148 JASTROW— THE SIGN AND NAME | April 25, 



III. 



If, therefore, among the Etruscans we find the unmistakable 

 proof of a direct Hnk between the two classes of divination, we 

 should be prepared to find a similar association in Babylonia and 

 Assyria. I believe that the ordinary name and sign for planet in 

 Babylonia points in this direction. While already in early days we 

 find various animals and all kinds of products dedicated as offer- 

 ings to the gods,^^ for purposes of divination the only animal set 

 aside was the sheep. This follows not only from the fact that the fa- 

 mous clay model of a liver found near Bagdad is that of a sheep,^*^ but 

 from the specific references to sheep in " liver " divination texts and 

 to no other animalr'^ The sheep thus becomes the animal of divina- 

 tion par excellence, and we can well suppose that the word itself 

 should come to be used as synonymous with divination. Such a 

 usage would be paralleled by the extension of the term anspiciiim in 

 Latin, which from being an omen derived through " bird observation " 

 was applied to any kind of an omen or portent, so that an inspection 



" See Thureau-Dangin, " Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen Konigsin- 

 schriften" (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 16, 80, 84, 86, 88, 124, etc. I cannot here 

 enter into a full discussion of the nature of sacrifices among the Baby- 

 lonians and Assyrians but it may be proper to point out that in an elaborate 

 ritual controlled by an extended priestly organization we must sharply dif- 

 ferentiate between (i) offerings that constitute part of the income of the 

 temples, (2) voluntary gifts, (3) sacrifices offered in connection with purifica- 

 tion or expiatory rites and (4) sacrifices offered directly to and for the god. 

 So far as I can see sacrifices of the latter kind were brought only when an 

 answer to a specific question was desired, so that it would appear that divina- 

 tion forms the starting point for the development of the whole idea of sacri- 

 fice in the proper sense in Babylonia. 



" CT, VI., PI. I. See Jastrow, /. c, II., p. 218 note i, where a reference 

 should have been given to Stieda, " Ueber die acltesten bildlichen Darstel- 

 lungen der Leber" (Bonnet-Merkel, Anatomische Hefte XV., p. 697), who 

 shows that it is (as also in the case of the bronze liver of Piacenza) the liver 

 of a sheep and not of a goat — as had been supposed by some scholars. 



^'' E. g., CT, XX., I, I — in the opening line of the first tablet of a series 

 dealing with " liver " divination ; also Boissier, " Documents Assyriens relatif s 

 aux Presages," p. 97, 11 ; 212, 27; also in the " omen " text CT., IV., PI. 34, 9; 

 in the omen report of the Cassite period (Clay, Cassite Archives, XIV., 

 PI. 4, Obv. 10, and lastly the constant mention of the " sheep " in the omens 

 attached to Knudtzon, Assyr. Gebete an den Sonnengott. Note also the 

 expression bel imnieri "owner of the sheep" (CT, XX., 33, 93 and Boissier, 

 Documents, p. 96, 13). The addition of NITA to Lu shows that a "male" 

 sheep was selected for the purpose. 



