Omens and Oracles Divination in Ancient Greece

The Klytiadai -- Deiphonos: Establishing mantic credentials -- Euenios: 'Natural' mantike -- The origins of manteis -- Honours for manteis -- Financial rewards -- Professional risks -- Manteis and the Athenian state: Hierokles and Lampon -- Manteis as healers? -- The mantis as warrior -- Mantic self-prediction of their own death -- 'A plot of the most terrible kind' -- Diotima and female diviners -- Belly-talking diviners (engastrimanteis) -- Talking heads -- Of oracles on skins: Human and animal -- Epimenides the 'most foreknowing' -- Alexander of Abonouteichos and his prophetic serpent -- Aristander of Telmessos: Alexander the Great and his manteis -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 4: 'Interpreting omens from birds' -- Poseidippos: Oionoskopika (omens from birds) -- Eagles in the Homeric poems -- Ominous ravens and Alexander the Great -- The ominous status of the raven and eagle -- A veritable menagerie of wingéd birds -- 'Positions of birds, their calls, and their flight' -- Ornithomanteia as a techne -- An ornithoskopic seat -- For the flapping of wings was not without meaning -- Eagle omens and the sarcophagi of Klazomenai -- Herons: A brassard and a vase -- Eagles and the iconography of battle -- Sirens: human-headed birds with the art of prophecy -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 5: Portents and prodigies -- Cosmological omens -- Solar and lunar eclipses -- Thunder, lightning and rain -- Earthquakes -- Meteors as signs -- Burning and bloodied temples -- Portentous weapons -- Statue divination -- Blood on the walls and rafters -- Prophetic flora and fauna -- Theophrastos' 'Superstitious Man' -- Telmessos: Interpreting terata -- Phemai and Kledonomanteia: Omens from a chance utterance -- Sneezes and related noises -- The omens for the Sicilian Expedition (415-413 bc) -- Teratological births -- Omens accompanying births -- Conclusion -- Notes