6. Extispicy, reliability and confirmation

What was sacrificial divination for?

How did it work? (e.g., SAA 4: 280)

What made it trustworthy?

Extispicy was primarily a means for the king to take high-risk decisions in discussion with his (human) advisors without undermining his absolute authority – or his credibility if the risk failed.

Further reading

Content last modified: 07 Jul 2012.

 
Back to top ^^
 
© Higher Education Academy, 2007-11. Since 2015, SAAo is based at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Historisches Seminar (LMU Munich, History Department) - Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East. Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/] license, 2007-20.
Oracc uses cookies only to collect Google Analytics data. Read more here [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/doc/about/cookies/index.html]; see the stats here [http://www.seethestats.com/site/oracc.museum.upenn.edu]; opt out here.
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/knpp/Teachingresources/Lectureoutlines/Lecture6/