Divination in Pagan culture and oracle women in western painting

The study aims to look through the reflections on the Western paintings of the elements related to divination which are, specifically oracle women, based on the perceptions and practises of prophecy of the pagan period. Following the first division in which the appearance of 'divination' phenomenon and the etymology of word of divination are referred, and it is tried to be explained in detail that divination centres in Ancient Greece, where were applied to the different methods and the officials consisting of mainly oracles and oracle women are situated. This same methodology proceeds in Roman chapter too; you are informed about the practises of divinations, mainly Sibylline Books, Augurs and Haruspices. In addition, mainly Delphi among the divination centres in Greece had also big authority over the religious matters as the other many matters; but it is naturally impossible to think that similar divination practises could be independent of the official state religion of which is heavy domination in Rome and so it is briefly touched on the religion of Rome as paying attention to not fall apart our context and digress from our related matter. In the next chapter, the character of oracle is mentioned so that it will guide us in the related representations, and these characters categorised into the different identifications are tried to explain without confined ourselves to only Roman and Greece issues. In the last chapter, what we previously mentioned is examined to the reflections on the Western paintings provided that restricted to the subject of oracle women, it is tried to commentate in iconographic way and examine a reasonable number of representations related to our subject as soon as possible, without confined ourselves to any time period or any style. Keywords: Divination, Oracle, Woman Oracle, Ancient Age, Pagan Period, Delphoi, Pythia, Sibyl, Western Painting.