Reading the bones and shells
Written in the stars and skies
Trances, temples, and entrails
Elements and tools
In Roman augury, how did "sacred chickens" signal a good omen for a battle?
Which Greek god of medicine was worshipped at the dream-healing temple of Epidauros?
renaissanceman Roman priests examined the livers of sacrificed animals to inspect the will of the gods.
Which Greek god was believed to speak through the Pythia at the Oracle of Delphi?
What is the term for the ancient practice of sleeping in a temple to receive prophetic dreams?
renaissanceman Etruscan Haruspicy
We map the cosmos on a bronze sheep's liver! (Oh-oh, read the liver!) / Sixteen gods mapped out in a liver! (Oh-oh, read the liver!)
renaissanceman Augurs observed the flight patterns and feeding habits of birds to approve state decisions.
What geological feature did the Pythia sit over to receive her prophetic visions?
Delphi double-talk: The Oracle of Delphi's predictions were so vague they were never wrong; she once told a king a great empire would fall, and it was his own!
What is the name of the famous Etruscan bronze artifact used to study liver divination?
What organ was the primary focus of Roman haruspices when reading animal entrails?
The practice of divining the future by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals. Etruscan priests used the bronze Liver of Piacenza to map divine wills in the second century BCE.