Please don't be mad!

The liver also contained statements regarding religion and the king’s entourage. The gods could become angered by the king’s actions. For example, if he did not make enough offerings to the gods. If the gods were going to punish him for his behavior, an anomaly could be present on the right lobe, on top of the gall-bladder, continuing to the right side of the right lobe. This would indicate the following:

“At the end of the year the god Adad will thunder and devour the plants. The livestock’s pasture will be lost.” CT 06, pl. 01-03, Bu 1889-04-26, 238, obverse line 32

This was a devastating outcome. If the god Adad (Fig. 1) indeed destroyed all pastures, famine would spread across the land, causing chaos and death. In this case, the king would have to find out what he had done to cause the gods to be angry. When the misdeeds came to light, the king would try his best to appease the gods and prevent this disaster from happening.

After the king had tried everything in his power to satisfy the god, another extispicy was likely carried out to see if Adad would still continue to thunder and devour the plants or if he had reversed his decision.

Well done! You now know everything about the anatomy of a sheep’s liver, and the disastrous consequences misreading it could have on an empire. You are now a full-fledged liver inspector and know everything there is to learn about performing hepatoscopy. But one word of advice: please, do not try this at home!