The significance of omens

“The past is only significant insofar as it shows us continuities that will repeat themselves. Thus, omens are of great importance. At some time in the past the shape of the entrails of a sacrificial animal coincided with some significant event. If that shape should present itself again, we may expect the same events to happen again. Thus the past will repeat itself and it is helpful to have information on hand to plan for that repetition.”—The Bible Among Other Myths, page 61

<idle musing>
If you have studied the ancient world much at all, you know how important omens were. If the omens weren't favorable, the army wouldn't move. Armies could be across from each other for days, waiting for the omens to be favorable—insanity by today's standards!

There are catalogs of omens, “if this then this will happen.” That is also why they watched the stars so carefully—remember the stars were divine, so they had an affect on your life (modern astrology depends on this same idea). There were tablets that listed “good days” called ume tabuti in Akkadian (sorry no diacritics).

As an aside, did you know that the Greek word for “left” actually means “well-omened”? The Greeks believed that bad omens came from the left, so they wouldn't mention the left, but instead they called it the well-omened side—no sense in invoking bad luck! Oh, and the Fates were called the “well-omened ones.”
</idle musing>