664 JASTROW— HEPATOSCOPY AND ASTROLOGY [December 4, 



for which is to be sought in the circumstance that through the sacri- 

 ficial animal, killed for the purpose, an omen was secured. The 

 combination Lu-Bat, " dead sheep," is therefore intended to convey 

 the notion of a " sacrificial sheep," offered to the deity as a means of 

 securing an " omen." So prominent is the part played by hepa- 

 toscopy in the Babylonian-Assyrian religion as shown not merely 

 by the extensive omen texts, dealing specifically with divination 

 through the liver, *^ but by the frequent allusions to the rite in his- 

 torical inscriptions that one is tempted to set up the thesis that the 

 original purpose of sacrifice among the inhabitants of the Euphrates 

 Valley was to ascertain through the sacrificial animal what the future 

 had in store or what the gods had in mind, — this purpose taking 

 precedence of other views of sacrifice such as tribute or alliance with 

 the deity.'*- However this may be, the animal, so far as the evidence 

 goes, invariably chosen for purposes of divination was the " sheep,"^^ 

 and there is one instance** in which the combination Lu and Bat 

 occurs in a " liver " divination text to designate the " sacrificial 

 sheep " the liver of which is to be examined as a means of divination. 

 It is with this use of the term that I propose to connect the designa- 

 tion Lu-Bat for " planet." The sheep being the common animal 

 of divination, the term acquired the general force of an " omen " 

 precisely as in Latin we have auspicium, originally an augury 

 through " bird observation," i. e., the noting of the flight of birds, 

 becoming the generic term for any kind of an augury, because of the 

 prominence of " bird observation " as a means of divination. Still 



ideograph for "liver" (see Jastrow, "Signs and Names for the Liver in Baby- 

 lonian," in Zeits. fiir Assyr., XX., p. 105, seq. and p. 127) and the combina- 

 tion thus having the force of " liver omen." The association leading from 

 " dead " to " omen " thus becomes intelligible, since the " dead " or " sacri- 

 ficed " animal is the medium for procuring an omen. 



" Over 1,000 of the circa 30,000 fragments of the royal Library of 

 Ninevah are " liver " divination texts. See Jastrow, " Religion Babyloniens 

 und Assyriens," IL, p. 211, note i, and p. 222, note 2. 



" See Jastrow, o. c, IL, p. 217. 



" So, e. g., in the case of the official reports to Assyrian Kings, in the 

 prayers connected with the divination rite as well as in the omen collections. 

 See Jastrow, 0. c, IL, pp. 281, 289, 301, 307, 308, etc. ; " Cun. Texts," XX., PI. 

 I, i; Boissier, "Documents assyriens relatifs aux Presages," p. 97, 11. 



" Boissier, /. c, p. 212, 27. Lu(Nita) Bat (u) :^inimeru viiiu. 



