Talk:Augur
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To Seindal: auspices, haruspices and augures, were three kinds of (let's say) "priests". I don't well remember the differences now, but they probably were distinguished by the respective methods of divination. And augures were (perhaps in elder times) called auspices. The word "auspices" means therefore the result of divination, as well as the ancient name of augures. Do you think we should render this with more depth?
Ciao :-) -- Gianfranco
I just wrote out of memory. I have a book on Roman Religion in order in the local library, so more will come when I get it. Nel frattempo, pazienza. Seindal, Saturday, April 6, 2002
- Certo, che aspetto! :-)
- I hope in your book there is also something about the cults in Ager Vaticanus, that should be related with this matter: while editing about Vatican this morning, I was thinking to the fact that it always was a sacred area, with some relationships with these vaticinii and also, in some way, with the roman Decumanus (this could be another interesting argument, given that it should have been one of the considerations accepted when projecting the plan of St.Peter's and its orientation). In the meanwhile, I'll try to investigate in my old sources.
- Buona Domenica -- Gianfranco
The article presents the roots of augury a little too matter of factly, given the debate. Romululus and Remus, for instance, are depicted in a number of the ancient sources as having used augury to settle their quarrel (remember the twelve vultures?). Augury itself came out of Italian roots.
Also, without looking up the source, I'm pretty sure the line immediately below the Attius Navius quote (about the role of the augur) is plagiarized.
[edit] Article needs complete rewrite
This is very bad. Compare with the article in Smith's Dictionary (external links). Without going into the detail and Greek citations etc. of that article, the Ickypedia article should at least give an overview of augury, the various classes, who performed it, etc. Someone with some time on their hands could do worse than to condense and modernize the Smith's article and use that instead of the fluff we now have. Bill 11:23, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
- I'm not going to knock myself out, but I did clear some of the brush just now. Stuff about omens, haruspices, etc. does not belong here: but under the general article, I presume there is one, divination, of which, along with augury, they are subsets. The business about auspices primarily being taken when statues sweat blood, or there was an eclipse, is wrong: a complete misunderstanding, and needlessly confusing auspices (which are not in fact the subject of this article) with omina and so on. Bill 17:53, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] A tool?
In the 'Medieval Sourcebook: Medieval Prices' (i. e. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/medievalprices.html ) an augur is listed as a tool. I now augurs as in the Wiki-article, but what kind of tool is an augur???? 89.166.133.57 18:02, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
- An augur that you're thinking of is a type of drill, generally used to pierce ice on lakes to create holes for fishing. It is unrelated (as far as I know) to the practice of augury.--CaesarGJ 15:29, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
