Divining the Etruscan World
The Brontoscopic Calendar and Religious Practice

The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, providing an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text.

Jean MacIntosh Turfa (Author)

9781107009073, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 July 2012

432 pages, 24 b/w illus.
26 x 18.3 x 2.8 cm, 1.09 kg

'Divining the Etruscan World is a stimulating and pioneering work of interest and value for all Etruscan researchers and to a wide spectrum of scholars of ancient religion in Etruria, Italy and the Mediterranean.' Nancy de Grummond, The Journal of Roman Studies

The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar is a rare document of omens foretold by thunder. It long lay hidden, embedded in a Greek translation within a Byzantine treatise from the age of Justinian. The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, this book provides an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text, especially the Etruscans' concerns regarding the environment, food, health and disease. Jean MacIntosh Turfa also analyzes the ancient Near Eastern sources of the Calendar and the subjects of its predictions, thereby creating a picture of the complexity of Etruscan society reaching back before the advent of writing and the recording of the calendar.

Part I. Background: 1. The Brontoscopic Calendar and its transmission
2. Etruscan religion in the classical world
3. An ominous time: thunder, lightning, weather, and divination
Part II. The Brotoscopic Calendar: Greek Text and English Translation
Part III. Thematic Analysis of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar: 4. Analysis of the Brontoscopic Calendar
5. 'Reptiles with trouble habitations' – weather, fauna, agriculture, pests
6. 'Plague, but not exceptionally life-threatening' – health and disease
7. 'The women and the slaves will carry out assassinations' – the society of the Brontoscopic Calendar
Part IV. Sources and Successors of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar: 8. Mesopotamian influences and Near Eastern predecessors of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar
9. Other Brontoscopia in the classical tradition
10. Conclusion: assessing the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar and its heritage.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]