Tomáš Vítek
Ancient palmomancy
Palmomancy was an ancient
technique of divination whose aim was to predict future through involuntary
bodily movements. From the vast amount of literature written about this topic
in antiquity only five treatises have been preserved, the linguistic and
intellectual level of which is rather disappointing. Educated writers have not
found the matter worth of much attention. There is but one attempt to explain
the movements with the help of Aristotle’s explanation of cough. A number of
elements seem to have contributed to the development of the technique:
attribution of magical functions to various bodily parts (later systematized as
physiognomy), or of divinatory significance to some bodily expressions
(coughing, itching etc.); medical theories of doctors who since the time of
Hippocrates used movement of bodily parts and organs (heart, belly) as
diagnostic means; systematized interpretations of omens in popular handbooks of
divination. It was a vulgar technique used by slaves, soldiers and women and
associated with strata of society where religion was intermingled with magic
and superstition. In the