Ornithomancy (modern term from Greek ''ornis'' "bird" and ''manteia'' "divination"; in
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
: οἰωνίζομαι "take omens from the flight and cries of birds") is the practice of reading
omens from the actions of birds followed in many ancient cultures including the
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
, and is equivalent to the
augury employed by the
ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 ...
.
Ornithomancy in some form has been found globally among a wide variety of pre-industrial peoples.
Mediterranean developments
Prophesying by birds appeared among the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
in Anatolia, with texts on bird oracles written in Hittite known from the 13th or 14th century, and from whom the Greek practice may derive. It was also familiar to the
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
, who may have brought it to Rome.
Greek evidence
Ornithomancy dates back to early Greek times, appearing on Archaic vases, as well as in
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...
and
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
: one notable example from the latter occurs in the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...
'', when an eagle appears three times, flying to the right, with a dead dove in its talons, an augury interpreted as the coming of Odysseus, and the death of his wife's
suitors.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
has
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...
claim to have introduced ornithomancy to mankind, by indicating among the birds “those by nature favourable, and those/Sinister”.
Ornithomancy could be spontaneous, or it could be the result of a formal consultation: the seer would face north, and birds on their right—the east, the direction of sunrise—were taken as favourable (the reverse being true of the Roman augur, who by contrast faced ''south''). Although it was mainly the flights and songs of birds that were studied, any action could have been interpreted to either foretell the future or relate a message from the gods.
Roman practice
Omens from observation of the flight of birds were considered with the utmost seriousness by Romans. The practice of ornithomancy by priests called ''
augurs'' was a branch of
Roman national religion from before the founding of the city, which had its own priestly college to supervise its practice.
The word "inauguration" is derived from the Latin noun ''inauguratio'' derived from the verb ''inaugurare'' which was to "take omens from birds in flight." Since Roman ''
augurs'' predominantly looked at birds for omens, they were also called ''auspex'' ("bird watcher", plural ''auspices''), however they also interpreted thunder, lightning, the behavior of certain animals, and strange events. The phrase "under the ''auspices''" is derived from this need for a favourable reading of the omens by the augurs.
Biblical references
Ornithomancy is mentioned several times in the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...
version of the Bible. After
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
discovers the silver bowl he had hidden in his brothers' luggage, he declaims, "Why have ye stolen my silver cup? is it not this out of which my lord drinks? and he divines augury with it." Later, however, the practice of divination is expressly forbidden.
Cultural echoes
*
Lewis Namier
Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (; 27 June 1888 – 19 August 1960) was a British historian of Polish-Jewish background. His best-known works were ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (1929), ''England in the Age of the Ameri ...
introduced his
prosopographical
Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line an ...
study of eighteenth century politics in England with a quotation from Aeschylus on ornithomancy: “I took pains to determine the flight of crook-taloned birds, marking which were of the right by nature, and which were of the left, and what were their ways of living, each after his kind”.
*The
magpie counting song is a folklore remnant of ornithomancy.
[T. D'Elgin, ''The Everything Bird Book'' (1998) p. 225]
See also
Notes
Sources
*
* Spence, Lewis, ''An Encyclopedia of Occultism'', New York, Carl Publishing Group Edition, 1996.
* Mandelbaum, Allen, ''The Odyssey of Homer'', New York, Bantam Classic Edition, 1991.
{{Divination
Divination
Prophecy
Ancient Greek religion
Ancient Roman augury
Birds in mythology