Homeromancy
As Homeromantie could be analogous to bibliomancy a technique described in which an oracle seeking a Homeric strikes text at any point and then try to interpret the verse found in regard to his question.
However, nothing has been handed down of such a fortune-telling technique. On the other hand, a different technique has been handed down, in which, after rolling the dice three times, a Homeric verse was determined as an oracle from a list of 216 verses known as Homeromanteion or Scimitar (corresponding to the 216 possible combinations of eyes from 3 throws). The selection and arrangement of the verses does not seem to follow any recognizable system.
Example: "1,1,1" resulted in Iliad 24,369: Fend off the man if someone first harasses you.
The list is preserved in a papyrus in the British Museum and (incomplete) in an Oxyrhynchos papyrus. This also specifies a precise regulation for inquiring about the oracle regarding the days and times of day on which the oracle can be inquired and the invocation of Apollo , the god of prophecy, with the Homers:
- Ruler, hear; whether perhaps you are in Lykia's fertile land
- Are, maybe also in Troy: You can from any place yes
- Hear the suffering man how suffering now surrounds me!
See also
literature
- Franco Maltomini: P. Lond. 121 (= PGM VII), 1-221: Homeromanteion. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 106 (1995) pp. 107–122 (contains the original Greek text), PDF
- The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vol. 56 (1989). No. 3831. pp. 44-48 [1]
- Karl Preisendanz : Papyri Graecae magicae - The Greek magic papyri. 2 vol. 2nd ed. Saur, Munich 1974. P VII, 2-168,1-7
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Peter Parsons: The city of the sharp-nosed fish. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2009, pp. 284f
- ↑ Iliad 16: 514-516; Translation by Johann Heinrich Voss