Ophiomancy, divination by serpents. This word is formed from the Greek ὄφις, serpent , and μαντεία, divination . The ancients used ophiomancy often; it consisted of divining good or bad omens from the various movements of serpents they observed. We find several examples among the Poets. Thus, in Virgil’s Aeneid book V , Aeneas sees an enormous serpent, whose body makes a thousand winding coils, emerge from Anchises’s tomb. This serpent slithers around the tomb and altars, slides between the vases and cups, tastes all the offered meats, and then returns to the bottom of the sepulcher without harming those present. The hero interprets this as a good omen for the success of his plans.

Nothing was as simple as the origin of this divination. “The serpent, says M. Pluche, “symbol of life and health, so common in sacred figures, so often a part of Isis’s coiffure, always attached to Mercury’s and Aesculapius’s staffs, inseparable from the chest that contained the mysteries, and eternally brought into the ceremonial, passed for one of the greatest ways of knowing the will of the gods. 

“People had so much faith,” he adds, “in serpents and their prophecies, that they raised them expressly for this use; and by domesticating them, prophets and predictions were within reach. A multitude of experiments carried out over the last few years by our apothecaries and by most of our botanists, to whom the occasion presents itself frequently when they go plant collecting, have taught us that grass snakes do not have teeth or venom, and do not bite. The audacity with which the seers and the priests of idols handled these animals was based on the proof of their inability to cause harm; but this boldness impressed people, and a minister who handled the grass snake with impunity undoubtedly must have possessed knowledge bestowed by the gods.” Histoire du Ciel, volume I, page 447 . [1]

The Marsi, a people of Italy, bragged about possessing the secret of putting to sleep and handling the most dangerous serpents. The ancients report the same thing about the Psylli, an African people; and we can even consider as a type of ophiomancy the custom the latter had of exposing their newborn children to vipers, to know if they were legitimate or born of adultery. As Lucan, translated by Brébeuf says, 

We find a very curious treatise on this subject by Abbé Souchay, in the memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, volume VII, p. 273.

1. Noël-Antoine Pluche, Histoire du ciel considéré selon les idées des poëtes, des philosophes, et de Moïse (Paris, 1739), or, in English translation : The History of the Heavens: Considered according to the notions of the poets and philosophers, compared with the doctrines of Moses (London, 1740). Abbé Pluche (1688-1761) was a popular writer, best known for his Spectacle de la nature ou Entretiens sur les particularités de l’histoire naturelle qui ont paru les plus propres à rendre les jeunes gens curieux et à leur former l’esprit , 9 volumes (1732-42), translated as : Spectacle de la nature: or, Nature display'd. Being discourses on such particulars of natural history as were thought most proper to excite the curiosity, and form the minds of youth, 7 volumes (London, 1763-66).

2. Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan) was a Roman poet (39-65), most remembered for his epic poem Pharsalia , about the civil war between Julius Caesar and the Roman Senate. French poet and translator Georges de Brébeuf (1618-1661) was best known for his translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia. The excerpt from Brébeuf in the Encylopédie entry was written in alexandrine verse as follows:

Not included in Encyclopédie entry, his translation continues:

Brébeuf’s full translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia is available at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn64tv&view=1up&seq=1. See p. 356 of this work for the excerpt above (Lucan, 39-65, and Mr. de (Georges) Brébeuf. La Pharsale de Lucain, ou, Les guerres civiles de Cesar et de Pompée . A Paris: Chez Jean Ribou, 1670).

To maintain the poetic nature of this section of the article while rendering it understandable for non-French-speaking readers, we translated the French text to verse form in English. However, Brébeuf took some liberties with his translation of the original Latin, which reads as follows, in Liber IX, verses 898-908:

(Lucan, 39-65, Thomas May, and Frans van Oudendorp. Pharsalia . Londini: sumtibus Rodwell et Martin [etc.] excudit T. Davison, 1820, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn658s&view=1up&seq=210). The following English translation of Pharsalia may be helpful in understanding how this Latin text differs from Brébeuf’s translation:

(Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas), 1816-1878. The Pharsalia of Lucan. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1884, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0001555663&view=1up&seq=405).