May the odds be ever in your favor

Each of these inscribed squares contains an answer to a query, a prediction. So what questions might be posed to a liver?

“Shamash, great lord, give me a firm positive answer to what I am asking you”.

These are the pleas of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (on the clay tablet in Fig. 1). In ancient times, Mesopotamian kings always sought the advice of the gods about matters of great importance regarding the state, such as political and religious matters. The questions were addressed to the god of judgment, named Shamash, and/or the god of inspection (extispicy), called Adad. Krysztof, Ulanowski, “Mesopotamian Divination. Some Historical, Religious and Anthropological Remarks,” Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica 15, no. 4 (2014): 13. To extract answers from these deities, one method involved the use of a sheep’s liver on which the answer of the god was presented.

Esarhaddon (Fig. 2), king of Assyria, pleads to the god Shamash about an important issue he cannot decide on without the help of the gods. This query was written on a tablet (Fig. 1):

“I ask you, Shamash, great lord, whether, should Esarhaddon, king of Assyria give a royal daughter in marriage to (…) the king of the Scythians (…) and whether he will in good faith speak honest words of peace (…) and do whatever is pleasing to Esarhaddon, king of Assyria. (…) Be present in this sheep, place (in it) a firm positive answer (…) and may I see (them).” “Giving a Princess in Marriage to Bartatua, King of the Scythians.” SAA 04 020, 1; line 4-6, 10-12. .