Tyche Supplementband 15

Beschreibung

Although divination was omnipresent in the ancient and medieval worlds, previous research has largely overlooked the socio-historical significance of the phenomenon. This is all the more surprising given that in antiquity a wide range of methods of divination were in use – including palmomancy, omeromancy, astragalomancy, ornithomancy, omoplatomancy, chiromancy, eleomancy, alloiomancy, etc. – which exerted considerable social influence. The standardised answers provided by the treatises reflect the hopes and needs of members of all reflect social groups in the Roman and Byzantine worlds, particularly in times of crisis. This volume brings together for the first time the entire body of tradition relating to these treatises from late antiquity and the Middle Ages, and examines them from a socio-historical and cultural-historical perspective. To this end, all late antique papyri and inscriptions, as well as medieval manuscripts, have been examined and analysed. These texts provide insight into the expectations of those who consulted such forms of divination at the time: professional or business success, wealth, social advancement, but also health, love or marriage. They are thus a social-historical source of the first order, which, incidentally, also informs us specifically about marginalised groups in society at the time, such as women and slaves. At the same time, this literature offers clues to hidden threads of continuity in divinatory theory and practice from antiquity to the modern era.

Autor*in

Salvatore Constanza

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