ענן anan (H6049) means to call or bring into existence through observing times, practicing soothsaying, spiritism, magic, augury, or witchcraft a sign of what will happen in the future; an omen. The Greek Old Testament uses the word ορνιθοσκοπήσεσθε ornithoskopísesthe (modern word ornithoscope) and means bird-watching. Ornithoskopísesthe comes from ornitho- (bird) + -scopy (to see). Specifically, augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed behavior of birds. When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, it is referred to as “taking the auspices”. ‘Auspices’ is from the Latin auspicium and auspex, literally “one who looks at birds.” Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods could be favorable or unfavorable (auspicious or inauspicious). Sometimes politically motivated augures would fabricate unfavorable auspices in order to delay certain state functions, such as elections. Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23 A.D. – 79 A.D., attributes the invention of auspicy to Greek Mythology’s Tiresias, the blind seer of Thebes who was the generic model of a seer in the Greco-Roman literary culture.
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