Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

DIVINATIO.

138

DIVINATIO.

liads, the Acarnanian seers, and others. Along
with the seers we may also mention the Ba-
cidcs and the Sibyllae. Both existed from a
very remote time, and were distinct from the
mantels so far as they pretended to derive
their knowledge of the future from sacred
books (xpr)<7/j.oi) which they consulted, and
which were in some places, as at Athens and
Rome, kept by the government or some es-
pecial officers, in the acropolis and in the
most revered sanctuary. The Bacides are
said to have been descended from one or
more prophetic nymphs of the name of Bacis.
The Sibyllae were prophetic women, probably
of Asiatic origin, whose peculiar custom
seems to have been to wander with their
sacred books from place to place. The Si-
bylla, whose books gained so great an im-
portance at Rome, is reported to have been
the Erythraean : the books which she was
said to have sold to one of the Tarquins were
carefully concealed from the public, and only
accessible to the duumvirs. Besides these
more respectable prophets and prophetesses,
there were numbers of diviners of an inferior
order (xpTjo-p-oAoYot), who made it their busi-
ness to explain all sorts of signs, and to tell
fortunes. They were, however, more parti-
cularly popular with the lower orders, who
are everywhere most ready to believe what
is most marvellous and least entitled to credit.
No public undertaking of any consequence
was ever entered upon by the Greeks and
Romans without consulting the will of the
gods, by observing the signs which they
sent, especially those in the sacrifices offered
for the purpose, and by which they were
thought to indicate the success or the failure of
the undertaking. For this kind of divination
no divine inspiration was thought necessary,
but merely experience and a certain know-
ledge acquired by routine; and although in
some cases priests were appointed for the
purpose of observing and explaining signs
[Augur; IIaeuspex], yet on any sudden
emergency, especially in private affairs, an37
one who met with something extraordinary,
might act as his own interpreter. The prin-
cipal signs by which the gods were thought
to declare their will, were things connected
with the offering of sacrifices, the flight and
voice of birds, all kinds of natural pheno-
mena, ordinary as well as extraordinary, and
dreams.'—The interpretation of signs of the
first class (iepo'xai'Teia or UpotTKOnta, haruspi-
ciitm or ars haruspieina) was, according to
Aeschylus, the invention of Prometheus. It
seems to have been most cultivated hy the
Etruscans, among whom it was raised into a
complete science, and from whom it passed
to the Romans. Sacrifices were either offered

for the special purpose of consulting the gods,
or in the ordinary way ; but in both cases
the signs were observed, and when they were
propitious, the sacrifice was said KaAAieptlv.
The principal points that were generally ob-
served were, 1. The manner in which the
victim approached the altar. 2. The nature
of the intestines with respect to their colour
and smoothness; the liver and bile were of
particular importance. 3. The nature of the
flame which consumed the sacrifice. Especial
care was also taken during a sacrifice, that
no inauspicious or frivolous words were ut-
tered by any of the bystanders : hence the
admonitions of the priests, ev^rjp-en-e and
ev<fr-qi*ia, or (nyare, criajTrare, farcte Unguis,
and others ; for improper expressions were
not only thought to pollute and profane the
sacred act, but to be unlucky omens.—The
art of interpreting signs of the second class
was called oiwi/tcrTKCTj, aitgurium, or auspicium.
It was, like the former, common to Greeks
and Romans, but never attained the same
degree of importance in Greece as it did in
Rome. [Auspicium.] The Greeks, when
observing the flight of birds, turned their
face toward the north, and then a bird ap-
pearing to the right (east), especially an
eagle, a heron, or a falcon, was a favourable
sign; while birds appearing to the left (west)
were considered as unlucky signs. Of greater
importance than the appearance of animals,
at least to the Greeks, were the phenomena
in the heavens, particularly during any public
transaction. Among the unlucky phenomena
in the heavens (SiooTj/neia, signa, or portenta)
were thunder and lightning, an eclipse of the
sun or moon, earthquakes, rain of blood,
stones, milk, &c. Any one of these signs
was sufficient at Athens to break up the as-
sembly of the people.—In common life, things
apparently of no importance, when occurring
at a critical moment, were thought by the
ancients to be signs sent by the gods, from
which conclusions might be drawn respecting
the future. Among these common occur-
rences we may mention sneezing, twinkling
of the eyes, tinkling of the ears, &c.—The
art of interpreting dreams (weipoTroAi-'a), which
had probably been introduced into Europe
from Asia, where it is still a universal prac-
tice, seems in the Homeric age to have been
held in high esteem, for dreams were said to
be sent by Zeus. In subsequent times, that
class of diviners who occupied themselves
with the interpretation of dreams, seems to
have been very numerous and popular ; but
they never enjoyed any protection from the
state, and were chiefly resorted to by private
individuals.—The subject of oracles is treated
in a separate article. [Oeaculum.]—The