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as unlucky birds ; but at Athens, being facred to Mi¬ 
nerva, they were looked upon as omens of victory and 
fuccefs. The fwan, being an omen of fair weather, was 
deemed a lucky bird by mariners. The moll inaufpicious 
omens were given by ravens; but the degree of misfor¬ 
tune which they were fuppofed to portend, depended, in 
fome meafure, on their appearing on the right-hand or 
the left; if they came croaking on the right-hand, it 
was a tolerable good omen ; but, if on the left, a very 
bad one. As the cock, when he is overcome, fits fiient 
and melancholy, but, when he obtains a victory, ftruts 
about and crows; his appearance in the former (late was 
looked upon as the prefage of defeat; in the latter Hate, 
as predicting victory. 
Omens were alfo drawn by the Greeks from other ani¬ 
mals befides birds; bees, it is well known, were efteemed 
an omen of future eloquence; but, when a fwarm of them 
lighted upon an altar, it was a very dreadful omen ; this 
circumftance happened, according to Appian, before the 
defeat of Pompey. It is rather Angular that toads, which 
are now regarded, even by people of Itrong and well-in¬ 
formed minds, with a confiderable degree of dread and ap- 
preheniion, were accounted by the Greeks lucky omens ; 
while the hare was confidered as prefaging difafter. 
Thunder and lightning were deemed fortunate orother- 
wife, according as they occurred on the right-hand or on 
the left; when an unlucky omen was given by thunder, 
it was fuppofed to be averted by pouring forth a libation 
of wine ; and, in order to deftroy or avert the malignant 
influence; when it was feeti on the left-hand, it was ufual 
to hifs and whiffle at it. 
When the Grecian augurs, who were employed for the 
purpofe of taking thefe omens, made their obfervations, 
they kept their faces towards the north ; the eafl being 
consequently on their right-hand, and the weft on their 
left. The omens which appeared towards the eaft w r ere 
looked upon as fortunate by all the nations of antiquity, 
becaufe the fun, the great fountain of light and heat, and 
the principal caufe of fertility and animal comfort, makes 
his firft appearance in that quarter; on the contrary, the 
weftern omens were confidered unlucky, becaufe the fun 
leaves the world in that quarter. But, though both the 
Greeks and Romans regarded thofe omens which were 
leer, in the eaft as lucky, and thofe which appeared in the 
weft as unfortunate, yet, as the augurs among the former 
■made their obfervations with their faces towards the north, 
while the Roman augurs made their obfervations with 
their faces towards the Jbuth, the figns that were pre- 
fented on the right-hand were regarded by the Greeks as 
fortunate, and thofe on the left as unlucky ; but, among 
the Romans, the reverfe was the cafe. Sometimes, how¬ 
ever, the Latin authors followed the Greek cuflom in their 
ufe of the word finiftra, and applied it to unlucky events. 
Omens were alfo drawn by the Greeks from things 
which affeCted their own perfons. Thus, the palpitations 
of the heart, the eye, or any of the mufcles, and the 
ringing of the ears, were ominous : the omen was lucky, 
if"the palpitations were on the right fide of the body, or 
the ringing in the right ear. A number of rules were laid 
down for the purpofe of afeertaining whether fneezing 
were fortunate, or the contrary. WhenThemiftocles was 
offering facrifices, it happened that three beautiful cap¬ 
tives were brought to him ; and at the fame time the fire 
burned clear and bright, and a fneeze happened on the 
right-hand ; hereupon, Euphrantides the foothfayer, em¬ 
bracing him, predicted the memorable victory that he af¬ 
terwards obtained. Xenophon was appointed general, in 
confequence of a fneeze happening on the right-hand 
while he was making a fpeech. If a perfon fneezed be¬ 
tween midnight and the following noon, it was fortunate; 
but, from noon to midnight, unfortunate. If a man 
fneezed at table while they were taking it away, or if an¬ 
other happened to fneeze upon his left-hand, it was un¬ 
lucky ; if on the right-hand, fortunate. If, in the un¬ 
dertaking any bufinefs, two or four fneezes happened, it 
z 
E N. 
was a lucky omen, and gave encouragement to proceed ; 
if more than four, the omen was neither good nor bad ; 
if one or three, it was unlucky, and diffuaded them from 
proceeding in what they had defigned ; if two men were 
deliberating about any bufinefs, and both of them chanced 
to fneeze together, it was a profperous omen. Potter's 
Antiquities, vol. i. 
When the Greeks went to fupplicate the gods to obtain 
any favour, or to avert any calamity, it was ufual to 
touch the knees of the ftatue; if they had hopes, they 
touched the right-hand ; if they were confident cf ob¬ 
taining the object of their prayers, they rofe as high as 
the chin or cheeks, but in no cafe did they ever touch 
the left-hand of the ftatue, as that was deemed unlucky. 
Before they fiet out on any military expedition, it was 
ufual to let fly a dove, which was confidered as an omen 
of fafe return, as that bird is noteafily induced to relin- 
quifh its habitation, but, when driven away, conftantly 
returns. 
The uttering certain words was confidered as ominous ; 
therefore the Greeks never made ufe of the terms which 
directly expreffed death, but conveyed their meaning on 
this fubjeCt by indirect and foftening terms ; one of which 
is very remarkable and exprefiive, cinoyniScci, to which the 
Latin word denafei anfwers, ufed on the fame account; 
inftead of the word fignifying a ■prij'on, they ufed one fig- 
nifyinga houfe ; and they were even careful not to call 
their deities by their appropriate appellations if thefe ap¬ 
pellations were words of bad omen ; they therefore gene¬ 
rally addreffed the Furies by the name of Eumenides. 
It was cuftomary for them to clothe their dead in white 
garments ; whence it was reckoned an unlucky omen, and 
foretelling death, for a lick perfon to have white apparel; 
and, ifa perfon dreamt of a fire being extinguilhed during 
the ficknefs of any in the fame family, it was deemed a 
certain forerunner of death. Perfons in affliction luffered 
their hair to grow long ; to cut or Ihave the hair was a 
token of joy; mariners, upon their delivery from fhip- 
wreck, ufed to fhave themfelves; hence, if they dreamt 
of having the whole head Ihaved, it was an omen that 
they would undergo great dangers at fea, but efcape from 
them. The younger Pliny, in one of his Epiftles, men¬ 
tions that he dreamt he had cut off his hair; and this - 
dream he interprets to fignify his deliverance from fome 
great and imminent danger. Men, however, who were 
labouring under misfortune, though they did not permit 
others to (have them, fometimes Ihaved themfelves; hence, 
for a man to dream of fhaving himfelf, was a prefage of 
fome great calamity. 
It was ufual among the Greeks to bedeck the tombs 
with flowers, herbs, and ribbands; parfley was efpecially 
ufed for this purpofe ; hence it was regarded as a bad 
omen. As Timoleon was proceeding to reconnoitre the 
pofition and ftrength of the Carthaginian army, he was 
met by a number of mules loaded with parfley ; this his 
foldiers conceived to be an unlucky omen ; but Timoleon, 
with much ingenuity and prefence of mind, converted 
it, in the opinion of his troops, into an omen of victory, 
by recalling to their recollection, that, at the Ifthmian 
games, the Corinthians crowned the victors with chaplets 
of parfley, accounting it a facred wreath : in order to im- 
prefs this interpretation of the omen more ftrongly on 
them, he firft made himfelf a chaplet, and then his cap¬ 
tains, and all the foldiers, followed his example. With 
like addrefs, Epaminondas converted the bad omen which 
his foldiers drew, from the circumftance of a ribband that 
hung on his fpear being carried by the wind to a Lace¬ 
daemonian fepulchre, into a prefage of the defeat of the 
enemy, by affuring them, that, as the ribband liad been 
carried to the fepulchre of the Lacedaemonians, it mull 
portend death to them, and not to the Thebans. 
The Greeks were particularly careful not to marry ex- ' 
cept at propitious feafons. January was efteemed the 
moft fortunate month ; and the marriage was expeCted to 
be moft fortunate, if it were celebrated at the time of the 
full 
