Augury v haruspicy
August 16th, 2012 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarClaire Trevett reports at NZ Herald:
Labour MP David Cunliffe returned from a five-week trip around Europe like some new-age Arnold Schwarzenegger, fizzing at the bung with his dimpled chin as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
The freshly shaved chin set MPs humming the Jaws theme music under their breath.
Cunliffe had grown the beard last summer after losing the leadership contest to David Shearer.
It came to be viewed as a portent – Prime Minister John Key was among the augurs who studied the beard’s progress as intently as the ancient Romans inspected bird entrails, before he intoned, Confucius-like, that Shearer should beware if Cunliffe came at him with naked chin.
I always enjoy references to roman traditions, but being pedantic feel obliged to point out that augury has been confused with haruspicy.
Augurs do not look at the entrails of birds, but pronounce divine meaning from flights of birds. A haruspex inspects the entrails of sacrificed animals to divine the will of the gods.
Now who knew that before this post? 
Related posts:
- Pākehā birds and freedom in death
- Labour leadership voting
- Labour’s welfare split
- More on the Cunliffe support site
August 16th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Jeez, DPF! No wonder you get all the chicks!
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
No-one (other than you). And the wrold was not worse as a result.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
You could probably get government funding to do a course in Haruspex.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I did not, which is why I get more dates than you do
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
In the excellent BBC/ HBO series ROME, the priests at the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus watched the flight of white pigeons, and decided on this basis that the gods favoured Caesar in his civil war against Pompey and the Senate (though in the story Caesar had it pre-arranged through making the appropriate bribes).
It is poetic to allude to these old pagan ways, although we recognise they were primitive superstitions and had their place in convincing the plebs of the authority of powerful people (“the divine right of kings”), it has not removed the desire we have to foretell what will happen in the future, and particularly whether the “gods” favour one individual over another
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I didn’t DPF.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Love Claire’s stories, very humouress.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Well whatever, nothing augars well for the NZ Haruspic Party as it flutters gamely on to it’s next record low opinion poll rating.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Sorry, cold water on DPF’s legionnaire parade. Actually augury and haruspicy are rightly Etruscan and Greek, via the Babylonians, and then appropriated by the Romans who borrowed everything except beards. (Maximus was provincial and Spanish). . So, it is only second hand stubble.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Read the rest of the article…
Meanwhile, Key is still rolling along in the padded bliss of his zorb of popularity, untouched by the occasional rocks it bowls over.
That is the single best sentence I have read in the Herald in a long time.
The image that entered my head – Of the labour Party caucus, in ancient Rome, huddled round and studying a chicken carcass, while John Key, in a toga, randomly zorbed through the scene – caused me to spit my drink over my keyboard.
That is some funny sh*t right there.
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Which makes me a pedantic Pedant.
Vote:Pictures here of Cunliffe in Latin repose. http://conzervative.wordpress.com
August 16th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
‘…. fizzing at the bung” ????
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
“intoned,Confucious like…..”
WTF is that? Was someone doing Asian impersonations?
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
“Now who knew that before this post? ”
Nobody except you DPF because you’re the only person in the world who watched HBO’s Rome
J/K you’re the only person who thinks watching it makes you some kind of classics scholar
Vote:August 16th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Being some what pedantic,,” fizzing at the bun” not ” bung”. in blokeish circles as referring to the chicks, eyeing the lads up and “fizzing at the bun” to hook up with said blokeish chap.
“Fizzing at the bung” conjures up bad thoughts as regards the result after drinking water on the sub continent
Vote:August 17th, 2012 at 1:00 am
I did!
Vote:August 17th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I knew that. I guess I must be as big a nerd as DPF :~
Vote:August 17th, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Gosh DPF. You must be deadly at playing scrabble!
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