Crossword clues for sortes
sortes
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sors \Sors\, n.; pl. Sortes. [L.] A lot; also, a kind of divination by means of lots.
Sortes Homeric[ae] or Sortes Virgilian[ae] [L., Homeric or Virgilian lots], a form of divination anciently practiced, which consisted in taking the first passage on which the eye fell, upon opening a volume of Homer or Virgil, or a passage drawn from an urn which several were deposited, as indicating future events, or the proper course to be pursued. In later times the Bible was used for the same purpose by Christians.
Sortes \Sor"tes\, n., pl. of Sors.
Wiktionary
n. divination, or the seeking of guidance, by chance selection of a passage in the Bible or another text regarded as authoritative.
Wikipedia
Sortes is a civil parish in the municipality of Bragança, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 296, in an area of 21.30 km².
Sortes ( Latin singular: sors) were a frequent method of divination among the ancient Romans. The method involved the drawing of lots (sortes) to obtain knowledge of future events: in many of the ancient Italian temples the will of the gods was consulted in this way, as at Praeneste and Caere.
These sortes or lots were usually little tablets or counters, made of wood or other materials, and were commonly thrown into a sitella or urn, filled with water. The lots were sometimes thrown like dice. The name of "sortes" was in fact given to anything used to determine chances, and was also applied to any verbal response of an oracle.
Various things were written upon the lots according to circumstances, as for instance the names of the persons using them. It seems to have been a favorite practice in later times to write the verses of illustrious poets upon little tablets, and to draw them out of the urn like other lots, the verses which a person thus obtained being supposed to be applicable to him (see Sortes Homerica and Sortes Virgilianae, lots created from verses of Homer and Virgil).
In the Biblical account of the prophet Jonah, he is thrown into the sea and swallowed by the whale after the sailors on the ship cast lots to determine the guilty one who had brought about the storm. It was also the practice to consult the poets in the same way as Muslims do the Koran and Hafiz, and many Christians the Bible, namely, by opening the book at random and applying the first passage that struck the eye to a person's own immediate circumstances. This practice was very common among the early Christians, who substituted the Bible and the Psalter for Homer and Virgil. Many church councils repeatedly condemned these Sortes Sanctorum (sacred lots), as they were called.
The Sibylline books were probably also consulted in this way. Those who foretold future events by lots were called Sortilegi.
The sortes conviviales were sealed tablets, which were sold at entertainments, and upon being opened or unsealed entitled the purchaser to things of very unequal value. They were therefore a kind of lottery.
Usage examples of "sortes".
Sur un autre sujet plus delicat que Dayelle avait traite avec toutes sortes de menagements, elle avait repondu sur le meme ton.
Elle regarde, emerveillee, toutes ces tiges en fleur, et elle voit toutes sortes de petits insectes courir sur les feuilles et sur les fleurs.
Some sitting in straunge fashioned Charriots, and drawne in them by swift Dolphines, crowned and adorned with water Lillies sutable to the furniture of the garnished seates: some with diuers dishes and vessels replenished with many sortes of fruites.
A prime minister of real life, however, could scarcely be seriously recommended to shape his policy upon a due consideration of the possible allegoric meaning of a passage in Isaiah, to say nothing of the obvious objection that this kind of appeal to Sortes Biblicæ is dangerously liable to be turned against those who recommend it.
From the fourth to the fourteenth century, these sortes sanctorum, as they are styled, were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly practised by kings, bishops, and saints.
I was hardly the first person to have recourse to the sortes Virgilianae in time of confusion or trouble.