in Antiquity, the art of predicting future events from the motions or habits of serpents. Thus Calchas, on seeing a serpent devour eight sparrows, with their dam, foretold the duration of the siege of Troy; and the seven coils of a serpent which was seen on the tomb of Anchises were interpreted to mean the seven years during which Æneas wandered from place to place before he arrived at Latium.