Necromancy (
/ˈnɛkrəˌmænsi, -roʊ-/[1][2]) or
nigromancy is a form of
magic involving communication with the
deceased – either by
summoning their
spirit as an
apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of
divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge, or to use the deceased as a weapon, as the term may sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to
black magic or
witchcraft.
[3][4]
The word "necromancy" is adapted from
Late Latin necromantia, itself borrowed from
post-Classical Greek νεκρομαντεία (
nekromanteía), a compound of
Ancient Greekνεκρός (
nekrós), "dead body", and μαντεία (
manteía), "
prophecy or divination"; this compound form was first used by
Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC.
[5] The Classical Greek term was ἡ νέκυια (
nekyia), from the episode of the
Odyssey in which Odysseus visits the realm of the dead and νεκρομαντεία in Hellenistic Greek, rendered as
necromantīa in
Latin, and as
necromancy in 17th-century English.
[6]
