The Melammu Project

The Heritage of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East

  The Melammu Project
  Database
   General description
   Search string
   Browse by topic
   Search keyword
   Submit entry
  Bibliographies
   About
   Open search
   Thematic search
   Digital Library
   Submit item
  Links
   Ancient texts
   Dictionaries
   Projects
   Varia
   Submit link
  FAQ
  Contact us
  About

  The Newsletter
  To Project Information >

Practices of divination (1)

Printable view

Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)
Hemerological and menological omens (Iqqur īpuš)
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.02 Omen interpretation
05.02.04 Hemerological and menological omens (Iqqur īpuš)
Physiognomic omens (Alandimmû and Nigdimdimmû)
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.02 Omen interpretation
05.02.06 Physiognomic omens (Alandimmû and Nigdimdimmû)
Weather Omens
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.02 Omen interpretation
05.02.01 Celestial omens (Enūma Anu Enlil)
05.02.01.03 Weather Omens

Keywords
omens
physiognomy
weather

Period
2nd century CE
4th century CE
Byzantine Empire
Roman Empire

Channel
Christian-Roman philosophers and scholars
Christian-Syriac poets

Text
Ephrem enumerates the books and divinatory practices of his time, which are also well known from the ancient Mesopotamia. The same practices are hinted at in the other contemporary sources as well.

Ephrem Syrus, Hymns against Heresies 1.14:
(Involuntary) movements of the body parts, divination concerning the (appropriate) times, the books - the Book of Thunder; another, the Book of Secrets, the Book of the Troops (of Ghosts, sfar ṭulqē), (the Book) of Zodiacal Signs.

pseudo-Justin Martyr, Quaestiones et Responsiones 29:
Wenn die Divination aus den unwillkürlichen Bewegungen der Glieder zu den von den Frommen verbotenen Dingen gehört, warum vermögen sie die Frommen trotz aller Anstrengung nicht zu beseitigen?

Julian Novel (Syriac):
Und der Zauberer schlug das Zauberbuch (sfar ṭulqē) auf, in welchem die Namen aller bösen Geister stehen.

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Ephrem Syrus, Hymns against Heresies 1.14
Julian Novel (Syriac)
pseudo-Justin Martyr, Quaestiones et Responsiones 29

Bibliography

Beck 1957, 5

Beck, Edmund. Des Heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen contra Haereses. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 170. Leuven: Durbecq 1957.

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001407.php

Illustrations
No pictures

^
T
O
P