Abstracts
Mesopotamia
Patterns of Analogical Thinking in Ancient Mesopotamian Divinatory Texts (Nicla De Zorzi)
In second and first millennium BCE Mesopotamia, the texts most commonly associated with the practice of divination are omen lists written in Babylonian. These texts are a still largely unexplored source of information on ancient Mesopotamian scribal creativity and on scribal strategies of meaning and knowledge production. Focusing on sequences of interrelated omens, the paper will demonstrate that the interplay of similarity and contrast between contiguous or near-contiguous textual elements is a major force in the process of text production in omen lists. In analysing the step-by-step unfolding of these omen sequences, I will discuss how ancient Mesopotamian scribal creativity gave shape to a system of knowledge production characterized by the gradual refinement of concepts through the incremental addition of qualifications – based on the power of similarity, parallelism and analogy. Thus, a principle of ‘repetition with variation’ allowed Babylonian diviners to understand their world through analogical reasoning. In conclusion to the paper, I will argue that this principle is in fact a pervasive means of constructing and structuring Mesopotamian erudite compositions in general. This approach makes a crucial aspect of Ancient Mesopotamian intellectual history amenable to cross-cultural comparison.
Greece
Greek Divination (Robert Parker)
The central question underlying this paper is what might be called the ‘diviner’s dilemma’: how oracles or seers, faced by innumerable enquires about their private affairs from clients whom they do not know, are able to give answers that are accepted as making sense by those clients. I will consider it in relation to the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, where abundant new evidence first published in 2013 illuminates topics on which questions were put, the terms in which they were formulated, and one mechanism by which they were answered; in relation to Delphi, where it remains difficult to say anything with confidence, since it is so unclear how many of the responses attributed to the Pythia in historical sources actually issued from her mouth; and in relation to military divination by seers (manteis), where the issue of the real objectivity of supposedly objective divinatory techniques (such as interpreting a liver) will be important.
Rome
Text and Practice in Roman Divination (Federico Santangelo)
The brief set by organisers of this conference is as exciting as it is difficult. A full discussion of the textual dimension of Roman divination could easily take up a whole monograph, which awaits to be written; the discussion I shall try to sketch is inevitably selective, and I will pursue the five questions around which they have proposed to frame our discussion, using them as an opportunity to convey a sense of the complexity and the richness of the problem, and to explore the connections between the problems to which they have drawn our attention.
Ancient Egypt
When the Gods Communicate: The Power of Divination in Pharaonic Egypt (Elisabeth Sawerthal)
This paper will provide an overview of divination during pharaonic Egypt. A brief theoretical outline on the concept of divination and how to define it will be followed by an introduction to a range of different divinatory practices from the region on the basis of textual and material evidence of royal and non-royal background. The nature of the range of textual sources relating to divination will be discussed in order to highlight how divinatory texts of different genres have varying levels of ‘proximity’ to the divinatory action that help us enhance our understanding of divination in different ways, directly and indirectly. Furthermore, this paper will argue that the concept of divination is intrinsically related to power. Understanding the relationships of power involved in divinatory acts can provide deeper insights into the phenomenon as a whole.
Of Priests and Practitioners (Andreas Winkler)
Technical divination is continuously attested in ancient Egypt from at least the New Kingdom. Although no term seems to have existed for a diviner, the earliest material can already tell us something about the social context of this art. It is in the Graeco-Roman period that the textual material concerning diviners becomes plentiful, not only in terms of material relating to different divinatory techniques, such as mantic treatises, but also a number of texts that inform us about the diviners. Knowledge about reading and writing would in general have been limited to certain societal groups, such as priests. The technical treatises, furthermore, can in most cases be connected to a temple environment, which was therefore the primary locus for divinatory enquiries. This paper will briefly survey material relating to different diviners with a special focus on astrologers, who practiced a form of divination that required specialist knowledge of astronomy. It will attempt to locate these diviners among certain strata of the sacerdotal classes and therefore determine how widely disseminated astrological knowledge would have been within such groups.
Compliance and Compulsion. Interactions with the Divine in Egyptian Divination (Edward Love)
Focusing on the first and second questions raised within the framework of this conference, this contribution to the panel on Egyptian textual culture sources for divination will focus upon the emic terminology for, and mechanics utilised in, ritual practices from Graeco-Roman Egypt which evidence the interaction with deities and the dead in order to acquire foreknowledge.
Emic terms that describe both these ritual practices and their mechanics inform upon how such practices were defined, while the mechanics themselves inform upon how such practices were conceptualised as bringing about interaction with manifestations of the divine – in Egypt, both deities and the dead. Thus, this paper will analyse both Egyptian terminology for, and the diagnostic mechanics utilised in, ritual practices through which practitioners, or their mediums, are able to interact with the divine. This is in addition to stressing an aspect of these ritual practices which is diagnostically Egyptian – the compulsion of deities to bring about the desired outcome of the ritual practice. Manifestations of the divine, therefore, are not simply worshipped or flattered into compliance, but – when unyielding – forcibly compelled into submission, in order to ensure a theophany (in a lamp’s flame, the sun, or dream) through which the practitioner can question the deity/deceased about anything and everything the practitioner/client wishes to know about his/her future.
Ancient Israel
Divination in the Hebrew Bible, in Ancient Israel and as the Hebrew Bible (Jonathan Stökl)
This paper will be organised in three parts. In the first part I will present those biblical texts which construct and conceptualise divination in all its forms, including a brief outline of divinatory experts and where they are situated. In a second step I will look into the distinction between divination in the Hebrew Bible and in ancient Israel, based both on biblical texts and other available material from the ancient Near East. In a shorter third step I will look in ways in which some biblical texts are themselves the product of iterative divinatory activity and become the source of what one might call ‘scriptomancy’.
Each of these three steps comes with its own sets of questions and answers often around questions of reliability and authority of both diviner and oracular message, and what is to be done about either by their addressees, that is, to what extent is it possible for addressees to influence the way in which a predicted future actualised, either through ritual means or by changes of the condition on which a prediction is based—or not at all.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Soothsayers, Prophets, and Arabian Nativism on the Eve of Islam (James Little)
What was the relationship between (1) Arabian soothsayers, (2) the spread of Abrahamitic monotheism, (3) Arabian nativism, (4) the so-called ‘False Prophets’ of the riddah wars, and (5) the Islamic prophet Muḥammad in (6) early 7th-Century Arabia? More specifically, was Muḥammad some kind of monotheistic or ‘monotheised’ soothsayer? Each of these points is well-studied within the modern secondary literature of Islamic origins, but often disparately or in isolation from each other—the connections between them and implications thereof can be drawn more forcefully, with important implications for the emergence of Islam. My survey and analysis of pre-Islamic soothsayers in this context yields the following conclusions: if the extant Islamic depictions of Muḥammad and his milieu are basically accurate, then it seems likely that the spread of Abrahamitic monotheism throughout Arabia fused with the local Arabian tradition of soothsaying under the political and social pressure of unprecedented foreign (Roman, Persian, and Abyssinian) domination and encroachment to synchronously spawn community-building and law-giving soothsayers-cum-prophets-cum-nativist-leaders throughout the peninsula, including both Muḥammad and his rival Musaylimah. In other words, charismatic soothsayers in Arabia became prophets and leaders on the eve of Islam—resulting in, among other things, Islam itself. If on the other hand the extant Islamic depictions of the soothsayers and the False-Prophets are actually modelled upon the Islamic reports about Muḥammad (i.e., in order to serve as pale imitations or obvious fakes, legitimising the Prophet by comparison), then the similarities between them cannot be interpreted as reflecting some kind of broader social and political dynamic at work in early 7th-Century Arabia—it may in fact be the case that we know little to nothing about the enigmatic pre-Islamic soothsayers, and even Muḥammad.
China
Scepticism Towards Divination in Ancient China (Ashton Ng)
In most Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE) texts, divinations were faithfully undertaken to decipher Heaven’s will. Heaven was perceived as a sentient overlord who must be consulted before major political undertakings. By the late Western Zhou, however, some texts bitterly criticised a “pitiless Heaven” which did not intervene as the Zhou Kings lost their authority.
Chunqiu (770–403 BCE) texts began doubting the very existence of supernatural forces. Divination accounts from 590 to 468 BCE regularly involved heated debates between court diviners and sceptical statesmen. Interestingly, the statesman always wins such disputes, leaving “no doubt of the existence in these milieus of a deep crisis of belief in the traditional techniques of divination by turtle and yarrow.” In the words of a Chunqiu statesman, “the Way of Heaven is distant, while the Way of Men is near; unless it can be reached, how can [Heaven] be known? How can [the diviner] know the Way of Heaven?”
Some Warring States (403–221 BCE) texts explicitly criticised divination practices. No Warring States thinker except for Mozi assigns divine forces any significant role in political and social life. This talk introduces a few major sceptical positions adopted in ancient China towards divination.
The Divination Principle of the Taisu Pulse Diagnosis Method (Xiao Liqian)
This paper will focus on the divination function of the Chinese Taisu pulse diagnosis method. The traditional pulse diagnosis method of TCM has always been regarded as a way to diagnose the physiological condition of patients, but not to predict their fate. But the Taisu method can predict a patient's fate through diagnosing the pulse, so it is a kind of divination rather than just a physiological diagnosis. Since the principle of Taisu method is consistent with the traditional Chinese medicine’s method, moreover, TCM and Chinese divination are based on the same cosmology, it can be proved that TCM diagnosis is a kind of divination. In this way, we can expand our perspective on Chinese divination. By referring to the diagnosis methods of TCM, Chinese divination is not only able to predict the future, but also has the similar ability to diagnose the physiological function of human body. Therefore, this scientific function of Chinese divination is the most prominent characteristic that distinguishes it from other societies. At lastthis conclusion will be further proved by analyzing different kind of Chinese divination.
Written on Bones and Bamboo: Traces of Numerological Divination in Pre-Imperial Palaeographical Material (Flaminia Pischedda)
The relatively quite Early China Studies have been disrupted by the archaeological material largely excavated over the last forty years. This precious material made it possible to reconsider several aspects of human activity - history, religion, philosophy, and literary production. Divination, for its important socio-cultural implications, is to be included among these aspects.
Starting from the analysis of the two main divinatory techniques employed in ancient China –pyromancy and achilleomancy, or milfoil stalk method – in this paper, I will first discuss the interplay between these two techniques and the material support utilised during the divinatory act, mainly oracle bones and bamboo strips. I will then make an attempt to trace the origin of the divination method based on shuzi gua 數字卦 (lit. “numerical divinatory symbol”), which I consider as a distinctive method in its own right, at least in its earliest stage. Lastly, I will conclude with a focus on how an attentive analysis of this new material could potentially question the traditional view of the above-mentioned techniques.
Japan
Living the Dream: Prophetic Visions and Social Roles in the late Heian Period (Iris Tomé Valencia)
During the Heian period (794-1185), courtiers of both sexes often recorded in their diaries (nikki) prophetic dreams granted to them or to their close family members, connected to their expectations and hopes for social progress or spiritual salvation. Oftentimes, these dreams would come, unsolicited, in the form of a command or message from a divinity, but very frequently those desirous of knowing the future would embark in pilgrimages to specific temples, where they would perform particular rituals in hopes of receiving answers to given dilemmas. If such a journey seemed too difficult or time consuming, it was not uncommon to hire a priest who would make the trip and receive the dream for the gentleman or lady. The source of these visions were not, however, strictly limited to the world of the gods; poetry often mentions oneiric visitations between lovers and how to achieve them, and tales and diaries speak of humans dead and alive presenting themselves in other people’s dreams.
Divination manuals in Japan: transmit, adapt, recreate (Matthias Hayek)
Divination in Japan has both deep historical roots and a great extension, up to present day.
Since the establishment of a Chinese-inspired state in the 7th century, specialists of systemized, instrument-based divination have been part of the state administration, along with physicians, musicians, and their vocational skills have somehow survived, not without many discontinuities and transformations, throughout the centuries. In this long history, written sources have played a key role in transmitting divinatory knowledge among specialists as well as non-specialists. Although the manuals compiled by court diviners were kept “secret”, and turn into familial patrimony by a handful of lineages, court nobles did have some knowledge on the subject of calendar, a knowledge they put into encyclopedias and dictionaries. Likewise, medieval texts made their way into the Edo period and came to be published in print, and to be copied again by rural practitioners. Finally, newly established scholars on the subject came to devise their own manuals, looking at the same time for commercial profit, a teaching medium, and a renewed orthodoxy.
In this presentation, I will attempt to look at these three stages of written sources dealing with divination, with a focus on techniques using numerical values, in order to shed light on how, in their own way, they took part in a process of transmission, adaptation and recreation of divinatory knowledge.
India
An Underlying Divinatory Structure Common to Bharata and Semonides (Kenneth G. Zysk)
Two culturally different sources utilised a common divinatory structure to describe the character of women in the ancient world. One is composed in verses of Sanskrit śloka-metre and found in Bharata’s Naṭyaśāstra, a treatise on dramaturgy dating from a couple centuries before the Common Era, while the other is a fragment of verses in Greek iambic metre by Semonides, composed in the seventh century BCE. Both employed a fixed set of animal similes that relied on the syntactical structure of omens to illustrate different types of women. Five of the similes have common apodoses in both lists of female character types. This paper will examine the points of similarity between the two sets of omens in terms of both language and content. Since both have their roots in performance and theatre, we shall further posit possible scenarios for how the poem of Semonides, which was meant to be sung at the symposion, might have informed Bharata, whose didactic verses instructed actors in their performances, perhaps through the venue of the Indian goṣṭhi or men’s club in ancient India.
Germans & Celts
Divination among the pre-Christian Celts and Germans (Bernhard Maier)
The paper deals with the divinatory rites of the pre-Christian Celtic- and Germanic-speaking peoples, which are almost exclusively known from the testimony of classical writers. Spanning the period from the 3rd century BC to the 6th century AD, the rather few observations of Greek, Roman and Byzantine authors give but an imperfect idea of the religious ideas behind these rites, their complexity, and their social setting. The paper will focus on the references to necromancy, divination from the action of animals and extispicy, discussing the occasions on which they were practised, the social background of the practitioners, and possible points of contact between the classical evidence and later native traditions. It will also explore the question to what extent typological similarities between the descriptions of Celtic, Germanic and ancient Mediterranean
practices may be due to the cultural bias of the observers or rather to the diffusion of religious rites and ideas.
Slavs
Divination among the East Slavs (William F. Ryan)
My paper will offer a general survey of divination among the Orthodox East Slavs (present day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), as well as occasional reference to the South Slavs of Serbia and Bulgaria as transmitters of Byzantine culture. The period will be from approximately the 10th century (the beginning of Slav literacy) to the 17th. The paper will discuss early textual evidence of divinatory practices, and divinatory texts (in particular those of the 15th and 16th centuries) but also refer to Russian folkloric material from later periods, the relationship of written and oral traditions, and the attitudes of Church and State to divinatory practices.