Extispices, the fortune tellers who read the viscera

The human being feels and has felt a deep concern for his future and has wanted to know what this holds.From the Neolithic to the present day there have been people who have believed with diverse arts and by various means that could glimpse the unpredictable. Among these there were some known as Extispices or Aruspices, the fortune tellers who read the viscera.

Los Extispices, viscera readers

The word extispice comes from Latin: from «exta» , which means entrana and "Infpicio" which means "I examine" .This name is what the Romans gave a specific type of fortune teller: the one who read the future in the bowels of the animals .Inspecting their viscera could predict future events by the shape, color, size or special signs of some organs.

Bronze liver from Piacenza, used for the divination of Etruscan aruspices

They sacrificed animals , especially rams, sheep and poultry and, examining their viscera, intended to guess the will of divinity regarding the future.This art was very useful to a number of people to kidnap the will of the gods and make them say what was right for them .Ancient Greek and Roman societies took a lot of consideration for this kind of fortune teller , which originally came from Etruria.

Extispices, the fortune tellers who read the viscera

This type of divination was known as « extispicin » and required some anatomical knowledge of animals s Acrified: The liver was the main source of information for the fortune teller, although the heart, intestines or spleen were also commonly used . By ancient writings we know that:

-If you wanted to establish a camp or build in a specific place, an animal was sacrificed and your liver was studied.If this damaged was an indication that the project should be abandoned , assuming that the water and grass were not good and for this reason the liver appeared in poor condition.

-If the liver of the slaughtered animal was double was considered a fatal omen , just as if a thin or small heart was found .The worst omen was when no very suspicious heart-thing was found-It was said that on the day of Julio Cesar's death two oxen had been sacrificed and that viscera had not been found in him.

-If the they were pale, more bloodied than usual or they fell to the fortune teller, the disaster was near .

Extispices, the fortune tellers who read the viscera

The extispices or aruspices also examined the behavior of the animal when attending the slaughter, if its agony was slow or painful, as it was the flame that came out when burning the entrails, the incense used for the sacrifice...and a host of other things.Little by little the habit of going to the extispices or aruspices was declining until considering them little more than Charlatans.Do fortune tellers from later times who read the future in the coffee grounds or are you considered reminiscent of the extispices.Do you know other similar divinatory arts? If you have been interested in this article, you may want to read:

-Predicting the future.The craziest methods of antiquity

-The computer that is capable of predicting the future

Images: Lokilech, Titi Sitria

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