Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

416 DIVINATIO. DIVINATIO.
kinds of divinatio. The subject of oracles is dis- v. 43), Musaeus (Herod. vii. 6), Euclous of Cypruls
cussed in a separate article. [ORACULUM.] (Paus. x. 12. ~ 6), and Lycus, son of Pandion
The belief that the decrees of the divine will (Paus. i. c.), probably belonged to the Bacides.
were occasionally revealed by the deity himself, or The Sibyllae were prophetic women, probably of
could be discovered by certain iudividuals, is one Asiatic origin, whose peculiar custom seems to
which the classical nations of antiquity had, in have been to wander with their sacred books from
comnlon with many other nations, before the place to place. (Liv. i. 7.) Aelian (V. H. xii. 35)
attainment of a certain degree of intellectual culti- states that, according to some authors, there were
vation. In early ages such a belief was natural, four Sibyllae, - the Erythraean, the Samian, the
and perhaps founded on the feeling of a very close Egyptian, and the Sardinian; but that others
connection between man, God, and nature. But added six more, among whom there was one
in the course of time, when men became more ac- called the Cunaean, and another called the Jewish
quainted with the laws of nature, this belief was Sibylla. Compare Suidas (s. v. ievuXXat), and
abandoned, at least by the more enlightened minds, Pausanias (x. 12), who has devoted a whole chapwhile the multitudes still continued to adhere to ter to the Sibyllae, in which, however, he does not
it; and the governmlents, seeing the advantages to cleafly distinguish between the Sibyllae properly
be derived from it, not only countenanced, but en- so called, and other women who travelled about
couraged and supported it. and made the prophetic art their profession, and
The seers or di'reTls, who, under the direct influ- who seem to have been very numerous in all parts
ence of the gods, chiefly that of Apollo, announced of the ancient world. (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 31]9.)
the future, seem originally to have been connected The Sibylla whose books gained so great an inmwith certain places where oracles were given; but portance at Rome, was, according to Varro (caq.
in subsequent times they formed a distinct class of Lactant. i. 6), the Erythraean: the books which
persons, independent of any locality; one of them she was said to have sold to one of the Tarquins,
is Calchas in the Homeric poems. Apollo, the were carefully concealed from the public, and only
god of prophecy, was generally the source from accessible to the duumvirs. The early existence
which the seers, as well as other diviners, derived of the Sibyllae is not as certain as that of the
their knowledge. In many families of seers the Bacides; but in some legends of a late date, they
inspired knowledge of the future was considered occur even in the period previous to the Trojan
to be hereditary, and to be transmitted from father war, and it is not improbable that at an early
to son. To these famnilies belonged the Iamids period every town inl Greece had its prophecies by
(Paus. iii. 11. ~ 5, &c.; Bickh, ad Pind. 01. vi. some Bacis or Sibylla. (Paus. 1. c.) They seem to
p. 152), who from Olympia spread over a con- have retained their celebrity down to the time of
siderable part of Greece; the Branchidae, near Antiochus and Demetrius. (Sec Niebuhr, Hist. of
Miletus (Conon, 33); the Eumolpids, at Athens Romne, i. p. 503, &c.)
and Eleusis; the Clytiads (Paus. vi. 17. ~ 4), the Besides these more respectable prophets and
Telliads (Herod. viii. 27; Paus. x. 1. ~ 4, &c.; prophetesses, there were numbers of diviners of an
Herod. ix. 37), the Acarnlanian seers, and others. inferior order (Xp-looXOAdyoi), who made it their
Some of these families retained their celebrity business to explain all sorts of signs, and to tell
till a very late period of Grecian history. The fortunes. They were, however, more particularly
manteis made their revelations either when re- popular with the lower orders, who are everywhere
quested to do so on important emergencies, or most ready to believe what is most marvellous and
they made them spontaneously whenever they least entitled to belief. This class of diviners,
thought it necessary, either to prevent some however, does not seem to have existed until a
calamity or to stimulate their countrymen to somse- comparativelylate period (Thucyd. ii. 21; Aristoph.
thing beneficial. The civil government of Athens Aves, 897, Pax, 986,1034, &c.), and to have been
not only tolerated, but protected and honoured looked upon, even by the Greeks themselves, as
them; and Cicero (De Divie:at. i. 43) says, that nuisances to the public.
the manteis were present in all the public assemn- These soothsayers lead us naturally to the mode
Lblies of the Athenians. (Compare Aristoph. Pax, of divination, of which such frequent use was smade
1025, with the Schol.; Nub. 325, &c. and the by the ancients in all the affairs of public and
Schol.; Lycurg. c. Leocrat. p. 196.) Along with private life, and which chiefly consisted in the in.
the seers we may also mention the Bacides and terpretation of numberless signs and phenomena.
the Sibyllae. Both existed from a very remote No public undertaking of any consequence was
time, and were distinct from the mnanteis so fstr as ever entered upon by the Greeks and Romans
they pretended to derive their knowledge of the without consulting the will of the gods, by observfuture frdom sacred bools (Xpnscol) which they ing the signs which they sent, especially those in
consulted, and which were in some places, as at the sacrifices offered for the purpose, and by which
Athens and Rome, kept by.the government or they were thought to indicate the success or the
some especial officers, in the acropolis and in the failure of the undertaking. For this kind of divimost revered sanctuary. Bacis was, according to nation no divine inspiration was thought necessary,
Pausanias (x. 12. ~ 6; compare with iv. 27. ~ 2), but merely experience and a certain knowledge
in Boeotia a general name for a man inspired acquired by routine; and although in some cases
by nymphs. The Scholiast on Aristophanes (Pax, priests were appointed for the purpose of observing
1009) and Aelian (V. 1. xii. 35) mention three and explaining signs [AUGUR; HALUsrEx], yet
original Bacides, one of Eleon in Boeotia, a second on any sudden emergency, especially in private
of Athens, and a third of Caphys in Arcadia. affiirs, any one who met with something extraor(Compare Aristoph. Equzit. 123, 998, Aves, 963; dinary, might act as his own interpreter. The
Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 398.) From these three principal signs by which the gods were thought to
Bacides all others were said to be descended, and declare their will, were things connected with the
to have derived their name. Antichares (HIerod. offering of sacrifices, the flight and voice of birds,