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Mircea Eliade – Patterns in Comparative religion

Oracles were often situated near water.  Near the temple of Amphirais, at Oropos, those who were cured by the oracle threw a coin in the water.  The pythia prepared by drinking water from the Kassotis fountain.  At Colophon, the prophet drank the water from a sacred spring which was in the grotto [Iamblichus].

At Claros, the priest went down into the cave, drank some water from a mysterious fountain (hausta fontis arcani aqua) and replied in verse to any question he was asked (super rebus quas quis mente concepit).

That prophetic power emanates from water is a primitive intuition which we find in a great part of the world.  The ocean, for instance, was called by the Babylonians 'the home of wisdom'.

Oannes, the mythical Babylonian character half man, half fish, rose from the Persian Gulf and revealed to man culture, writing and astrology