Greece and Rome

CLAS 100

January 30, 2008

The Will of the Gods: Omens and Oracles

- Omen

o Observed, spontaneous natural events (i.e. lightning strike, seen as ultimate omen from the gods)

o Can also be provoked

o Interpreted as having divine significance (i.e. comets seemed random and divine, especially since sky was seen as realm of gods)

- Oracle: 3 meanings

o 1) Place of prophecy

 Site specific (i.e. Apollo at Delphi)

o 2) Speaker of the prophecy

o 3) Prophecy itself

o Oracles are sought out: human initiated activity

 Answer to specific question; asking the oracle

 Answers given: yes, no, “by sacrificing to X”

 Sometimes answers are set in poetic verse

- Omens + oracles = divination

o Aka prophecy (foretelling the future)

o “the art of determining the future by supernatural means

o Everyone has always wanted it

o By-product of human forethought

o Still evident today? Still around today (psychics, tarot cards, etc)

- Divination: 2 types

o 1) Inductive divination(artificial)

 Interpretation of omens

 Indirect: requires human interpreter (diviner)

• Technician, not always a priest

• No prophecy without omen

• High profile: advisors to rulers

 Some omens good, others bad, others more specific

 Natural phenomena: stars, eclipses, comets, thunderstorms

- Divination in Nature: Animals

o Prophetic: snakes, frogs, birds

o Sometimes prophetic: dogs and horses

o Never prophetic: fish

- Humans: channels for the divine

o Chance remarks

o Sneezing

o Epileptic fits

o Small child’s speech

o Noise in a crowd

- Prodigy

o Unnatural occurrences

 Hermaphrodites

 Two headed animals, etc

o Means something wonderful

o Skilled interpretation needed (diviner)

- 2) Inductive Divination

o Astrology

 Stars

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