,go8,] FOR PLANET IN BABYLONIAN. 147 



later method of divination through the heavens, traces of the earHer 

 one, if not indeed some hnk directly connecting the two. Among 

 the Etruscans we actually encounter such a link in the interesting 

 circumstance that the famous " bronze liver " of Piacenza,^^ pre- 

 pared like the Babylonian clay model of a liver^^^ as an object lesson 

 for instruction in the temple schools, is divided off along the margin 

 into sixteen regions, corresponding with the ordinary divisions of the 

 heavens and that the forty Etruscan words with which the surface 

 of the liver is covered are names of deities. Whether we accept 

 Thulin's view,^* who sees a direct relationship between the enumera- 

 tion of the gods and the list and arrangement given by Martianus 

 Capella, or follow Korte,^^ in either case the " liver " reproduces the 

 recognized divisions of the heavens and through this combina- 

 tion the liver becomes, as it were, a microcosm reflecting the 

 macrocosm. The much-discussed problem^^^ whether this re- 

 markable object dating from about the third century B. C. is a 

 " liver " or, as was first supposed, a " templum," thus resolves itself 

 into the thesis that it is both. To use the words of Korte in his 

 paper in summarizing the results of twenty-five years of study of 

 this object:^® 



" The liver as the seat of life according to the view of antiquity appears 

 as a minature reproduction of the universe. As the latter, so the liver is 

 divided into a right and left half," a day division and a night division, the 

 line of division corresponding to the line dividing the universe into east and 

 west. As the vault of heaven, so the edge of the liver is divided into i6 

 regions in which the gods who furnish portents dwell." 



" See Korte, " Die Bronzeleber von Piacenza " (Mittcil. d Kaiserl. 

 Deutsch. Archccolog.-Instituts., XX., pp. 348-379), the latest and probably 

 final word on the subject. 



"* Cuneiform Texts, VI., PI. 1-2 and photograph. 



" " Die Gotter des Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza " 

 (Giessen, 1906), pp. 31-59. 



'° Korte, /. c, p. 367 f . 



"" See the references in Korte, p. 349 f ., to which Nicola Terzaghi, " La 

 piu recente Interpretazione dei Mundus-Templum di Piacenza " {Bollctino 

 Storico Piacentino , 1906, Maggio-Giugno) is to be added. 



" Korte, I. c, p. 362. 



"Referring to the band on the reverse of the object. See the illustra- 

 tion in Korte's article, p. 356. 



