Definition of haruspex in English:
haruspex
nounPlural haruspices həˈrʌspɛks
(in ancient Rome) a religious official who interpreted omens by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals.
Example sentencesExamples
- My favorite was the haruspex, who foretold the future through ‘reading’ the entrails of various animals (some stock market analysts arguably use methods not much more technologically advanced to forecast the market).
- The Assyrians believed the god Shamash the Sun sent messages to inform the haruspex (reader of entrails) of the structure of the universe at the moment the sacrificial knife struck the victim.
- In the case of the augurs or haruspices of Rome, the animal was sacrificed to permit contemplation of the entrails for prophetic purposes.
- The function of the haruspices was divination of the future from the entrails of sacrificial animals.
- Her grandfather suppressed his Christian scruples and consulted both a Persian astrologer and an old pagan haruspex to be sure that the stars and the omens were favorable to the wedding.
Derivatives
noun həˈrʌspɪsi
Omphilomancy is divination by contemplating the navel, while haruspicy makes use of the entrails of animals to predict what is in store for us.
Example sentencesExamples
- The Roman Senate also held haruspicy in the highest regard and consulted haruspices before all important state decisions.
- The Etruscans were credited with bringing haruspicy to Rome.
- The Romans adopted the Etruscan art of haruspicy as one of their ‘unofficial’ forms of divination.
- Ellis argues that geese were not sacred to Juno; they were used for haruspicy and later chickens were substituted for them.
adjective
Origin
Latin, from an unrecorded element meaning 'entrails' (related to Sanskrit hirā 'artery') + -spex (from specere 'look at').