PlannedRandom drawHistorical practice
A description for now. An interactive tool for this method is planned but not built yet.
Background
The Sortes Vergilianae used passages from the poet Virgil for divination, possibly as early as the second century AD. Famous accounts include the emperor Hadrian and King Charles I, who is said to have tried it in an Oxford library.
How it works
The Aeneid (or other works of Virgil) is opened at random and a line is read as the answer.
Notes and limits
Licensing: Virgil’s Latin text is public domain; any English translation used must itself be public domain (pre-1930 US) or licensed.
At a glance
- Also called
- Virgilian lots, Sortes Virgilianae
- Traditions
- Roman, Medieval and early modern European
- Regions
- Ancient Mediterranean, Europe
- You need
- A question, A random draw
- Price
- Free