Many expressions in literature indicate how persistent was this
belief. Among the Babylonians, the word "liver" was used in hymns and
other compositions precisely as we use the word "heart," and Jastrow
gives a number of illustrations from Hebrew, Greek and Latin sources
illustrating this usage.
The belief arose that through the inspection of this important organ in
the sacrificial animal the course of future events could be predicted.
"The life or soul, as the seat of life, in the sacrificial animal is,
therefore, the divine element in the animal, and the god in accepting
the animal, which is involved in the act of bringing it as an offering
to a god, identifies himself with the animal--becomes, as it were, one
with it. The life in the animal is a reflection of his own life,
and since the fate of men rests with the gods, if one can succeed in
entering into the mind of a god, and thus ascertain what he purposes to
do, the key for the solution of the problem as to what the future has in
store will have been found. The liver being the centre of vitality--the
seat of the mind, therefore, as well as of the emotions--it becomes in
the case of the sacrificial animal, either directly identical with the
mind of the god who accepts the animal, or, at all events, a mirror in
which the god's mind is reflected; or, to use another figure, a watch
regulated to be in sympathetic and perfect accord with a second watch.
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