Adrienne Mayor

In classical antiquity, especially during social or political crises, natural events (including the behavior of animals) were sometimes taken as omens capable of imparting knowledge about the present or the future. Certain omens--unusual events or those deemed contrary to nature (e.g., monstrous births, eclipses, earthquakes)--were called prodigies and usually were read as unfavorable signs. Omens could be observed by "specialists" under specific circumstances or could come "unbidden" to anyone. Divination, the art of interpreting omens, was practiced throughout the ancient world; an omen's interpretation could be "natural" (intuitive, based on resemblances) or "artificial" (professional). This article compares a prodigy recorded in a Latin text during the last days of the Roman Empire with the contemporary legend of the "Choking Doberman."¹

Ancient accounts of omens and rumors associated with them offer a provocative avenue for comparative and historical research in contemporary folklore.² just as modern rumors often set popular belief against authorized "truth," so official "readings" by professional diviners of widely observed or reported omens sometimes conflicted with "intuitive" interpretations by ordinary people. In antiquity, popular explanations of omens were disseminated by rumor, and the tendency to "closure" ( Koenig 1985 :19, 24) sometimes resulted in the rumor's evolution into a narrative legend. When an ancient writer preserves details of the historical context along with popular and official reactions to a portent, the text can be analyzed as a contemporary legend that sets out a proposition for belief. Linda Dígh has recently defined contemporary legend as a story that is shocking and frightening while remaining on the plane of the real

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