Adrastus [‘No Escape’]: An Oracle Chain and the Fate of Croesus

Croesus famously consulted oracles to determine whether to make war on Persia in 547/46 BCE. But Herodotus tells us he misunderstood the oracular response, due to a mix of hubris and fate. And yet, was this the oracle that brought doom to the Lydian Empire? The defeat of Croesus is not just the affirmation of the divine knowledge of the Delphic oracle because the king does not interpret the oracle correctly. Rather, his defeat is the affirmation of the divine knowledge of the oracle over the course of the history of his dynasty. From the opposite perspective, we can ask not only why Croesus lost, but why Cyrus won. His victory is based, according to other sources, on a different divine oracle that has nothing to do with Croesus or the dynasty of the Mermnadai. The goal of all these oracles and prophecies will be the return and rise of the legitimate rulers of the world; these oracles not only predict the future over long spans of time but are the overarching cause for the history that unfolds.