Anthropomancy

Anthropomancy (from Greek anthropos (ανθροπος, man), and manteia (μαντεια, divination) is a method of divination by the entrails of dead or dying men or women, often virgin female children, through sacrifice. This practice was sometimes also called splanchomancy. In ancient Etruria and Rome, the usual variety of divination from entrails was haruspicy (performed by an haruspex), in which the sacrifice was an animal.

Practitioners in fiction

References


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