Fortuneteller

Someone who predicts what will happen to a person in the future.

"My master stayed a few days at this place, where the public were very kind to them: in particular they made a good deal of money by professing to tell fortunes. Between them these pious frauds composed an all-purpose oracle for the Goddess to deliver by their mouths, and used it to cheat a great many people who came to consult her on all sorts of questions. It ran: 'Yoke the oxen, plough the land; High the golden grain will stand.' Suppose that a man came to ask the Goddess whether he ought to marry. The answer was plain: he ought to take on the yoke of matrimony and raise a fine crop of children. Or suppose that he wanted to know whether he ought to buy land: the yoked oxen and the good harvests were quite to the point. Or suppose it was about going on a business trip: the oxen, the least restless of all beasts, were to be yoked and the golden grain spelt a prosperous return. Or suppose a soldier was warned for active service, or a constable ordered to join in the pursuit of bandits: the priests explained the oracle as meaning that he should put the necks of his enemies under the yoke and reap a rich harvest when the time came for the loot, or booty, to be divided among the victors. They certainly reaped a rich harvest by this dishonest way of foretelling the future, but one day they grew tired of perpetual enquiries for which they had only one stock answer, and we went on again at nightfall."

Apuleius, The Golden Ass, 2nd Century A.D.

[translated by Robert Graves].