Hellenic Divination - Ornithomancy
By request of a lovely friend of mine (Hey, Adri) I decided to write down what I know of divination. However, I must say that the pagan Tumblr community has no shortage of content on the arts of predicting the future! You can find plenty awesome posts about the art of reading cards (cartomancy) or even bone-throwing techniques that will give you omens that you’ve been seeking.
Regardless of wheter you are a hellenic polytheist or not, this post may suit your needs of a very particular kind of divination: Ornithomancy - the art of divination that studies omens delivered by birds.
But before we get to why in the name of Apollon would you like to watch birds flying to predict if that job interview will turn out ok as you’re trying to survive admist a deadly plague ravaging the entire planet, I feel like we need to define why Ornithomancy (called Augury by the romans) is a thing in the first place.
The seer, Calchas, about to sacrifice Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis, who saves her and replaces the girl with a deer to be sacrificed in her place.
For starters, ornithomancy is quite the fancy word - ornithos (bird) and mantis (seer) - but it serves its purpose: This divination art is practiced by watching birds fly in the search of various omens regarding your inquire. One of the most well known examples of a ornithoskopos (literally bird interpreter) is the mythic seer Calchas from the Illiad, who was regarded as the best in the art, his abilities so praised that it is said that he could tell past, present and future just by watching the omens of the Gods admist the birds.
But why birds? One may ask.
Sarah Iles Johnston’s Ancient Greek Divination tell us that birds inhabit both the earthly domain and the heavenly domain, being capable of delivering omens from the Gods to us. As a matter of fact in Hellenic Polytheism plenty Gods have sacred animals which you really would like to look into if you’re asking for some sort of sign from the Theoi. Crows for Apollon, certain species of owls to Athena, others to Hades, roosters and vultures for Ares…That list goes on and on.
Reading unusual signs is a valid way to interpret signs of the Gods, really. In a A Companion to Greek Religion by Daniel Ogden there’s quite the list of the complex divinatory ways of Ancient Greece. But, to list a few, one could watch out for signs in nature, natural phenomena, body signs and animal behaviour. Watching birds was but one of the many fields of specialization a mantis would seek out in order to predict the future.
Some authors, like Plutarch in On The Cleverness of Animals, tell us that the Gods sometimes warn us through the usage of birds, sending signs in our way of various meaning through the flight of birds. Alexandra Nikaios, a brazilian hellenic polytheist of the RHB - Brazilian Hellenic Reconstructionism tell us that an inscription of a sanctuary of Artemis in Ephesus (current Turkey) from the 5th or 6th century BCE offer details on how to read the bird omens, just as many other sources like Hesiod on Works and Days, advising a farmer to “judge the birds” before taking an important decision.
Usually a mantis could ask the Gods, pray for Zeus for some signs or spontaneously spot an unusual bird activity. Sometimes the seers would prefer to sit in a proper and sacred place to do it, others would do it anywhere. The various sources here listed will vary in some accounts, but most agree in some very valid points like:
Coming from the right side. - Good omen.
Coming from the left side. - Bad omen.
The Greeks would look to the north to seek for answers, where as the Romans would look to the South.
Coming in your way - Good sign.
Coming from behind you - Bad sign.
All of the above could change depending on the bird or the question you’re asking. Now take into account some valid questions when going through an ornithomantic session.
Is the bird associated with some particular deity?
How commonly do I see this bird around?
How was the bird behaving? Was it flying, roosting or just jumping around?
Was it only one bird or an entire flock?
What was the colour of the birds I observed?
Does this bird mean something in particular to me or to my culture?
If I was that bird, doing what it was doing, what does that mean to me?
Those questions may enlighten you on what kind of omens you’re receiving, it differs from person to person, really. A hummingbird would be a lovely sight for someone, where as here in the brazilian northeastern state of Sergipe if one enters your home three times in a row it could mean incoming death - possibly by a heart attack.
This is a highly personal kind of divination with several things to take into account but I really like it. The Gods delivered some of the most dramatic signs to me in the form birds flying around or doing unusual things. The first time I received a sign it was night, I was by the lagoon and my heart was aching with some decisions that I took regarding a toxic friend of mine - so I prayed to Athena and Apollon, asking for some sort of sign. And then boom, an owl flied over me towards the north and screeching very loudly into the gloomy night.
In that moment I felt the confirmation that I was doing the right thing on not talking to this friend anymore! Right now, however, I could interpret it differently: It was a barn owl, or a Rasga-Mortalha (Pall-tearer, quite an ominous name) as we call it here in Brazil. Taking into account what followed during such year I could say it meant “Yeah you’re taking a wise decision but by no means expect this to be an easy route”
So, yeah, it can be quite the dramatic way of predicting the future.
But historically speaking it’s been such a huge part of divinatory history! It’s a very strong method of looking into the will of the Gods and communicating with Them.
If you have any more additions, feel free to enrich this post with even more information. May Apollon bless you with wisdom when trying to do divination and good luck!
Sources used: Ornitomancia (by Alexandra Nikaios); Ancient Greek Divination by Sarah Iles Johnston; The Seer in Ancient Greece by Flower Michael; Works and Days by Hesiod; A Companion to Greek Religion by Daniel Ogden; On The Cleverness of Animals by Plutarch.
