 The word "necromancy" is adapted from Late Latin "necromantia", itself borrowed from post-Classical Greek νεκρομαντεία ("nekromanteía"), a compound of Ancient Greek νεκρός ("nekrós"), "dead body", and μαντεία ("manteía"), "divination by means of"; this compound form was first used by Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century AD.The Classical Greek term was ἡ νέκυια ("nekyia"), from the episode of the "Odyssey" in which Odysseus visits the realm of the dead souls and νεκρομαντεία in Hellenistic Greek, rendered as "necromantīa" in Latin, and as "necromancy" in 17th-century English.Early necromancy was related to – and most likely evolved from – shamanism, which calls upon spirits such as the ghosts of ancestors.