1. Terms and definition

Divination derives from Lat. divinare, “to ascertain the divine will.” Manticism, Gk μαντική (sc. τέχνη)/mantikḗ (sc. téchnē), is “(the art of) indicating the future”; the term derives from a root that expresses “spiritual effort”; in antiquity, at least after Plato (Phaidr. 244c), owing to the dominance of ecstatic divination, the word was associated with “mania” (μανία/manía) (Mania). Divination is a…