Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Among the ancients, divination by inspection of the livers of animals.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Divination by inspecting the liver of animals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun rare Divination by the liver of an animal or bird. The liver was divided into sections, each section representing a deity, and the markings in these zones were important. A form of aruspicy.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek  (hepatoskopia), from ἥπατος (hēpatos), genitive form of ἧπαρ (hēpar, "liver") + σκοπέω (skopeo, "to see"). Equivalent to hepato- + -scopy.

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Examples

  • Why would such an important ritual drink like "wine" be borrowed into Etruscan from Latin when everything else in the religious sphere including the practice of hepatoscopy appears to go in the reverse direction?

    Archive 2009-10-01 2009

  • Why would such an important ritual drink like "wine" be borrowed into Etruscan from Latin when everything else in the religious sphere including the practice of hepatoscopy appears to go in the reverse direction?

    The diffusion of the Italian terms for 'wine' from Etruscan 2009

  • A CIVILIZATION B SCIENCE/TECH C GOVERNMENT D RELIGION E SOCIOECONOMICS A Akkad B metallurgy walled cities irrigation C strong centraL authority controlled several city-states and kept peace (for a while) quelled dissent with violence D polytheistic tradition centered on city gods, fertility goddess and harvest deities hepatoscopy (examining sheep livers for omens)

    When The Comet Flew Through Ancient Evenings 2008

  • In Roman times, Philostratus gives an account of the trial of Apollonius of Tyana,16 accused of human hepatoscopy by sacrificing a boy in the practice of magic arts against the Emperor.

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine 1921

  • In order to do so, a system of interpretation was evolved, less logical and less elaborate than the system of hepatoscopy, which was analyzed in the preceding chapter, but nevertheless meriting attention both as an example of the pathetic yearning of men to peer into the minds of the gods, and of the influence that

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 William Osler 1884

  • In Roman times, Philostratus gives an account of the trial of Apollonius of Tyana, (16) accused of human hepatoscopy by sacrificing a boy in the practice of magic arts against the Emperor.

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 William Osler 1884

  • Thus hepatoscopy, demanding long training and influencing political action (and, doubtless, calling for ingenuity and tact in interpretations), assumed great importance in Babylonia and

    Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV Crawford Howell Toy 1877

  • In order to do so, a system of interpretation was evolved, less logical and less elaborate than the system of hepatoscopy, which was analyzed in the preceding chapter, but nevertheless meriting attention both as an example of the pathetic yearning of men to peer into the minds of the gods, and of the influence that Babylonian-Assyrian astrology exerted throughout the ancient world "(Jastrow) .17

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine 1921

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