{"id":95902,"date":"2021-10-02T19:22:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T17:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/?post_type=ciekawostki&p=95902"},"modified":"2022-09-23T10:43:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T08:43:58","slug":"alectriomancy-fortune-telling-with-chickens","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/alectriomancy-fortune-telling-with-chickens\/","title":{"rendered":"Alectriomancy – fortune-telling with chickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans, as a nation famous for their godly fear already in ancient times, tried to run the state as often as possible in accordance with the will of the gods<\/a> read through the signs of omens. Quirites respected birds very much because it was from their flight that the future and divine intentions were foretold by means of auspices. <\/p>\n

Few, however, know how esteemed among the ancient prophets were … chickens. Fortune telling<\/a> with fortune-telling chickens – alectriomancy (from Greek hen) <\/i>had the status of public auspices, often of state importance. Even a specially appointed man, the so-called pullularius<\/i>, whose task was to deliver the birds to the place and prepare them for divination. The proclamation itself usually consisted of observing birds pecking at scattered grains: a sign was read as auspicious when the hens ate it willingly, and unfavourable when they were not interested in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suetonius<\/a> in the biography of Tiberius<\/a> describes the story of Claudius Pulcher, who before the sea battle of Drepanum<\/a> off the coast of Sicily<\/a> in 249 BCE he decided to consult the oracle by this method. When he saw that the chickens did not want to eat the grain, he ordered – furious – to throw them overboard so that they “drank if they did not want to eat” (he lost the battle, of course, losing 93 out of 120 ships).<\/p>\n

The more inquisitive could rely on another form of alectriomancy to give a specific answer. The ancients recommended drawing a circle on the ground, divided into as many parts as the letters of the Greek alphabet<\/a> (we suggest, twenty-four) and scattering seeds on them. At that time, a rooster of the colour specified by the fortune-telling, which had not yet known the hen, had to be let in (play on words – from Greek not married<\/i>). The letters he approached first formed the oracle’s answer to the question. It is said that this is how Emperor Valens<\/a> learned the name of his heir (the alectriomantic rooster pecked out the grain from the letters T.E.O.D).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":51172,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"kategorie_ciekawostek":[77],"class_list":["post-95902","ciekawostki","type-ciekawostki","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_ciekawostek-unknown-facts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/95902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ciekawostki"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ciekawostki\/95902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_ciekawostek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_ciekawostek?post=95902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}