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Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature, supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand.
Fragment of early Sortes text. The Sortes Astrampsychi (Oracles of Astrampsychus) was a popular Greco-Roman fortune-telling guide ascribed to Astrampsychus, identified by ancient authors as a magus who lived in Persia before the conquest of Alexander the Great, [1] or an Egyptian sage serving a Ptolemaic king. [2]
Cassandra or Kassandra (/ k ə ˈ s æ n d r ə /; [2] Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, pronounced, sometimes referred to as Alexandra; Ἀλεξάνδρα) [3] in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a ...
Astragalomancy was performed in Ancient Greece through the rolling of Astragaloi and subsequent consultation of "dice oracles", tables of divination results carved into statues or monoliths. [8] Astragaloi are the marked and cut off knucklebones of sheep, or similarly shaped imitations in bronze or wood that served as divination dice in the ...
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 .
Tyche (/ ˈ t aɪ k i /; Ancient Greek: Τύχη Túkhē, 'Luck', Ancient Greek: [tý.kʰɛː], Modern Greek:; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny.
The Fortune Teller, by Enrique Simonet (1899; canvas; Museo de Málaga), depicting a palm reading. Pagtatawas by reading melted alum; pallomancy: by pendulums (Greek pallein, ' to sway ' + manteía, ' prophecy ') palmistry/palm reading → see somatomancy (Latin palma, ' palm ')
If a distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, [citation needed] usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes.