Babylonian-Assyrian Birth-Omens and Their Cultural Significance

The study examines Babylonian and Assyrian systems of divination, focusing on birth-omens alongside hepatoscopy and astrology, and explains their theoretical bases and methods of interpretation. It catalogs animal and human omen reports — multiple births, malformations, hybrids, and unusual features — and outlines principles such as association of ideas and outcome-based correlations. The analysis traces how omen traditions informed views of physiognomy, monsters, and metamorphosis, compares Mesopotamian material with Greek and Roman sources, and considers the cultural transmission and persistence of these beliefs across the ancient Near East and beyond.