BĂRŮ

BĂRŮ. – Name of an important class of Babylonian and Assyrian priests, whose principal duty was to establish the will of the gods, that is, the future. The b. was the diviner and soothsayer priest, the one who questioned the gods—first and foremost the sun god Šamaš and the storm god Arlad—about what the gods had decreed. The b. established the future above all by examining the liver of animals sacrificed for this purpose, “hepatoscopy,” which was widely practised among the peoples of the ancient Orient. The mantic science, the bărûtu, was believed to have been revealed by the god Ea. The b. formulated the question addressed to the god concisely, and the latter answered yes or no. Before beginning the divinatory ceremony, the b. had to purify himself.

Giuseppe Furlani