Ritual Practices Performed by the Prophetess Manto in the Greco-Roman Sources

This paper analyses excerpts from Greco-Roman
works on the prophetess Manto,
exploring the dynamics of the mythical connotation of her character, whose foundation
acts mostly relate to different divination techniques, performed with different
materials. Various sources attest that her prophetic powers and ritual performances
involve different aspects, depending on the Greek or Roman context. In Euripides'
Phoenician Women, her father Tiresias entrusts her with kleroi, 'lots' used for divination
based on the flights of birds. In other Greek sources, she practices the art
of mantike in Delphi and is mostly linked to the oracles of Apollo. Unlike the Greek
tradition, in a passage from Seneca's Oedipus, Manto materially performs the actions
of a ritual sacrifice of a bull and a heifer, and examines their entrails, reading the
signa. Seneca attributes to her the powers of a haruspex. Later in the same tragedy,
Manto and Tiresias perform a necromantic ritual to summon the shadow of Laius. A
similar ritual occurs in Statius' Thebaid, where Manto indulges in necromancy pronouncing
a powerful carmen to summon Laius, as well as other dead Argives and
Thebans. Still in the Thebaid, Manto performs a ritual of empiromancy. The aim of this
study is to identify and analyse Manto's divinatory expertise and ritual techniques of
communication with the superhuman.