Description
Book SynopsisWorlds Full of Signs compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome. It argues that the character of Greek divination differed fundamentally from that of the two comparanda. Ample attention is given to background and method at first. Subsequent chapters discuss the divinatory elements – sign, homo divinans, and text, relating divination to time and uncertainty. This book brings together sources originating from various times and places, questioning these to consider both generalities of ancient divination and specifics of Greek divination. Greek divination was inherently flexible on many levels: these findings should be connected to Greek views on time and the future as well as the relatively low level of divinatory institutionalization.
Table of ContentsContents Preface ................................................................................................................. vii List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................... ix Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Part One Introduction to ancient divination 1 Historiography ........................................................................................... 9 2 Defining Divination .................................................................................. 19 3 Comparison ................................................................................................. 43 Part Two Elements of ancient divination 4 T he Homo Divinans: Layman and Expert .......................................... 55 5 Significance of Signs ................................................................................. 107 6 Playing by the Book? Use of a Textual Framework ........................ 139 Part Three Function of ancient divination 7 T ime and Divination—Divination and Time ................................... 173 8 Dealing with Uncertainty ....................................................................... 195 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 223 Select Bibliography .......................................................................................... 231 Index of Modern Authors .............................................................................. 237 Index of Subjects .............................................................................................. 243
