Bakis or
Bacis was a semi-legendary
ancient Greek seer of the 6th or 7th century
BC, a native of
Boeotia. Bakis was said to have been possessed by
nymphs, who gave him the power of prophecy. Apocryphal oracular pronouncements in dactylic hexameters circulated under his name during times of stress, such as the
Persian and
Peloponnesian Wars. According to
Erwin Rohde, 'Bakis' was a title originally applied to any one of a class of ecstatic seers, but later came to be thought of as the proper name of an individual.