In thereligion of ancient Rome, aharuspex[a] was a person trained to practise a form ofdivination calledharuspicy,[b] the inspection of the entrails[c] ofsacrificed animals, especially thelivers of sacrificedsheep andpoultry. 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 termhepatoscopy (alsohepatomancy).
The Roman concept is directly derived fromEtruscan religion, as one of the three branches of thedisciplina Etrusca.
The Latin termsharuspex andharuspicina are from an archaic word,hīra = "entrails, intestines" (cognate withhernia = "protruding viscera" andhira = "empty gut"; PIE*ǵʰer-) and from the rootspec- = "to watch, observe". The Greek ἡπατοσκοπίαhēpatoskōpia is fromhēpar = "liver" andskop- = "to examine".
The spread of hepatoscopy is one of the clearest examples of cultural contact in the orientalizing period. It must have been a case of East-West understanding on a relatively high, technical level. The mobility of migrant charismatics is the natural prerequisite for this diffusion, the international role of sought-after specialists, who were, as far as their art was concerned, nevertheless bound to their father-teachers. We cannot expect to find many archaeologically identifiable traces of such people, other than some exceptional instances.
— Walter Burkert, 1992.The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age (Thames and Hudson), p. 51.
The Babylonians were famous for hepatoscopy. This practice is mentioned in theBook of Ezekiel 21:21:
For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; heshaketh the arrows to and fro, he inquireth of theteraphim, he looketh in the liver.[1][2]
One Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver, dated between 1900 and 1600 BC, is conserved in theBritish Museum.[3]
The Assyro-Babylonian tradition was also adopted inHittite religion. At least thirty-six liver-models have been excavated atHattusa. Of these, the majority are inscribed in Akkadian, but a few examples also have inscriptions in the nativeHittite language, indicating the adoption of haruspicy as part of the native, vernacular cult.[4]
Roman haruspicy was a form of communication with the gods. Rather than strictly predicting future events, this form of Roman divination allowed humans to discern the attitudes of the gods and react in a way that would maintain harmony between the human and divine worlds (pax deorum).[5] Before taking important actions, especially in battle, Romans conducted animal sacrifices to discover the will of the gods according to the information gathered through reading the animals' entrails.[5] The entrails (most importantly the liver, but also the lungs and heart) contained a large number of signs that indicated the gods' approval or disapproval. These signs could be interpreted according to the appearance of the organs, for example, if the liver was "smooth, shiny and full" or "rough and shrunken".[6] The Etruscans looked for thecaput iocineris, or "head of the liver". It was considered a bad omen if this part was missing from the animal's liver. The haruspex would then study the flat visceral side of the liver after examining thecaput iocineris.[7]
Haruspicy in Ancient Italy originated with the Etruscans. Textual evidence for Etruscan divination comes from an Etruscan inscription: the priest Laris Pulenas' (250–200 BCE) epitaph mentions a book he wrote on haruspicy. A collection of sacred texts called theEtrusca disciplina, written in Etruscan, were essentially guides on different forms of divination, including haruspicy andaugury.[8] In addition, a number of archeological artifacts depict Etruscan haruspicy. These include a bronze mirror with an image of a haruspex dressed in Etruscan priest's clothing, holding a liver while a crowd gathers near him. Another significant artifact relating to haruspicy in Ancient Italy is thePiacenza Liver. This bronze model of a sheep's liver was found by chance by a farmer in 1877. Names of gods are etched into the surface and organized into different sections.[8] Artifacts depicting haruspicy exist from the ancient Roman world as well, such as stone relief carvings located inTrajan's Forum.[6]
In southwest Ethiopia and adjacent area ofSouth Sudan, a number of ethnic communities have had the practice of reading animal entrails to divine the future.[9] Some of the groups that have been documented as having this practice includeSuri,Mursi,Topsa,Nyangatom,Didinga,Murle,Me'en,Turkana,Konso,[10]Dime,[11]Karamojong,[12]Dodoth,[13]Kalenjin people[14]
Haruspication has also been practiced in Kenya, such as theKamba[15] and theKipsikis.[16]
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