Signs, Portents, and the Sacred Chickens

Specifically, augury. I've never thought too much about this before but this cartoon I saw today made me laugh.


Augury is an ancient practice, but is probably most often associated with ancient Rome, and certainly that's where I've gotten most of my information on the subject. Essentially, augury is the interpretation of the will of the gods by observing the behavior of birds and their flight patterns. One of the earliest forms of augury is watching the sky - lightning and thunder have always been seen as portents, for obvious reasons.

Auspices taken from birds came from two types: those noted by their singing (ravens, crows, owls, hens), and those noted by their flight patterns (vultures, eagles). The priest would designate to which side of him their flight would be considered an favorable or unfavorable sign.

My favorite story of auspices has to do with the first Punic war, when Rome fought Carthage. In the Battle of Drepana, 249 BC, the patrician Publius Claudius Pulcher was in charge of a naval expedition to fight the (vastly superior naval forces of) Carthage off the western point of Sicily. It was practice to consult the augurs in the form of the sacred chickens. Feed would be scattered before the chickens and if they ate, it was a good omen; if they refused or flapped their wings, a bad one.

On the morning of the battle, Pulcher consulted the sacred chickens as was his duty. The chickens, however, refused to eat. Impatient to get to the battle, Pulcher threw them overboard and declared, "If they're not hungry, perhaps they're thirsty." The battle went on as planned.

Turns out one should not ignore the council of the sacred chickens. Bad omens being bad omens, he lost the battle badly to the superior Carthaginian forces. Publius Claudius Pulcher went back to Rome in disgrace and was ultimately convicted of sacrilege due to the chicken incident. Ruined, he was sentenced to exile.

I have always been fascinated by ancient Rome but the story of the sacred chickens has to be one of my favorites. I highly recommend the podcast by Mike Duncan, "The History of Rome." He talks about this incident and it's hilarious. The entire podcast is brilliant and the episodes about the Punic Wars are among my favorites.

There's a very good article on augury here:
http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/augury.php

It may all seem like silly superstition, but it's interesting to think about signs in the world around us. It's not absurd to recognize the significance of a circling group of vultures as a real indication that something has happened. I don't know about the specifics of ancient interpretations, but it's intriguing to realize that the world is always telling us something. It's a matter of observing.