Latin — 1533, repaired
Namque etiam ipsa elementa nos fatales eventus edocent, unde quatuor illa famosa divinationum genera, Geomantia, Hydromantia, Aeromantia, Pyromantia, nomen adepta sunt, de quibus apud Lucanum venefica illa se se iactare visa est quando inquit:
Ad vatum discant si quicquam nostra sequentur: Terra, fretum, caelum, chaosque, arcanaque mundi Aequoraque et campi, Rhodopeiaque saxa loquentur. (verse, summarized — see flag)
Prior itaque Geomantia, ex terrae motibus, crepitu, tumore, tremore, scissura, voragine, exhalatione, ceterisque impressionibus futura praemonstrat: cuius artem tradidit Almadel Arabs. Sed est et alia Geomantiae species, quae per puncta vi quadam, aut casu terrae inscripta divinatur, quae praesentis speculationis non existit, sed de illa inter sortes dicemus in sequentibus. Hydromantia autem vaticinia praestat, per impressiones aqueas, illarumque fluxus et refluxus, excrescentias et depressiones, tempestates, et colores et similia: cui iunguntur etiam visiones, quae in aquis fiunt. Genus divinationis a Persis repertum, qualem refert Varro puerum vidisse in aqua Mercurii effigiem, quae centum quinquaginta versibus omnem Mithridatici belli eventum praenunciavit. Legimus etiam Numam Pompilium hydromantiam exercuisse: in aqua enim deorum imagines eliciebat, et ab illis futura discebat. Quod artificium etiam Pythagoras longo tempore post Numam exercuit. Erat etiam olim apud Assyrios in magno pretio hydromantiae species, Lecanomantia nuncupata, a pelvi aquae plena: cui imponebant aureas et argenteas laminas, et lapides pretiosos, certis imaginibus, nominibus et characteribus inscriptas: ad quam etiam referri potest artificium, per quod plumbo aut cera aliqua liquefacta, et in aquam proiecta, de qua scire cupimus, manifestis exprimuntur imaginum notis. Erant etiam olim fontes fatidici, sicut Patris fons Achaiae, et qui dicebatur aqua Iunonis apud Epidaurum, de quibus plura in sequentibus, ubi de oraculis loquemur. Verum huc etiam referri poterit aruspicina piscium, cuiusmodi olim apud Lycios capiebatur in loco qui Dina dicebatur iuxta mare in sacro Apollinis luco, sicca in arena excavatus, in quem consulturus de futuris assatas carnes demittebat: subito locus ille aquis replebatur, magnaque piscium multitudo ac admirabilium figurarum hominibus ignotorum apparebat, quorum formis vates quod futurum esset praedicebat.
Haec latius ex Polycharmo in Lyciorum historiis refert Athenaeus. Simili modo Aeromantia prognostica praebet, per impressiones aereas, per ventorum flatus, per irides, per halones, per nebulas et nubes, perque imaginationes in nubibus, et visiones in aere. Ita etiam Pyromantia divinat per impressiones igneas, per stellas caudatas, per igneos colores, perque visiones et imaginationes in igne. Sic Ciceronis uxor illum sequenti anno consulem futurum praedixit, eo quod cum quaedam post peractum sacrificium in cineribus conspicere vellet, flamma repente exiluit. Huius generis sunt quae dicit Plinius, quod terreni ignes pallidi, murmurantesque, tempestatum nuntii sentiuntur: pluviam etiam, si in lucernis fungi flexuose volitet flamma, ventum portendi: et lumina cum prae se flammas eliciunt aut vix accenduntur: item cum in eo pendentes coacervantur scintillae, vel cum tollentibus ollas carbo adhaerescit, aut cum contentus ignis e se favilla discutit, scintillamve emittit, vel cum cinis in foco concrescit, aut cum carbo vehementer perlucet. His adiungitur Capnomantia, a fumo sic dicta, quia flammam et fumum scrutatur, eorumque colores, sonos et motus, quando in rectum protenditur, vel in obliquum fertur, sive in orbem volvitur. Quemadmodum de his legitur apud Statium his versibus:
Vincatur pietas, ponite eia altaria, virgo, Quaeramus superos, facit illa acie sagaci Sanguineos flammarum apices, genitumque per auras Ignem, et caelata tamen mediae fastigia lucis Orta, docet, tunc inspeciem serpentis inanem Ancipiti gyro volui, frangique rubore. (verse, summarized — see flag)
Iam vero etiam in Aethnaeis crateribus atque in Nympheis campis apud Apolloniatas auguria ab igne et flammis capiebantur: laeta quidem, si quae iniecta fuissent corriperent; tristia, si respuissent. Atque de his etiam in posterioribus, inter oraculorum responsa, dicemus.
Close translation
For the elements themselves also teach us the events of fate, whence those four famous kinds of divination — Geomancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, Pyromancy — got their name. Concerning these, in Lucan, that sorceress-woman is seen boasting of herself when she says: (verse, summarized — see flag: she claims that earth, sea, sky, chaos, and the hidden things of the world, and the plains and the Rhodopean rocks, will speak to the seer who follows her).
Geomancy comes first, which foretells the future from the earth's motions, its crackings, swellings, tremblings, splittings, chasms, exhalations, and other impressions: Almadel the Arab handed down its art. But there is another species of Geomancy, which divines by points inscribed on the earth by some force or by chance; this does not belong to the present inquiry, but we shall speak of it among the lots [sortes] in what follows. Hydromancy, however, furnishes prophecies through watery impressions — through the ebb and flow of waters, their swellings and sinkings, storms, colors, and the like: to which are joined also visions that occur in waters. This kind of divination was discovered by the Persians; such as Varro reports, a boy having seen in water the image of Mercury, which in a hundred and fifty verses foretold the whole outcome of the Mithridatic war. We read too that Numa Pompilius practiced hydromancy: for in water he called forth the images of the gods, and learned the future from them. Pythagoras also practiced this art a long time after Numa. There was likewise, once, among the Assyrians, a species of hydromancy held in great esteem, called Lecanomancy, from a basin full of water: into which they placed plates of gold and silver, and precious stones, inscribed with certain images, names, and characters. To this class may also be referred the technique whereby, melting lead or wax and casting it into water, concerning the thing we wish to know, clear marks in the shape of images are produced. There were also, once, prophetic springs, such as the Father's spring in Achaia, and the one called the water of Juno at Epidaurus, of which more later, where we speak of oracles. But to this may also be referred the divination by fish, of the kind once practiced among the Lycians, at a place near the sea called Dina, in the sacred grove of Apollo, a dry hollow dug in the sand: into which, wishing to consult about the future, one would let down roasted meats; suddenly that place would fill with water, and a great multitude of fish of wondrous shapes unknown to men would appear, and by their forms the seer would foretell what was to come.
Athenaeus reports these things at greater length from Polycharmus, in his Lycian histories. In like manner Aeromancy furnishes predictions through aerial impressions — through the blowing of winds, through rainbows, through halos, through mists and clouds, and through imagined shapes in the clouds, and visions in the air. So too Pyromancy divines through fiery impressions — through comets, through fiery colors, and through visions and imagined shapes in fire. Thus Cicero's wife foretold that he would be consul the following year, because, when after a sacrifice had been performed she wished to look into the ashes, a flame suddenly leapt out. Of this kind are the things Pliny reports: that pale, murmuring earthly fires are taken as messengers of storms; that rain is portended if the flame of a lamp-wick flutters waveringly; and wind, if lights struggle to give off flame or scarcely catch; likewise when sparks cluster hanging upon it, or when, as pots are lifted, a coal sticks to them, or when a fire, drawn tight in on itself, throws off ash, or emits a spark, or when ash gathers on the hearth, or when a coal glows very brightly through. To these is added Capnomancy, so named from smoke, because it examines flame and smoke — their colors, sounds, and motions, whether it stretches straight up, or is carried aslant, or rolls in a circle. As is read of this in Statius, in these verses: (verse, summarized — see flag: an invocation at the altar in which a virgin, by keen-sighted skill, raises bloody flame-peaks and a fire born through the air, and teaches, from the shapes carved at the crest of the middle light, an empty serpent-shape twisting in a double coil, then breaking into a red glow).
Indeed, also in the craters of Etna and in the Nymphean fields among the Apolloniates, auguries were taken from fire and flames: favorable, if the things thrown in were seized; ill-omened, if they were rejected. And of these we shall also speak later, among the responses of oracles.
Modern rendering
The elements themselves teach us what fate has in store, and that's where the four famous kinds of divination get their names: geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy. Lucan's sorceress boasts of exactly this power (verse, summarized — see flag: she claims earth, sea, sky, the abyss, and the hidden places of the world will all speak to whoever follows her arts).
Geomancy comes first. It reads the future in the earth's own behavior — earthquakes, rumbling, swelling, trembling, splitting open, sinkholes, vapors rising from the ground, and so on. Almadel the Arab wrote the manual for it. There's a second kind of geomancy too, which reads dots marked in the earth either deliberately or by chance; that's not what I'm covering here — I'll get to it later, under the lots. Hydromancy predicts by reading water: its rise and fall, swelling and sinking, storms, colors, and so on, along with visions that appear in water itself. The Persians invented this. Varro tells of a boy who saw an image of Mercury in water that spoke a hundred fifty lines predicting the entire outcome of the Mithridatic war. Numa Pompilius reportedly practiced it too — he'd call up images of the gods in water and learn the future from them, and Pythagoras did the same long after Numa. The Assyrians once prized a version of this called lecanomancy: a basin full of water with gold and silver plates and gemstones dropped in, engraved with specific images, names, and symbols. You can also count in this category the trick of melting lead or wax and pouring it into water to get a clear image-shape answering whatever you want to know. There were also famous prophetic springs — the Father's spring in Achaia, and the so-called water of Juno at Epidaurus (more on these later, in the section on oracles). Fish-divination belongs here too: the Lycians once practiced it at a seaside site called Dina, in Apollo's sacred grove, at a dry pit dug in the sand. Someone wanting a reading would drop in roasted meat; the pit would suddenly fill with water, and a huge crowd of strange, unfamiliar-looking fish would appear — and their shapes were read as omens of what was coming.
Athenaeus tells this story at more length, drawing on Polycharmus's history of Lycia. Aeromancy works the same way but through the air: wind, rainbows, halos, mist, clouds, cloud-shapes, and visions in open air. Pyromancy reads fire: comets, the colors flames take, and visions or shapes seen in fire. That's how Cicero's wife predicted he'd be consul the next year — she was looking into the ashes after a sacrifice when a flame suddenly leapt up. Pliny records similar fire-signs: pale, murmuring earth-fires signal storms coming; a lamp-flame that wavers and flickers means rain; lights that struggle to catch or throw off flame poorly mean wind; so do clustering sparks, a coal sticking to a lifted pot, a contracted fire throwing off ash or sparks, ash building up on the hearth, or a coal glowing unusually bright. Related to this is capnomancy — reading smoke: its color, sound, and movement, whether it rises straight, drifts sideways, or curls in circles. Statius describes this (verse, summarized — see flag: a ritual scene at an altar where a virgin, by sharp-eyed skill, raises bloody flame-tips and fire born in the air, reading in the carved peak of the middle light an empty serpent-shape that coils and then breaks into a reddish glow).
Similarly, in the craters of Etna and in the Nymphean fields among the Apolloniates, people once read omens from fire: good, if what was thrown in was consumed; bad, if it was thrown back out. I'll return to all this later, in the section on oracle responses.
Editorial flags — draft status
- verse: lines ~4-5 ('Ad vatum...Rhodopeiaque saxa loquentur'), Lucan, Pharsalia (Erictho's boast) — summarized in prose, not reconstructed word-for-word
- verse: lines ~9-14 ('Vincatur pietas...frangique rubore'), attributed to Statius (Thebaid, capnomancy/divination scene) — summarized in prose, not reconstructed word-for-word
- uncertain: 'Lecano Leanomm matia' — reconstructed as 'Lecanomantia' with high confidence from context and known term, but the OCR fragmentation is severe
- uncertain: 'Patris fons Achaiae' — proper name of spring uncertain in received tradition; kept as read (possibly a corruption of a specific place-name)