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haruspicy

In the religion of Ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices) was a person trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy (haruspicina) the inspection of the entrails (exta), hence also extispicy (extispicium) of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. The reading of omens specifically from the liver is also known by the Greek term hepatoscopy (also hepatomancy).
The Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the disciplina Etrusca. Haruspicy as practiced by the Romans and Etruscans has direct precedents in the religions of the Ancient Near East since at least the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC) and apparently reached Italy via Anatolian (Hittite, Luwian) transmission.
The Latin terms haruspex, haruspicina are from an archaic word haru "entrails, intestines" (cognate with hernia "protruding viscera", and hira "empty gut"; PIE *ǵʰer-) and from the root spec- "to watch, observe". The Greek ἡπατοσκοπία hēpatoskōpia is from hēpar "liver" and skop- "to examine".
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