The Temple of Cythnos is the most unique book-of-fate I’ve covered so far. Rather than an all-purpose list of questions for posing at any time of life, it divides up its inquirers according to the ‘season’ of their life, and offers guidance for that ‘season’ of life. It further divides up its questions and answers according to males and females in that ‘season.’ There are only seven questions per season, per gender from which the inquirer can choose, but they’ll give the inquirer a decent general overview of their life and fortunes for that stage of life. Another curious feature is the binary nature of the answers. First is the prediction from Fortune, followed by a ‘rebuttal’ of sorts by Wisdom.
The storyline of the book is that some wise old geezer in ancient Greece felt inspired to retreat to the Greek island of Cythnos, and there build a temple for the dual worship of the Goddesses Fortune and Wisdom, so the answers are all phrased as if it was a two-part conversation between the Goddesses Themselves. This temple was open for consultation only eight days a year, coinciding with the Vernal Equinox, the Summer Solstice, the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Females consulted on the day of the equinox or solstice, males the day after. On the days in question, a select seven people, dressed in colors appropriate to the season in question, came to the temple to consult the two goddesses about how they would fare in the stage of life which lay ahead of them.
This divination tool was originally published in 1778 in London under the title: “The Temple of Cythnos or the Oracles of Fortune and Wisdom for the Four Seasons of Life.’ The title page specified it was translated from the Greek language, and the text said the original source material had been found in the ruins of Pompeii. A Q-and-A session with my yes-and-no stones verified the original source material was at least 2000 years old, likely older, certainly the B.C.E. time period, and that it did actually come from ancient Greek documents. But it wasn’t found in the ruins of Pompeii. That buried city had been recently rediscovered then, so the attribution was natural. How it got to the publisher is a mystery.