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 through-
out 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 contempo-
rary 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" inter-
pretations 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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