hydromancy
nounEtymology From French hydromancie or Late Latin hydromantia, from Ancient Greek ὑδρομαντεία (hudromanteía); corresponding to hydro- + -mancy.
1
Usually Divination by water or other liquid.
- Hydromancy is the supposed art of divining by water. The Persians, according to Varro, invented it; Pythagoras and Numa Pompilius made use of it; and we still admire the like wonderful prognosticators.1797, Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edition:
- Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39:
1 more example
- Hydromancy, like many other methods of divination, seems to have originated in Babylonia and reached the Greco-Roman world via Egypt, in the first century b.c. or earlier.1985, Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi, →ISBN:
- Derived terms
- hydromancer, hydromantic
- Related terms
- hydatoscopy