Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history,diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs,events,or omens,or through alleged contact or interaction with supernatural agencies such as spirits,gods,god-like-beings or the "will of the universe".
Hecate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology,most often shown holding a pair of torches,a key,or snakes,or accompanied by dogs,and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. She is variously associated with crossroads,night,light,magic,protection from witchcraft,drugs,and the Moon. Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's Theogony in the 8th century BCE as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky,earth,and sea. She had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly,and an important sanctuary among the Carians of Asia Minor in Lagina. Her oldest known representation was found in Selinunte,in Sicily.
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis,from Latin super-,("above,beyond,or outside of") + natura,("nature"). Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanings since the ancient world,the term "supernatural" emerged in the Middle Ages and did not exist in the ancient world.
In Greek mythology,Coeus,also called Polus,was one of the Titans,one of the three groups of children born to Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth).
Mormo was a female spirit in Greek folklore,whose name was invoked by mothers and nurses to frighten children to keep them from misbehaving.
In Ancient Greek religion and mythology,Enodia,also spelled Ennodia and Einodia is a distinctly Thessalian goddess,identified in certain areas or by certain ancient writers with Artemis,Hecate or Persephone. She was paired with Zeus in cult and sometimes shared sanctuaries with him. Enodia was primarily worshipped in Ancient Thessaly and was well known in Hellenistic Macedonia.
In ancient Greek religion,an orgion was an ecstatic form of worship characteristic of some mystery cults. The orgion is in particular a cult ceremony of Dionysos,celebrated widely in Arcadia,featuring "unrestrained" masked dances by torchlight and animal sacrifice by means of random slashing that evoked the god's own rending and suffering at the hands of the Titans. The orgia that explained the role of the Titans in Dionysos's dismemberment were said to have been composed by Onomacritus. Greek art and literature,as well as some patristic texts,indicate that the orgia involved snake handling.
Ivan Mortimer Linforth was an American scholar,Professor of Greek at University of California,Berkeley. According to the Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists he was "one of the great Hellenists of his time". He is best known for his book The Arts of Orpheus (1941),in which he analysed a large number of sources for Orphism and Orphic literature. His work is noted for its thoroughly sceptical approach to the evidence,attempting to the repudiate the notions of a coherent Orphism put forward by earlier scholars. His conclusion was that there was no exclusively "Orphic" system of belief in Ancient Greece. His work had an impact on the scholarship of Orphism,with Eric R. Dodds writing in 1951 that due to Linforth "[t]he edifice reared by an ingenious scholarship upon these foundations remains for me a house of dreams".
Gello,in Greek mythology,is a female demon or revenant who threatens the reproductive cycle by causing infertility,miscarriage,and infant mortality. By the Byzantine era,the gelloudes (γελλούδες) were considered a class of beings. Women believed to be under demonic possession by gelloudes might stand trial or be subjected to exorcism.
The Chaldean Oracles are a set of spiritual and philosophical texts widely used by Neoplatonist philosophers from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. While the original texts have been lost,they have survived in the form of fragments consisting mainly of quotes and commentary by Neoplatonist writers. They were likely to have originally formed a single mystery-poem,which may have been in part compiled,in part received via trance,by Julian the Chaldean,or more likely,his son,Julian the Theurgist in the 2nd century CE. Later Neoplatonists,such as Iamblichus and Proclus,rated them highly. The 4th-century emperor Julian suggests in his Hymn to the Magna Mater that he was an initiate of the God of the Seven Rays,and was an adept of its teachings. When Christian Church Fathers or other Late Antiquity writers credit "the Chaldeans",they are probably referring to this tradition.
Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood was a scholar in the field of Ancient Greek religion and a highly influential Hellenist.
A mastos is an ancient Greek drinking vessel shaped like a woman's breast. The type is also called a parabolic cup,and has parallel examples made of glass or silver. Examples are primarily in black-figure or white ground technique,though early examples may be red-figure. A mastos typically has two handles and a "nipple" at the bottom,though some examples have a foot as a base instead. A mastoid cup is conical,but with a flat bottom,with or without handles.
In Greek mythology,Soteria was the goddess or spirit (daimon) of safety and salvation,deliverance,and preservation from harm. Soteria was also an epithet of the goddesses Persephone and Hecate,meaning deliverance and safety.
Greek divination is the divination practiced by ancient Greek culture as it is known from ancient Greek literature,supplemented by epigraphic and pictorial evidence. Divination is a traditional set of methods of consulting divinity to obtain prophecies (theopropia) about specific circumstances defined beforehand. As it is a form of compelling divinity to reveal its will by the application of method,it is,and has been since classical times,considered a type of magic. Cicero condemns it as superstition. It depends on a presumed "sympathy" between the mantic event and the real circumstance,which he denies as contrary to the laws of nature. If there were any sympathy,and the diviner could discover it,then "men may approach very near to the power of gods."
Froma I. Zeitlin is an American Classics scholar. She specializes in ancient Greek literature,with particular interests in epic,drama and prose fiction,along with work in gender criticism,and the relationship between art and text in the context of the visual culture of antiquity. Zeitlin's work on establishing new approaches to Greek tragedy has been considered particularly influential.
Peter T. Struck is professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania and incoming dean of the university's College of Arts &Sciences. He is the co-founder with Sarah Igo of the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education. He sits on the editorial board of the Journal of the History of Ideas.
Esther Eidinow FBA is a British ancient historian and academic. She specialises in ancient Greece,particularly ancient Greek religion and magic. She has been Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol since 2017.
Susan Guettel Cole is Professor Emerita at the University at Buffalo in the Department of Classics. She is known for her work on Ancient Greek Religion and gender.
Ruby Blondell is Professor Emerita of Classics and Adjunct Professor Emerita of Gender,Women,&Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington;prior to retirement,they were the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of Humanities also at the University of Washington. Their research centres on Greek intellectual history,gender studies,and the reception of ancient myth in contemporary culture.
Carolina López-Ruiz is a Spanish classicist specializing in comparative mythology,Ancient Mediterranean religions,Greek language and literature,North-West Semitic languages and literatures,and cultural exchange. She has authored several works on the Phoenician civilization,and contacts between Greek and Near Eastern cultures.
