisers,experts in this field of fortune tellers.At the entrance to the temple at Delphi,had the famous inscription"Man Know Thyself!",which was a reminder to the visitors that man must know his destiny and he not being less than a mortal must be mindful of that destiny.The Greeks had ample stories of fatal destinies and so have a handful of plays-tragedies written in that regard,of which the tragedy of the King Oedipus,is the most famous.Fate had considerable influenceon peoples lives and they believed even world history was govered by it and were swayed thatthe fortunes of war could be influenced by the intervention of the gods.At the same time divine or fatalistic belief was entertained,the philosophers were to find natural explanations to the natural processes for the course of history.The best known Greek historians Herodotus-484-424 B.C.and Thucydides-460-400 B.C.