Talk:Omen

We/They
Who are "we" in "when we found liver models" and "they" on "Compared to Israel, they used the methods listed above" ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pedro Carvalho (talk • contribs) 01:50, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Untitled
This article contains some information which is pure psuedoscientific opinion and conjecture. Also some issues with conforming to an encyclopedic npov. Will cleanup later. Entropic 19:05, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

64.12.116.66, please stop replacing the Diana bit. The article could probably use some examples of "real omens", but "x happened on the day of a solar eclipse, and then y happened the day after a lunar eclipse" doesn't qualify. If I get around to it, I'll come back-- but for now, shorter is better. (Sorry- I confess I didn't know how to sign when I first posted this. But now: QuixoticKate 04:06, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC))

Everyone -- This Diana eclipse thing is just an example of what an omen or portent consists of -- it's just an example, nothing more, so you should leave it. And all of the eclipse dates and data check out, research it yourself here > http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/when_search.shtml   (this loads slowly)

I suppose this isn't worth disputing at this point in this articles life-- I understand that these eclipses happened when the article says they did, I just think (as written), it's a poor example--but since I don't currently have any others, and since there's more than one person vouching for the Diana/eclipse thing, leaving it is ok with me. QuixoticKate 04:15, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Black cat
18`12`2006 I  have lived in Britain all my life, and ime familiar with the notion 't a black catt crossing one's path is bad  luck on the ground 't witches keep black cats. 30odd years back, ie heard 't s0me people maintain the oppozite, but ive never met one. So nu the example should be ditched. Froggo Zijgeb 04:56, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

How do you not include Mesopotamia?!
anybody who knows more- just a suggestion, thats the birth place of omen

omen
The omen is a song from the progidy and this why all of us came on to Wikpedia for omen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.101.209.246 (talk) 09:23, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I am a Latin teacher giving a lesson on Roman religious beliefs. I viewed this article to decide whether it offers anything for my students. I am frankly astounded at the proposed etymology of the word omen, though I understand that the writer said "are possibly". I am confident that it comes from the elemental sound /o/ (long o) that represents speech in several Latin words: os, oris, mouth; oro, orare, speak, and later pray; oraculum, oracle; plus the suffix -men, which converts a verb to a noun, as in acumen and foramen. So it means "a speaking" as of deities to humans. I would not dispute that omentum might come from omen, because entrails were in fact used to determine omens, but I cannot believe the reverse origin proposed in the article. Can anyone with more formal awareness and sources comment or amend this?Ferrarama (talk) 16:14, 4 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I have decided to save the original text for the etymology of the word omen in this talk stub in the event that a source for it can be found later, but frankly all of the sources I have found contradict the article's current content on the word's meaning.


 * "The modern word ‘omen’ and its derivatives (e.g., ominous) are derived from the Latin ‘ōmen’, possibly further derived from the Latin word ‘omentum’ which means ‘apron’. An omentum is the apron like anatomical structure made of fatty tissue covering the intestines of most animals’ (or humans’) abdomen.  The inspection of an animal's omentum was a practice frequently used for thousands of years (spanning from Classical Greek society to the late Roman era) by priests in order to predict the future.  In ancient societies where religious rituals were interweaved with mythological beliefs, the ‘mystic art’ of reading the internal organs of sacrificed animals was deeply respected and very much accepted.  The priests would inspect the internal organs of all animals which were sacrificed to the Gods and would deduct important information concerning the future (harvest, wars, politics, weather, city prosper, etc.).  One of the most important organs which were inspected or ‘read’  was the ever present abdominal omentum whose diversity in appearance (length, breadth, density, etc.)  granted great flexibility to the soothsayers’  ability of interpretation. Thus all deduced prophecies arising from the appearance of the ‘omentum’ were naturally ‘ominous’ in nature."
 * Travza (talk) 3:42, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

not encyclopedic
Why are the strange, lengthy lists of auspicious things and people included? This article needs weeded of the weirdness and fleshed out to avoid being a stub. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.9.196.2 (talk) 01:33, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Merging / New Article For Indian Astrology
I'm thinking it may be prudent to branch off the Indian Astrology section of this article in the hopes of removing unnecessary data. Travza (talk) 22:48, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Neo Babylonian Omen Text and Accompanied Astronomical artifacts well known but not included here.
I don't edit wiki, I do not have modern tools to  do so, this is a rare strong wifi connection,  but am lazing around, u can find the ascriptions to texts ( museums where they are held) and other things pertaining to OMENs.

circa 2300 BC, recorded from copies by 500 BC, found in Niveah, modern Iraq, cuneiform script, held by the British Museum

at my site, bookoflife.org ( see directory) u can access some of these books data and entries.


 * This section does not feel like it should be on the Talk Page. It feels like nothing more than an advertisement. I suggest it be removed to make way for more productive content. Mousenight (talk) 10:39, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Persa and Perseus Story Discrepancy
I became interested in the tale of Persa the dog and the campaign against Perseus, so I did a little digging to learn more. According to this [|this article], page 158, the Roman father's name is Lucius Paulus, not Emilios Paul as is given in the Wikipedia article. Could someone please help establish the facts of this "well known" tale? I've found reliable references a bit lacking. I'm personally interested in this little story, so I would appreciate any details you guys might dig up. Thanks a bunch! Mousenight (talk) 10:33, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

"Harbringer" vs "Harbinger" in search bar
I'm not sure how to fix this myself, but in the search bar when you type in "Omen" you get a suggestion for this page, with the subtitle "harbringer." This is simply a typo: the word is "harbinger." Jmmolenick (talk) 18:22, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

"Good or Bad"
This section appears to exist to comment on how the same omen may be interpreted differently by different cultures or parties.

The trouble is that the section's only mention of any cultural beliefs regarding omens is that "a superstition in the United States and other countries across Europe indicates that a black cat is an omen of bad luck". The section neglects, however, to then mention any cultures that believe black cats to be a favourable omens. Furthermore, it's probably also worth noting that it's not black cats themselves that are considered to be ill omens, but specifically a black cat crossing one's path. So, unless there's a culture that believes a black cat crossing one's path is a good omen, there's no point mentioning this belief here anyway.

And though this section in does manage to provide one (and only one) example of an omen being interpreted differently by two parties, claiming that: "Halley's Comet was a "bad omen" for King Harold II of England but a "good omen" for William the Conqueror", the citation provided for this example makes no mention of anyone proclaiming the comet to be a favourable omen for William the Conqueror. Indeed, the cited article doesn't mention William at all. And while one could claim that a bad omen for Harold II automatically equalled a good omen for William the Conqueror, that wouldn't really be the point that this section appears to be trying to make.

All in all, I think this section could probably just be deleted. Whilst information covering differences in interpretation, or differing cultural beliefs about specific omens, would absolutely be worth including. This section does nothing to explore these topics, and fails to properly support the one example it provides. Omen ishii (talk) 08:40, 31 January 2024 (UTC)