Divination
idea · 6 works · 10 mentions · 17 anchored passages
divination · the art of divination · augury · divine counsel · guidance · guide · mantike · oracles · priestcraft · soothsaying
spoken of as
1 expressionmantike“divination”1 mention
On the Nature of the Gods (Latin)
And there follows your mantike, which in Latin is called divination, with which we should be so steeped in superstition, if we cared to listen to you, that we should have to pay court to soothsayers, augurs, diviners, prophets, and interpreters of dreams.
in the texts
On the Nature of the Gods
The Stoic doctrine that foreknowledge of the future, given uniquely to men by the gods, proves divine providence
For there is assuredly divination, which appears in many places, things, and times, both in private and most of all in public affairs:
This, then, whether it be a power, or an art, or a nature, has assuredly been given to man for the knowledge of things to come, and to no other by the immortal gods.
besides, we are admonished by many omens, by many things in the entrails, and by many other things, which long use has so marked that it has made the art of divination.
Memorabilia
The practice of seeking knowledge of hidden or future matters from the gods through sacrifice, oracles, augury, and signs, central to the case that Socrates was pious rather than impious.
Another way he had of dealing with intimate friends was this:
Indeed it had become notorious that Socrates claimed to be guided by the deity:
what is hidden from mortals we should try to find out from the gods by divination:
Hymn 18 to Hermes
Guidance is Hermes' role as a divine guide in the hymn's closing praise.
Hail, Hermes, giver of grace, guide, and giver of good things!
Aegineticus
The professional craft of prophecy practiced by Polemaenetus and Thrasyllus, which formed the origin of the family's wealth on the paternal side.
Thrasyllus, with these books as his capital, practised the art of divination.
For he himself learned his art from Polemaenetus the soothsayer, and received his fortune, not through family relationship but through merit;
but having become the guest-friend of Polemaenetus, the soothsayer, he became so intimate with him that Polemaenetus at his death left to him his books on divination and gave him a portion of the property which is now in question.
Symposium
The art of interpreting divine will through sacrifice, ritual, and augury, described as mediating between gods and men.
To divination is appointed the task of supervising and treating the health of these Loves;
Through it are conveyed all divination and priestcraft concerning sacrifice and ritual and incantations, and all soothsaying and sorcery.
De Anima
The soul's capacity to foresee, discussed as an endowment and as evidence in the memory argument.
For we gave it both freedom of will, as we wrote above, and dominion over things, and divination at times — setting aside that which comes by the grace of God from prophecy.
But the same man, in the sixth book of the Laws, admonishing us to beware lest the corruption of the seed, from some baseness of intercourse, should breed a blemish for body and soul, has, I know not, slipped more from his earlier or from this opinion.