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 and planets = gods
o Ornithoscopy
? Birds = messengers of the gods
? Some good, some bad
o Extispicy
? Animal entrails after sacrifice
? Sub- speciality: hepatoscopy (haruspices)
• Divination by livers (lobes, marks, etc)
- Pyromancy (fire) and hydromancy (water)
- Chiromancy: palm reading
- Cleromancy: divination by chance: dice, lots
- Intuitive divination (natural)
o Direct messages from gods
o No worldly intermediaries (diviners, animals, etc)
o 3 types:
? Oniromancy: dream divination
? Necromancy: predictions from the dead (association with Egyptian priests)
? Ecstasy: inspired revelation
• Only form of pure contact with gods
• Similar to possession? trance
• One of Plato’s 4 types of madness
- Oracles
o How did they work:
? Prophet (often female) divinely inspired
? Must be present in temple
? Responds to specific question
• From individuals or states
o Example: Pythia
? Woman sat on 3 legged stool above chasm
? Chewed laurel leaves for inspiration
? Unintelligible answers, and needed translation by priests into verse
? Considered infallible, but answers ambiguous
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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
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