Also known as:
haruspication;
Latin: aruspicium, extispicium, haruspicina
ARUSPICINA - Etruscan mirror with a representation of the seer Calchas (4th-3rd century B.C.) - Vatican, Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
HARUSPICY. - It is the body of doctrines of the haruspices, intended to interpret the will of the gods through the examination of the entrails of victims; so that the term is equivalent to extispicium. The a. is of undoubtedly Etruscan origin, as the first part of the name is probably Etruscan. The true hostiae consultoriae, that is, the animals whose entrails served for the consultation, were the ox and the sheep, but especially the latter.
Among the entrails the liver occupied an almost exclusive place; the gall bladder, the heart, and the lungs were also examined, however. In the examination of the liver the haruspices had raised their virtuosity to an extreme degree: the color of the fibers was observed, the number of superficial fissures, and the organ was divided by a complicated topography into many compartments, each of which had its own meaning and was sacred to a different divinity. So at least it seems possible to deduce from the well-known bronze liver of Piacenza. Between Etruscan a. and Babylonian a. certain relations exist, but we do not know whether they are due to direct influences.
Bibliography2 worksC. D. Thulin, Die etrushische Disciplin, II: Die Aruspices. Göteborg 1906; id., s. v. Haruspices, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. der hlurs. A
BIBL.: C. D. Thulin, Die etrushische Disciplin, II: Die Aruspices. Göteborg 1906; id., s. v. Haruspices, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. der hlurs. Altertœniscis, VII, coll. 2449-59 (excellent summary of the preceding work). On the relations between Etruscan a. and Babylonian a., v. G. Furlani, Epatoscopia babilonese ed epatoscopia etrusca, in Studi e Materiali di St. delle Relig., 4 (1928), pp. 242-85.
Mingazzini, Paolino. “Aruspicina.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, col. 71. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/aruspicina.
MLA
Mingazzini, Paolino. “Aruspicina.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, col. 71. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/aruspicina.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec2_aruspicina,
author = {Mingazzini, Paolino},
title = {Aruspicina},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {II},
pages = {71},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aruspicina}
}
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