648 JASTROW— HEPATOSCOPY AND ASTROLOGY [December 4, 



actually a part of it. Hence to place the seat of the gods on the 

 tops of mountains, as was so frequently done by nations of antiquity, 

 was equivalent to assigning them to the heavens. 



Confining ourselves to Babylonia and Assyria, we find that al- 

 though divination through the interpretation of terrestrial phenom- 

 ena — dreams, monstrosities, actions of animals, mishaps, swollen 

 streams, etc., etc. — also play a prominent role and that within the 

 field of voluntary divination we have by the side of hepatoscopy (or 

 divination through the liver), other procedures such as the interpre- 

 tation of the action of oil bubbles in a basin of water, ^ the two chief 

 methods of divination, forming part of the official cult, are Hepa- 

 toscopy and Astrology.^ Both forms were developed into elaborate 

 systems marked by definite rules of interpretation, consistently and 

 logically applied. Extensive collections of omens and portents were 

 compiled by Babylonian and Assyrian priests attached to the temples, 

 in which all signs noted on the liver of sheep and all manner of 

 phenomena observed in connection with sun, moon, planets, con- 

 stellations and stars on the one hand, and with clouds, storms, rains 

 and floods on the other, were entered together with the interpretation 

 of the signs. The evident endeavor of the compilers was to make 

 the collections as comprehensive as possible so as to provide for all 

 contingencies, since the purpose of the collections was to serve as 

 guides and handbooks for the priests in their practical labors as well 

 as text-books in instructing the pupils of the temple schools. As a 

 consequence, considerable skill and ingenuity were displayed in ar- 

 ranging the omens and portents systematically so as to facilitate 

 their use. On the other hand, while the signs noted were primarily 

 based on actual cases, the theoretical factor enters largely into play. 

 This led to many signs being entered in both classes of divination 



° See Hunger, " Becherwahrsagung bei den Babyloniern " (Leipzig, 1903). 



® For details with copious translations of texts see the writer's " Religion 

 Babyloniens und Assyriens," parts 10 to 14, as well as various articles on 

 special points such as " The Signs and Names for the Liver in Babylonian " 

 {Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, XX., pp. 105-129) ; " The Liver in Antiquity 

 and the Beginnings of Anatomy" {University of Pennsylvania Medical 

 Bulletin, January, 1908, and Trans, of the Phila. College of Physicians, 3d 

 Series, XXIX., pp. 1 17-138) ; "Sign and Name for Planet in Babylonian" 

 (Proceedings of the Amer. Philos. SoaEXY, XLVIL, pp. 141-156). 



