reading entrails

In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy, the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry.
Various ancient cultures of the Near East, such as the Babylonians, also read omens specifically from the liver, a practice also known by the Greek term hepatoscopy (also hepatomancy).

The Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the ''disciplina Etrusca''.

Etymology

The Latin terms ''haruspex'' and ''haruspicina'' are from an archaic word, ''hīra'' = "entrails, intestines" (cognate with ''hernia'' = "protruding viscera" and ''hira'' = "empty gut"; PIE '' *ǵʰer-'') and from the root '' spec-'' = "to watch, observe". The Greek ἡπατοσκοπία ''hēpatoskōpia'' is from '' hēpar'' = "liver" and '' skop-'' = "to examine".

Ancient Near East

The Babylonians were famous for hepatoscopy. This practice is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel 21:21:

One Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver, dated between 1900 and 1600 BCE, is conserved in the British Museum.

The Assyro-Babylonian tradition was also adopted in Hittite religion. At least thirty-six liver-models have been excavated at Hattusa. Of these, the majority are inscribed in Akkadian, but a few examples also have inscriptions in the native Hittite language, indicating the adoption of haruspicy as part of the native, vernacular cult.

Ancient Italy

Roman haruspicy was a form of communication with the gods. Rather than strictly predicting future events, this form of Roman divination allowed humans to discern the attitudes of the gods and react in a way that would maintain harmony between the human and divine worlds (pax deorum).Johnston, Sarah Iles. "Divination: Greek and Roman Divination". In ''Encyclopedia of Religion'', 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones, 2375–2378. Vol. 4. Detroit, Michigan: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Gale eBooks. Before taking important actions, especially in battle, Romans conducted animal sacrifices to discover the will of the gods according to the information gathered through reading the animals' entrails. The entrails (most importantly the liver, but also the lungs and heart) contained a large number of signs that indicated the gods' approval or disapproval. These signs could be interpreted according to the appearance of the organs, for example, if the liver was "smooth, shiny and full" or "rough and shrunken".Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay G, and Eidinow, Esther. ''Ancient Divination and Experience''. Oxford: Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2019. The Etruscans looked for the ''caput iocineris'', or "head of the liver". It was considered a bad omen if this part was missing from the animal's liver. The haruspex would then study the flat visceral side of the liver after examining the ''caput iocineris''.

Haruspicy in Ancient Italy originated with the Etruscans. Textual evidence for Etruscan divination comes from an Etruscan inscription: the priest Laris Pulenas' (250–200 BCE) epitaph mentions a book he wrote on haruspicy. A collection of sacred texts called the ''Etrusca disciplina'', written in Etruscan, were essentially guides on different forms of divination, including haruspicy and augury.MacIntosh Turfa, Jean, and Tambe, Ashwini, eds. ''The Etruscan World''. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central. In addition, a number of archeological artifacts depict Etruscan haruspicy. These include a bronze mirror with an image of a haruspex dressed in Etruscan priest's clothing, holding a liver while a crowd gathers near him. Another significant artifact relating to haruspicy in Ancient Italy is the Piacenza Liver. This bronze model of a sheep's liver was found by chance by a farmer in 1877. Names of gods are etched into the surface and organized into different sections. Artifacts depicting haruspicy exist from the ancient Roman world as well, such as stone relief carvings located in Trajan's Forum.

At the most influential time of haruspicy, the Roman senate decreed that 'a certain number of young Etruscans' should be instructed in it to provide haruspices for the state. These Etruscans were later appointed as Roman augurs.

In later days when haruspicy became a neglected art, Emperor Claudius, who ruled from AD 41-54 attempted to revive it. He directed the Senate to pass a decree to examine what parts of it should be ‘maintained or strengthened’.

Northeast Africa

In southwest Ethiopia and adjacent area of South Sudan, a number of ethnic communities have had the practice of reading animal entrails to divine the future. Some of the groups that have been documented as having this practice include Suri, Mursi , Topsa , Nyangatom, Didinga, Murle, Me'en, Turkana, Konso, Dime, Karamojong, Dodoth, Kalenjin people

Haruspication has also been practiced in Kenya, such as the Kamba and the Kipsikis.Barton, Juxon. "Notes on the Kipsikis or Lumbwa Tribe of Kenya Colony." ''The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'' 53 (1923): 42-78.

See also

* Anthropomancy
* Augur
* Auspice

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Walter Burkert, 1992. ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'' (Thames and Hudson), pp 46–51.
* Derek Collins, "Mapping the Entrails: The Practice of Greek Hepatoscopy" ''American Journal of Philology'' 129 008 319-345
* Marie-Laurence Haack, ''Les haruspices dans le monde romain'' (Bordeaux : Ausonius, 2003).
*Hans Gustav Güterbock, 'Hittite liver models' in: ''Language, Literature and History (FS Reiner)'' (1987), 147–153, reprinted in Hoffner (ed.) ''Selected Writings'', Assyriological Studies no. 26 (1997

External links

* This source suggests that Greek and Roman haruspices used the entrails of human corpses; the victim should be "without spot or blemish".

Haruspices
article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities


Vatican Museums Online, Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Room III
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{{Etruscans

Ancient Roman occupations
Etruscan religion
Middle Eastern mythology
Roman augurs
Divination