The Greek word προφητης means literally ‘who one speaks for another’ (from the verb φημι, ‘I speak’) , i.e. a spokesman, in particular for a deity: in other words one through whom a god or goddess speaks. Apollo, for instance, was known as Διος προφητης at the Delphic oracle. This does not mean the interpreter of Zeus, as some maintain, but rather his mouthpiece.

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