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Divination in Ancient Greece IV : Between Water and Fire

Publication |
2018

Abstract

The fourth volume of Divination in Ancient Greece is made up of three parts. In the part titled "Water", hydromancy and its variants and sub-variants are dealt with - which is to say, lecanomancy, eleomancy, ooscopy, alphitomancy, catoptromancy, crystallomancy, xiphomancy, onychomancy and pallamomancy.

The part titled "Air" is divided into two sections. The first comprises a corpus of techniques which are collectively bunched together into meteoromancy, that is, divinatory interpretations of comets, meteors and eclipses, selenomancy, ceraunoscopy, brontoscopy, seismomancy, anemomancy, nephomancy and predictive meteo-calendars (parapegmata).

The second section contains a thorough analysis of ornithomancy, namely its Greek and Roman variants. The concluding section is titled "Fire" and includes pyromancy, capnomancy, libanomancy, omoplatoscopy, lychnomancy, photagogy and acumenomancy.