Live Science
Haruspicy, also known as extispicy or hepatoscopy, is a method of divination based on examination of the entrails of slaughtered animals, mostly goats, lambs and calves, although dogs and cats were also sometimes used.[1][2] The diviner was known as a haruspex.[1]
The underlying idea was that the internal organs of animals sacrificed to the gods could be a medium for their messages. The liver, considered to be the site of the soul, was the most important organ, but the animal’s heart, lungs, kidneys, spleen and intestines were also examined.[3]
A life-size bronze model of a sheep’s liver was discovered near the city of Piacenza, in northern Italy, known as Placentia to the Romans.[4] Its convex side is divided into forty sections, each inscribed with the names of one or more Etruscan deities.[2] The liver represents the heavens, and each section the abodes of the gods in the sky. By examining each corresponding part of the liver the haruspex was able to determine which gods were angry, which were favourable or neutral, and thus what the future had in store.[5]
See also
- OrnithomancyMethod of divination that uses the behaviour of birds to predict the future.
- ScryingForm of divination in which the diviner gazes into a reflective surface, in which visions appear.
- Sortes BiblicaeMethod of divination used by some Christians to foretell the future by interpreting randomly chosen texts from the Bible.