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About Heidi
Blue Planet, Explorer in Residence. Co-author of In Search of Ancient BC.
The FDA puts a lot of stock into studies done on mice and many a warning label has been the outcome. Seems most of the really bad side effects hit pregnant rats the hardest. So, you can feel pretty safe as long as you are not pregnant or an upset rodent
Myomancy was a method of divination by mice. Their behaviour was observed and taken as a omen of what was to come. If their movements were calm, agitated or aggressive, much was read into it.
Modern scientists study the movements of mice more than the ancient myomancers did, but for ends that are not dissimilar. If you look at the writings of Herodotus, mice were used to predict the outcome of Sennacherib's invasion of Egypt.
The night before their big seige, his army has a mice infestation which gave them the willies. They fled at the bad omen and in their flight, many were slain.Interesting how one little rodent can be so powerful both historically and today.
which is the first line of The Destruction of Sennacherib: according to Wikipedia, a poem by Lord Byron, first published in 1815 in his Hebrew Melodies. It is based on an event described in the Bible (2 Kings 18-19) during the campaign by Assyrian king Sennacherib to capture Jerusalem. The rhythm of the poem has a feel of the beat of a galloping horse's hooves (an anapestic tetrameter) as the Assyrian rides into battle.
His siege of Jerusalem is, I understand, part of the same campaign. It, and later he, came to a sticky end:
(2 Kings 19:35-37)