Divination

Divination (mantikē) was the family of practices for discerning what the gods intended, woven through Greek life from Homer onward (8th century BCE) and central to both Greek and Roman religion. It divided broadly into 'inspired' divination, in which a god-possessed prophet such as the Pythia at Delphi spoke for the deity, and 'technical' divination by reading signs — sacrificial entrails, the flight of birds, thunder, or dreams. It was taken seriously enough to spark philosophical debate: the Stoics defended it as proof of cosmic sympathy and providence, while Cicero's On Divination (44 BCE) and the Epicureans attacked it as superstition. The theme matters as the ancient world's main bridge between human decision-making and a presumed divine order.