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Augury was a Greco-Roman religion practice of observing the behavior of birds, to receive omens. When the individual, known as the augur, read these signs, it was referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" (Latin: auspicium) means "looking at birds". Auspex, another word for augur, can be translated to "one who looks at birds". [1]
The occult (from the Latin word occultus "clandestine, hidden, secret") is "knowledge of the hidden". [1] In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable", [2] usually referred to as science.
Pages in category "Words and phrases derived from Greek mythology" The following 39 pages are in this category, out of 39 total. This list may not reflect recent changes .
The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively; the divinely ordained condition of peace (pax deorum) was an outcome of successful augury. Those whose actions had led to divine wrath ( ira deorum ) could not have possessed a true right of augury ( ius augurum ). [ 9 ]
The word has three closely related meanings in augury: the observing of signs by an augur or other diviner; the process of observing, recording, and establishing the meaning of signs over time; and the codified body of knowledge accumulated by systematic observation, that is, "unbending rules" regarded as objective, or external to an individual ...
Ornithomancy (modern term from Greek ornis "bird" and manteia "divination"; in Ancient Greek: 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, and is equivalent to the augury employed by the ancient Romans.
The 1890 Elementary Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary makes a connection between "tripudium" used as a word for a sacred dance, and as used in connection with auspices or auguries - namely, that in the latter connection, it means, not the dropping of food from the mouths of chickens (in a favorable augury, where the chickens eat), but instead the ...
Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...