Did ancient generals really decide to fight or not based on divination,

The Oracle of Delphi was an institution whose respect was pan-Hellenic, and so were their riches.

This is a condensed version of what prof. Donald Kagan said in the Open Yale Course on Ancient Greece.

You go on a pilgrimage to Delphi, visit the Oracle, but there's a queue. You want to skip the queue, so you talk to the priest, bribe him with food and offers, talk to him, he hears the latest news from you.

Once you're in the presence of the oracle, she'll speak in tongues, the priest will tell you the latest news he heard from the guy that came before you.

That's how the Oracle of Delphi was so accurate in its predictions, the best in all Greece.

>>1656202
That's fascinating, I'll have to read more about it.

What about battlefield omens? Killing the goat to see if you could attack, and such? Surely they can't benefit from the same sort of extra knowledge.

>>1656215
Again, interpreters and priests can deliver their secular, wordly knowledge or opinion too.

>>1656263
Surely they wouldn't have better knowledge in the field than a military commander.

Surely said military commanders would realize that...wouldn't they?

>>1656202
I don't get it

>>1656197
Yes they did. There was some constancy to, Europeans used a system very similar to what was done in Japan, only it was based on the virgin Mary rather than some Shinto deity.

Some of the stuff was also based on practical matters like whether.

On the other hand many text cautioned against trusting in such things.

>>1656265
Depends on which field.

Altered migration and flight patterns in the birds' behavior suggesting incoming or current bad weather for a naval battles, etc. may not be part of the strategos' domain of expertise.

Other secular reasons for dissuading him from fighting could be the contentedness of the people in a non-democratic polis.

They are practical men, they wouldn't keep the priests and diviners around if they never worked.

>>1656272
The Oracle of Delphi accumulates worldy knowledge from every corner of Greece (and beyond), and redistributes it in exchange for offerings. It's not rocket science.

If the other guys' army are on the move "the gods" can tell you - for the right price...

File: Xenophon Anabasis.jpg (18KB, 400x395px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 400x395px

>>1656197
You are actually more right than you realize I think. Greek generals had ancient divination experts with them on the battlefield. Before every battle this expert would start several divination rituals to predict the outcome of the battle. Things like watching the flightpath of birds above the army, inspecting the liver of a sacrificed goat. It would then be the decision of the general if he would continue battle preparations if the omens were favourable or if he would retreat if the omens were not favourable. However, there are several examples of generals that dismissed the advice of his divination expert and made their own decision. It's a risk you could take. He was still the general so the final decision was always his to make.

It's been some time since I studied the subject but I would definitely recommend reading the primary sources of Xenophon. He was a Greek general who wrote about the proceedings of his army, including a lot of information about divination on the battlefield since he was trained in divination himself as well.