Omens and Oracles

Addressing the role which divination played in ancient Greek society this volume analyses the various forms of divination and how each was used and for what purpose. Chapters bring together key themes, including the role played by bird divination, entrail divination, dreams, oracles and celestial phenomena explaining the ways in which particular types of divination were employed, with specific attention paid to the ancient source material and the range of interpretations to be drawn from each form of divination. The sources of inspiration for divination, the uses to which divination was put, attitudes towards it, and the reason why particular phenomena were considered to have divinatory characteristics are addressed. The book stresses that divination was not employed merely to foretell the future but also to ensure that the individual or state employing divination acted in accordance with that divinely prescribed future: divination allowed the Greeks not only to see the future but to act in accordance with it. It also enabled them to respond to current circumstances with oracular centres in particular being consulted about disturbing events. But divination could also look into the past to predict and explain events in history whether mythical or otherwise. Divinatory personnel, the distinction between divination and superstition, private versus public divination, and the various mechanisms of divination are also explored."