Cleros implements computational bibliomancy using ancient Greek hymns from both the Orphic Hymns (attributed to ancient mystery traditions) and the Homeric Hymns (classical literary works). The system demonstrates the potential for semantic divination through modern AI while maintaining the functional randomness essential to bibliomantic practice.
Technical Implementation
The system operates through a two-stage process that preserves divinatory randomness while enabling semantic analysis. First, a deterministic algorithm generates semantic embeddings from user queries, calculates vector statistics, captures millisecond-precision timestamps, and uses the combined data to create a 32-bit hash. This hash selects a specific hymn through modulo operations from the unified corpus.
Crucially, this initial selection does not return contextually relevant results—it maintains bibliomantic randomness through makeshift numerological semantic and temporal data. Only after hymn selection do embeddings surface the most relevant sentences within that randomly chosen hymn, while NER analysis colorizes the most semantically relevant spans for the user's query.
Data Architecture
The application operates on a unified corpus containing both Homeric and Orphic hymns, structured as a single dataset rather than individual files. This architecture enables cross-textual analysis and streamlined data processing.
AI-powered entity classification uses LLM analysis to categorize deities, epithets, locations, and mythological elements within the texts. The system provides contextual highlighting and tooltips throughout the user interface.
Current State
Cleros V2 represents the production implementation with enhanced user experience, comprehensive entity analysis, and unified data architecture. The system is deployed as a web application for demonstration purposes, showing the potential for semantic divination through modern AI.
The project began as SORTES before being renamed to Cleros to better reflect its focus on Greek textual traditions. The name change occurred in April 2025 while maintaining all core functionality.
Experience Cleros - The computational bibliomancy system using ancient Greek hymns.