Cleromancy: casting lots to know the divine will
Cleromancy in antiquity: Urim and Thummim, the lots of Jonah and Matthias, and the sortes of Praeneste described by Cicero in his work On Divination.
Leaving a decision to a draw seems today a way of removing all intention. For many ancient civilisations it was the opposite: precisely because no human could influence it, the outcome of a lot revealed the will of the gods. The term cleromancy comes from the Greek kleros, «lot», and refers to the set of practices in which marked objects, such as pebbles, sticks, tablets or beans, were drawn or thrown to obtain an answer.
The lot in the Hebrew Bible
In the Bible the lot often appears as a legitimate tool. The Book of Exodus mentions the Urim and Thummim placed in the breastpiece of the high priest, oracular objects whose shape and workings we do not know for certain. In the Book of Jonah the sailors, caught in the storm, cast lots to discover who has brought down divine anger, and the lot falls on the prophet.
The promised land, according to the Book of Joshua, was divided among the tribes by lot. The underlying idea is expressed in the Book of Proverbs: the lot is cast into the lap, but the decision comes from the Lord. Leviticus also records the lot in the rite of the Day of Atonement, when the two goats were chosen, one for the Lord and one for Azazel.
From the apostles to the Greeks
The New Testament also preserves an episode of casting lots. In the Acts of the Apostles, to replace Judas, the disciples put forward two candidates and cast lots: the choice falls on Matthias. Afterwards, in the Christian tradition, drawing lots for church offices became rare and was regarded with caution, for fear of confusing faith with superstition.
In the Greek world the lot also had a civic function. In Athens most magistrates were appointed by lot, with devices such as the kleroterion. This political use coexisted with a religious dimension: even at Delphi, according to some sources, a consultation by lot was sometimes used, alongside the famous prophecy of the Pythia.
The sortes of Praeneste
The most famous Roman case is that of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, modern Palestrina. Cicero, in the second book of De divinatione, tells the legend of its origins: a notable named Numerius Suffustius, warned in a dream, is said to have split open a rock and found sortes of oak wood, carved with ancient signs.
The tablets were mixed and drawn, according to Cicero, by a boy. The writer, who in the dialogue takes a stand against divination, remarks with irony that by then only the common people were persuaded by those lots. Yet the sanctuary, with its grand terraces still visible on the slopes of Palestrina, remained for centuries one of the most frequented places of worship in Latium.
A universal practice
Cleromancy does not belong to a single culture. Similar forms are known among the Germanic peoples, as Tacitus relates, in China and in many African societies. What they share is the idea that chance is not truly blind but a space left open so that something higher may show itself. For this reason the drawing of lots was often accompanied by a prayer or a sacrifice.
From the high priest's breastpiece to the oak tablets of Praeneste, the history of the lot shows how thin the line was between public procedure and religious rite. For the ancients, casting lots meant handing the choice to a higher will and accepting its outcome as a verdict that no one could dispute.