Sarah Iles Johnston. Ancient Greek Divination. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (2008). Pp. 193. Reviewed by Stephanie L. Budin, Rutgers University, Camden Johnston’s book is a fine introduction to the arts of divination in the ancient Greek world. Chronologically the work extends from age of Homer and Hesiod up through Late Antiquity; geographically the work focuses on mainland Greece, Anatolia, and Egypt. In spite of the chronological range mentioned, the book focuses specifically on Greek divination; Roman divination is not included save as a comparandum for Greek practice where relevant (pg. 27). The book is organized into five chapters. Chapter One, “Why Divination?” considers ancient and modern philosophical and anthropological approaches to divination in the ancient world. Does divination work? Why does it work? What does it say about the relationship between deities and humans? Is it religion? Is it magic? Are there clear boundaries between these apparently distinct categories? Although Johnston locates divination within the magic-religion paradigm, she does not broach the debate concerning the relationship between magic and religion, or how divination would contribute to that debate. After considering the opinions of ancient authors such as Cicero (On Divination) and Artemidorus (On Divination Through Dreams), Johnston turns to modern theorists, especially considering differences between early and late 20th-century ideologies. Chapters Two and Three focus on the main institutional oracles of the ancient Greek world, Chapter Two looking at Delphi and Dodona, Chapter Three considering Claros, Didyma, and other, smaller oracles. For Delphi, she presents the history of the site, evidence for how the oracle functioned, and even considers the debate as to whether or not the Pythia was “atmospherically enhanced” during her prophesies (Johnston believes she was). One particularly interesting notion Johnston addresses is the engendered nature of Delphi (pp. 56–60). As noted at the opening of Aeschylus’ Eumenides, Delphi once belongs to a range of goddesses before being acquired by Apollo. In this respect Johnston looks at the on-going role of Themis in the history of Delphi and Greek politics. Chapter Two ends with a survey of the more out-of-the-way oracle of Zeus at Dodona. Of especial interest is the archaeological evidence for the use of lead scrolls in oracular divination, and Johnston uses the evidence from Dodona to speculate that a similar technique may have been employed at Delphi. Chapter Three covers the Anatolian oracles of Apollo at Claros and Didyma, as well as the lesser, local oracles such as that of Trophonius at Lebadeia (northern Greece). This chapter is somewhat less coherent than Chapter Two. Johnston diverges from her discussions of the oracles to discuss the (related) concept of the nature of divinity (pp. 78 ff., pp. 89 ff.). Likewise, on page 82 she rather contradicts herself when switching from the Claros to Didyma. At the end of the former she claims that “By the time Claros rose to greater prominence during the imperial age, it was too late to embroider its foundation story very much. The genealogies, deeds and interactions of the great mythic heroes were firmly set; the system was nearly closed.” However, she begins her section on Didyma by noting that the myth has its origins in the Hellenistic age, evolving up into the imperial age. Nevertheless, Johnston provides a good overview of the archaeology and textual evidence concerning these major Apolline oracles. Chapter Three ends with a survey of less grandiose, but still quite popular, oracles throughout the Greek world and their respective means of divination. At some sites, such as the sanctuary of Asklepius at Epidaurus, incubation (dream oracles) was the means to a very literal cure. At the shrine of Trophonius, one was literally sucked into the earth feet first. Some mediums used mirrors or talking snakes (as used by the possibly duplicitous Alexander and his talking snake [puppet?] Glycon). Or, for the do-it-yourselfer, divination by means of dice. Chapter Four studies the history and role of the mantis, or personal diviner, in the ancient Greek world. Here Johnston explores the issues of how one became a mantis (were family connections important?), what the manteis did, and what divinatory techniques they used. Covered are the techniques of hepatoscopy (reading entrails), ornithoscopy (watching birds), astrology, and oneiromancy (dream interpretation). In all cases, Johnston notes the intellectual component of the divination, both ancient and modern. For the ancients, the ability to read the will of the gods in, say, a liver required a significant knowledge of anatomy. For the moderns, the ancients’ ability to “translate” one level of reality to another was the very origins of semiotics and, among other disciplines, literary theory. The chapter ends with a look at what might be termed the two extreme ends of the mantis profession. On the one hand were the chremologues, who grew wise studying earlier divinations and their results. On the flip side were the so-called “belly-speakers” who sound like they should be people who divine the future based on stomach gurgles but who actually speak prophetically when literally enthused by divinity. The final chapter, “The Mantis and the Magician,” focuses mainly on Greco-Roman Egypt and what happened when the disciplines of Greek and Egyptian magic met. Here Johnston focuses on the Greek Magical Papyri and, to a lesser extent, the related Demotic papyri. It is in this chapter that the close relationship between magic and divination resurfaces, as Johnston considers, for example, not only the use of dreams in divination, but also how magic can be used to send specific dreams to another (and thus screw up their prophecies). Most notably, it is here that Johnston notes changes in ideologies over time, and especially the rise of theurgy in ancient religions. On the whole, the book is clearly written and well-organized. Technical terms are defined, and images contribute well to the presentation of data. Every chapter is followed by a focused bibliography, and an index locorum ends the work. The only weakness of the work, more relevant to the specialized reader than the novis, is Johnston’s use of secondary sources. There is a strong sense of nepotism in the works cited. In 2001 Peter Struck of the University of Pennsylvania organized a conference on “Greek and Roman Divination” at which Johnston delivered a paper. The presenters at that conference and its resultant publication Mantikê (co-edited by Johnston) feature extremely prominently in Johnston’s book. As a result, Johnston often overlooks critical work done by other scholars. For example, when discussing the female body’s potential for possession by deities, she cites a forthcoming work by her husband Fritz Graf (pg. 45) rather than the standard work on this topic, Ruth Padel’s 1983 “Women: Model for Possession by Greek Daemons.” Her section on gender in the cults of Apollo would have benefited by a look at Mary Voyatzis’s 1998 “From Athena to Zeus: An A–Z Guide to the Origins of Greek Goddesses,” (which studies Apollo’s adoption into the Greek pantheon through displacement of female deities). Johnston cites work as recent as 2008 (pg. 141), and yet makes no mention of Joan Connelly’s 2007 Portrait of a Priestess for that which concerns the Pythia, or Michael Flower’s 2008 The Seer in Ancient Greece on manteis. And it just seems inconceivable that Johnston could find nothing more meaningful in all the works of Daniel Ogden than one point about necromancy which she feels the need to excoriate. Twice (pg. 97 and pg. 175). Furthermore, Johnston relies too much on the works of Walter Burkert for that which concerns Near Eastern influences and imports, leading to some infelicities (e.g. pg. 172: Typhon is the name of a Greek deity; the Egyptian name is Seth). Bibliography pertaining to Near Eastern and Etruscan comparanda is lacking, and thus repeated references to Near Eastern origins remain unsupported, even speculative. In spite of these shortcomings, the book is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to learn more, or at all, about ancient Greek divination. The pages provide well-researched, well-organized information on several aspects of this important aspect of ancient Greek religious ideology and praxis, as well as locating divination in the modern discipline of Classics.