Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990) is a World Fantasy Award-nominated novel, written as a collaboration between the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book is a comedy about the birth of the son of Satan, the coming of the End Times. There are attempts by the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley to sabotage the coming of the end times, having grown accustomed to their comfortable surroundings in England. One subplot features a mixup at the small country hospital on the day of birth and the growth of the Antichrist, Adam, who grows up with the wrong family, in the wrong country village. Another subplot concerns the summoning of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, each a big personality in their own right. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 68 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.
Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language written in Mesopotamia during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
Picus was a figure in Roman mythology, was the first king of Latium. He was the son of Saturn also known as Stercutus. He was the founder of the first Latin tribe and settlement, Laurentum, located a few miles to the Southeast of the site of the later city of Rome. He was known for his skill at augury and horsemanship. According to Festus he got his name as a consequence of the fact that he used to rely on a woodpecker for the purpose of divination. Picus was also described to be quite handsome, sought after by nymphs and naiads. The witch Circe attempted to seduce him with her charms and herbs while he was on a hunting trip, but he savagely rejected her. She turned him into a woodpecker for scorning her love. When his comrades accused Circe of her crime and demanded Picus' release, she turned them too into a variety of beasts. Picus' wife was Canens, a nymph. After Picus' transformation she wandered madly through the forest for 6 days until finally she lay down on the bank of the Tiber and died. They had one son, Faunus.
The Dayak or Dyak or Dayuh are the native people of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorised as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia. The Dayak were animist in belief; however, many converted to Islam and since the 19th century there has been mass conversion to Christianity.
The Omen is a 1976 British-American supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner, and written by David Seltzer. The film stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer Stephens, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Troughton, Martin Benson, and Leo McKern. The first installment of The Omen franchise, The Omen concerns a young child replaced at birth by American Ambassador Robert Thorn (Peck) unbeknownst to his wife (Remick), after their own son was murdered at the hospital, enabling the son of Satan to grow up with wealth and power. They are surrounded by mysterious and ominous deaths, unaware that the child, Damien, is the Antichrist.
Havdalah is a Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Sabbath and ushers in the new week. The ritual involves lighting a special havdalah candle with several wicks, blessing a cup of wine and smelling sweet spices. Shabbat ends on Saturday night after the appearance of three stars in the sky. Some communities delay the Havdalah in order to prolong Shabbat.
Lilith Clay is a fictional character who appears in DC Comics' Teen Titans titles. She is the best friend of Donna Troy, and the second hero to join the original Teen Titans after its founders, the first being Speedy. Although her origin and powers have varied significantly throughout her history she is consistently seen as both precognitive and psychic.
Omen IV: The Awakening is a 1991 American made-for-television horror film that serves as the fourth and final addition to the original The Omen series, directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard. This was intended to be the first of many televisual sequels to 20th Century Fox's film history of popular titles. Producer Harvey Bernhard, who produced the last three films, felt there could be more done to the series. This was the last film he produced. He previously wrote the story for the second film but this is the only film that he co-wrote.
Pulluvan Paattu is serpent worship performed in the houses of the lower castes as well as those of the higher castes, in addition to serpent temples. The pulluvar of Kerala are closely connected to the serpent worship. One group considers the snake gods their presiding deity and perform sacrifices and sing songs.
Hakuchi (白雉) was a Japanese era name after the Taika era and before Shuchō. This period spanned the years from February 650 through December 654. The reigning emperor was Kōtoku-tennō (孝徳天皇).
Gopikabai was the daughter of Bhikaji Naik Raste of Wai, near Pune.
A European superstition holds that spilling salt is an evil omen.
Falnama is a book of omens used by fortune tellers in Iran and Turkey during the 16th and 17th centuries. Individuals seeking insight into the future would engage in a series of purification rituals, turn to a random page in the Falnama, and interpret the text and drawings thereon for good or ill. Falnama manuscripts were primarily created during the 16th and 17th centuries as the Islamic calendar was approaching the year 1000.
Esagil-kin-apli was the ummânū, or chief scholar, of Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina, 1067–1046 BC, as he appears on the Uruk List of Sages and Scholars listed beside him and is best known for his Diagnostic Handbook, Sakikkū (SA.GIG), a medical treatise which uses symptoms to ascertain etiology, frequently supernatural, and prognosis, which became the received text during the first millennium.
The NAM-BÚR-BI are magical texts which take the form of incantations. They were named for a series of prophylactic Babylonian and Assyrian rituals to avert inauspicious portents before they took on tangible form. At the core of these rituals was an appeal by the subject of the sinister omen to the divine judicial court to obtain a change to his impending fate. From the corpus of Babylonian-Assyrian religious texts that has survived, there are approximately one hundred and forty texts, many preserved in several copies, to which this label may be applied.
The Bārûtu, the “art of the diviner,” is a monumental ancient Mesopotamian compendium of the science of extispicy or sacrificial omens stretching over around a hundred cuneiform tablets which was assembled in the Neo-Assyrian/Babylonian period based upon earlier recensions. At the Assyrian court, the term extended to encompass sacrificial prayers and rituals, commentaries and organ models. The ikribu was the name of collections of incantations to accompany the extispicy. The bārûtu's extant predecessors date back to Old Babylonian times with the liver models from Mari and where the order of the exta were largely fixed.
Mukīl rēš lemutti, inscribed in cuneiform Sumerian syllabograms as (d)SAG.ḪUL.ḪA.ZA and meaning "he who holds the head of evil", was an ancient Mesopotamian winged leonine demon, a harbinger of misfortune associated with benign headaches and wild swings in mood, where the afflicted "continually behaves like an animal caught in a trap." It was one of the two demons that followed people around, an “evil accomplice” also referred to as rabis lemutti, with its auspicious alter-ego mukīl rēš daniqti or rabis damiqti.
Zyon Cavalera is a Brazilian American drummer, best known as the son of ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera and as the current drummer for Soulfly and Lody Kong.
Good Omens is an upcoming television serial based on the 1990 novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A co-production between Amazon Prime and BBC Two, the six-part series was directed by Douglas Mackinnon and written by Gaiman, who served as showrunner. The series stars an ensemble cast featuring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, Anna Maxwell Martin, Josie Lawrence, Adria Arjona, Michael McKean, Jack Whitehall, Miranda Richardson and Nick Offerman.
