Ancient astrology

The paper aims to collect and discuss evidence for astrologers in Egyptian temples during the Graeco-Roman period from several kinds of data, including astrological and astronomical texts, inscriptions, and documentary sources. Material evidence is also considered. It attempts to answer questions of who could act as an astrologer and what knowledge was required to become one. In addition, the paper discusses the position of astrologers in the temple hierarchy and other areas of knowledge in which astrologers were involved.

This paper discusses two scanty but complex groups of sources which seem to suggest that Thursday (dies Iovis, that is, Jupiter’s Day in the Roman planetary seven-day week) was a day of rest in honour of Jupiter during the later imperial period: a number of ecclesiastical texts from late antique Gaul and Galicia, and three documentary papyri from Oxyrhynchus. The former imply that an unofficial observance of Jupiter’s Day, as opposed to the Christian Lord’s Day (Sunday), persisted among the populace despite Church opposition to such deviant behaviour. The latter hint at Thursday being a non-working day for official bureaux during the third and early fourth centuries, before the formalisation of Sunday as an official day of rest by Constantine in 321. The paper concludes with reflections on the idea that during the later imperial period –as the use of the planetary week became increasingly popular– Thursday became the most important and sacred day in the Roman seven-day week by reason of being the day dedicated to the chief god of the Roman pantheon and, at the same time, the day associated to the astrologically favourable planet that had been named after Jupiter. If Thursday was ever a day of rest recurring on a hebdomadal basis during the later Roman Empire, it was presumably the Judeo-Christian tradition of the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day that provided pagans with the notion of a weekly feast day.

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This paper explores the role of dilemma in the rhetoric, plot, and metaphysics of Lucan’s Bellum Ciuile. In passages including Nigidius Figulus’ speech in book 1, the narrator’s outcry at the beginning of book 2, and some descriptions of battle, dilemma resonates with Senecan tragedy to create generic dissonances within the epic and polarize readers’ responses to Roman history. It also provides a model for decision-making that favors Caesar’s headlong embrace of the inevitable civil war over other characters’ equivocation.

This article investigates the many female figures mentioned in the Interpretation of Knowledge, the first text of Nag Hammadi Codex XI. The different female figures are identified and the connection between them is clarified.
It is argued that the different female characters are part of a version of the Valentinian myth of the falling of the youngest Aeon, which resulted in the wandering astray of the Soul and the creation of cosmos. Furthermore, this article investigates the previously unexplored role of Fate in the text. It is argued that the mention of Fate fits very well into the overall narrative of the text and is closely intertwined with the character called “the Female.”

Hellenistic astrology is a tradition of horoscopic astrology that was practiced in the Mediterranean region from approximately the first century BCE until the seventh century CE. It is the source of many of the modern traditions of astrology that still flourish around the world today, although it is only recently that many of the surviving texts of this tradition have become available again to study.

Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune is the first comprehensive survey of this tradition in modern times. The book covers the history, philosophy, and techniques of ancient astrology, with a special focus on demonstrating how many of the fundamental concepts underlying the practice of western astrology originated during the Hellenistic period.

For more information about the book visit:

http://www.hellenisticastrology.com/book/

This article tackles two issues in the "proto-astronomical" conception of the planet Saturn, first attested in Mesopotamia and followed by the Greeks and Hindus: the long-standing problem of Saturn's baffling association with the Sun; and why Saturn was deemed to be "black". After an extensive consideration of explanations offered from the 5th century to the 21st, as well as some new "thought experiments", we suggest that Saturn's connection with the Sun had its roots in the observations that Saturn's course appears to be the steadiest one among the planets and that its synodic period-of all the planets-most closely resembles the length of the solar year. For the black colour attributed to Saturn we propose a solution which is partly lexical and partly observational (due to atmospheric effects). Finally, some thoughts are offered on the question why in Hellenistic times some considered the "mock sun" Phaethon of Greek myth to have been Saturn.

This article identifies the tradition of Babylonian Kalendertexte as the ultimate source for a passage in Pliny the Elder's HN 30.95-97, thus establishing a link between Babylonian and Graeco-Roman astral medicine. Implications include the identification of the astrological square aspect (perhaps called é, bītu, "house") in Babylonia, a connection with Hermeticism and the Greek medical theory of Critical Days, and the textual demonstration that Dreckapotheke-names did indeed refer to healing plants, in such a context.

For the first time, this work explores the thread of astrology that runs through Syrian-Orthodox literature. Astrology’s disreputable position among the sciences is gainsaid by extensive textual examples from different genres. The richest source is the Syrian Book of Medicine, which elucidates the practice of divination, revealing itself as a treasure trove of Syrian texts (including translations of Hippocrates and the Geoponica).

The article reviews possible perspectives of the development of the dialogue between Buddhism and
Science in intercultural philosophical discussions by involving the teaching of Tibetan-Buddhist tradition
Kalachakra, which fluctuates between the religious-philosophical and scientific thought.
The narrative of Kalachakra has three parts: theoretical, practical, and applied. The theoretical part
tells about the Kalachakra Doctrine of Time (cosmology, eschatology, calendar system, and World cycles).
The practical part includes the methodology of tantric meditations (visualization, chanting mantras, and
yoga). The applied part consists of astrological and medical algorithms on the account of the state of the
space for a certain moment of time (astrology of stars, astrology of elements, astrology of sounds, natural
medicine recipes), which are described in traditional treatises. Thus, the paper proposes to consider the
connection between Kalachakra teaching and classical Buddhist sciences; in particular, traditional
astronomy (astrology) and medicine (alchemy).
Particular attention is paid to the Kalachakra metaphysical system (which offers its own model of the
phenomenal world and makes it possible to identify certain connections between different levels of
consciousness) and to the potential of philosophical approaches to the analysis of this system. The focus
is definitely on the ethical side of the Buddhist Tantra that necessarily transfers to the applied Buddhist
Sciences (astronomy and medicine) based on the Kalachakra tantric teaching. Also, possible sociopolitical
and phenomenological connotations are considered, towards which it is worthwhile to conduct
philosophical studies for strengthening the foundation of the intercultural perspective of the dialogue
between Buddhism and Science.
In conclusions, we formulate remarks on the cardinal difference of the paradigm of applied Buddhist
Sciences from the modern Western scientific and philosophical positions, which should be taken into
account in the field of intercultural philosophical research. (The article includes the materials of the
Oriental Studies Workshop that was hold by the author at Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, NAS of
Ukraine, on March 26, 2019.)

Early Christians adopted a numeric week from Judaism, but wherever their communities spread they encountered the planetary week invented by Hellenistic astrologers. Greek Christians replaced that week with their own in the fourth century C.E., but Latin Christians were only partly successful in doing the same. A timeline for the Christianization of the planetary week between the third and seventh centuries is provided by a database of Greek and Latin documents dated by both an annual calendar and one of the two weeks. The documentary evidence is supplemented by analyses of literary and legal references to the two weeks from the same period. These show that Greek authors were accommodating toward the planetary week while Latin authors were often hostile. Latin hostility was engendered by the presence of non-Christian social practices tied to the planetary week that threatened Christian religious identity. These practices included worship of the planetary deities, rest on the Day of Jupiter rather than on the Lord's Day, and the reservation of activities like marriage, travel, and personal grooming to certain planetary weekdays. A brief survey of the spread of the two weeks throughout much of Afro-Eurasia contextualizes the changes occurring in the Mediterranean and shows that the Latin conflict was unique. That conflict was likely a product of the relatively slow pace of Christianization in some parts of Western Europe and the integration of the planetary week into the Roman calendar to produce a coherent cycle of pagan time which was difficult to replace.

A status quaestionis of the study of Greek sexual vocabulary is offered, proposing a global approach that includes texts in which few efforts have been made in that sense, such as astrological texts, whose importance for this semantic field is underlined and analyzed by several examples.

We study the Greek and Roman astrological texts in order to collect and analize some of the many references to eroticism and sexuality that appear in them, which often include very precise indications on astral conjunctions and alignments that favor, according to its authors, attitudes and sexual behaviors of all kinds, both “normal” and “anomalous”.

In the present article I analyze a group of Neo-Assyrian letters documenting a strife among the king's experts (ummânu) on the correct identification of visible planets. I draw some consideration on the activities of the circles of scholars assisting the Assyrian king, the system of the scribal families, and the changes intervening during the reign of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.

I – Nouvelle étude du septizonium
II – Un complexe chrétien inédit. « L'église double » ?

Les deux dossiers rassemblés sur des monuments de Cincari près de Tébourba en Tunisie résultent des fouilles entreprises dans les années 1950 par les propriétaires du lieu-dit Hr Toungar ou Singaris pour des mises en culture. Un troisième dossier a été publié dans les MEFRA de 1976. L'ensemble de ces documents a été transmis aux auteurs par J. Cintas († 1977), qui était ingénieur des travaux publics, et J. Peyras, professeur émérite à l'Université de Nantes.
Le premier dossier est celui du septizonium publié en 1962 par G. Picard, dernier exemple subsistant de septizonium puisque les autres attestations concernent des monuments détruits (à Rome et à Lambèse) ou des documents épigraphiques. Le monument de Cincari a été décrit comme des thermes datant du IIe siècle, transformés par l'adjonction de sept absides dans la principale salle. La nouvelle publication montre que cette interprétation est douteuse et que le monument pourrait avoir été construit comme septizonium ex nihilo, mais la limitation des fouilles à une partie de l'édifice ne permet pas d'être totalement affirmatif. Le septizonium a été transformé en église à l'époque chrétienne.
Le deuxième dossier concerne un ensemble chrétien très endommagé. Il montre l'importance des monuments chrétiens dans cette petite ville. Deux églises parallèles sont signalées probablement par les découvertes d'un reliquaire inviolé avant la fouille et de quelques tombes couvertes de mosaïques funéraires de type disparate.

••• Both studies combined on monuments of Cincari, near Tebourba, Tunisia, result of excavations lead for cultivation in the 1950's by the owners of the locality Hr Toungar or Singaris. A third study was published in the MEFRA in 1976. All of these documents were transmitted to the authors by J. Cintas († 1977), who was a civil engineer, and by J. Peyras, Professor Emeritus at the Université de Nantes.
The first study is about the septizonium published in 1962 by G. Picard, last remaining example of a septizonium, since other testimonies concern destroyed monuments (in Rome and in Lambaesis) or epigraphic documents. The monument in Cincari was identified as thermae dating from the 2nd c. AD, transformed by the adjunction of seven apses in the main hall. The new publication demonstrates that this interpretation is dubious and that the monument could have been built as a septizonium ex nihilo, even if limiting excavation to a portion of the building does not allow to be totally affirmative. The septizonium was converted into a church in Christian time.
The second study concerns a very damaged Christian structure. It shows the importance of Christian monuments in this little city. Two parallel churches are signaled probably by the discoveries of a reliquary, unviolated before the excavation, and of a few tombs covered with funerary mosaics, disparate in their style.

This paper presents the edition of three new horoscopes from Athribis in Upper Egypt (O. Athribis 17-36-5/1741), and the reedition of ANAsh.Mus.D.O.633, identified as part of the same group of horoscopes originating from Athribis. The first three horoscopes date to the reign of Augustus (27, 21, and 6 BCE), and the Ashmolean text to year 8 of Cleopatra, 44 BCE. The Athribis group constitutes the earliest attestation of horoscopes from Egypt. They include the date of birth, name, and origin of the native, entries for the two luminaries and the planets, and the position of the four cardines and Places. Relevant features not commonly present in other Demotic horoscopes are a series of lunar dates following the 25-year cycle of P. Rylands IV 589, the complete listing of the Places, Term rulers in the longitudes, and a short phrase that may be connected to the calculation of the length of life.

The belief that celestial dragons are the cause of eclipses was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the astral sciences of premodern Eurasia these evil beings were often identified with the astronomically computable lunar nodes, allowing for the prediction of eclipses and the astrological interpretation of their effects. After an introductory section which offers a brief historical and methodological survey on this subject, the main part of the chapter discusses the reception of the eclipse-dragon theory in early Iranian and Coptic Manichaeism. As a close reading of the Middle Persian Šābuhragān and other related sources indicates, Mani’s understanding of eclipses resulted from the intentional overlap of two different views on eclipses, both of which were useful in addressing key issues in the Manichaean system: the divinity of the two luminaries and the effects of eclipses and other phenomena on the seasonal cycle and on plant life in particular. This concern can only be explained within the framework of Manichaean soteriology, according to which the divine light-elements that mixed with darkness at the beginning of creation are imprisoned in matter and have to be redeemed through a cosmic purification process. The last section analyzes the Coptic Kephalaia and explores how the Manichaean communities in Late Roman Egypt adapted Mani’s ideas as a result of their encounter with Ptolemaic astrology.

The Aristotelian-Ptolemaic orientation in Melanchthon’s astrological considerations encountered several difficulties. The assessment of astrology as a prognostic component of astronomy was hardly compatible with its theological approach. Consideration of the theological arguments in Melanchthon’s scientific writings suggests a deliberate thematic shift that was a consequence of his peculiar combination of astrology, theological anthropology, and theological ethics.
IMPORTANT! To avoid issues with the publisher (the paper is sold on De Gruyter website) I uploaded a "preprint" version of the text alone. Please get in touch with me to get a properly formatted copy, which as author I would be glad to provide for free in a completely legal way.

A día de hoy, el único trabajo específico, riguroso y relativamente amplio sobre la homosexualidad femenina en los textos astrológicos grecolatinos con el que contamos es el capítulo 4 (“Predetermined Erotic Orientations: Astrological Texts”, pp. 115-141) del libro de Barbara Brooten, Love Between Women. Early Christian responses to female homoeroticism (Chicago 1996). Tras constatar sus carencias, sin embargo, y siguiendo una sugerencia de la propia autora (p. 138, n. 98: “a systematic study of all of the extant astrological texts from antiquity would doubtless yield further sources on tribades”), nuestro artículo presenta un proyecto más ambicioso consistente en recopilar y comentar todos los pasajes de la literatura astrológica grecolatina que se refieren, de manera explícita o implícita, a la homosexualidad femenina, desde el Carmen de Doroteo de Sidón, en el siglo I d.C., hasta el poema astrológico de Juan Camatero, ya en plena época bizantina, con el objetivo de reunir todos los datos a nuestro alcance, analizar exhaustivamente los textos, discutir la bibliografía disponible y, en suma, clarificar la cuestión. En esta primera entrega, siguiendo el orden cronológico de nuestras fuentes, nos ocupamos del Carmen astrologicum de Doroteo de Sidón, del que sólo han sobrevivido un puñado de fragmentos en su forma hexamétrica original, junto a diversas glosas parciales y una problemática traducción árabe del siglo VIII. Del análisis de este material se extraen una serie de ideas clave (Venus ‘masculinizado’ puede influir en el nacimiento de mujeres con inclinaciones homosexuales; la homosexualidad femenina es algo malo, y ciertas configuraciones astrales pueden hacerlo peor o más dañino; la homosexualidad femenina es comparable a la prostitución, y quienes la practican “realizan actos de hombres”) que al parecer estaban ya establecidas en el pensamiento astrológico del siglo I y que serán repetidas o todo lo más perfiladas sin apenas alteraciones, al menos no sustanciales, por los astrólogos posteriores.

Abstract
It is demonstrated textually from the fragments that 4QAstronomical Enocha-b (4Q208–4Q209) is a zodiacal calendar related to that of 4QZodiac Calendar (4Q318 iv, vii-viii, 1–6).
Both calendars use a fixed 19-year cycle, known from fifth century BCE Mesopotamia and Greece. In addition to the Aramaic zodiacal calendars, the contribution discusses the question of whether astrology was of interest to the groups responsible for collecting and compiling the Dead Sea Scrolls taking on board the presence at Qumran of physiognomic texts, and Wisdom and Mystery texts containing some possible astrological terms.

“Astral Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls” in Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in its Contexts. Edited by Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg. Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies. Leiden: Brill, 2020. 539–550. (Available through institutional log-in)

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004400566_044

(See also “Back Matter” for summary of the calendrical cycle (“Judean”): Historical Glossary of Important Terms in Hellenistic Astronomy”: under “Calendar,” pp. 631–652, at pp. 367–369. Open access:
https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004400566/back-1.xml)

Geus, Klaus: Die "Weltkarte" und das Verbrechen des Mettius Pompusianus: ein Vorschlag. In: Suárez de la Torre, Emilio; Canzobre Martínez, Isabel; Sánchez-Mañas, Carmen (eds.): Ablanathanalba: magia, cultura y sociedad en el Mundo Antiguo. Madrid: Dykinson, 2020 (Collección Clásicos Dykinson), 175–183 [ISBN: 978-84-1324-639-0 / 978-84-1324-682-6].

The medieval biblical commentary of Ibn Ezra has generated a wide array of studies within Jewish scholarship, but scant attention has focused on the originality of his insights and his satirical style. This paper attempts to redress this imbalance. The commentary on the Hebrew Bible of this influential exegete is unique in that it relies on knowledge of astronomy/astrology, philosophy, logic and grammar to explain Scripture.

Durant de nombreuses années, la poésie astrologique grecque et latine n’est restée connue que d’un cercle restreint de spécialistes versés dans le domaine. L’objectif est de proposer une vision d’ensemble de ces poèmes, en présentant tous les poèmes et fragments de poèmes astrologiques grecs et latins qui nous ont été conservés depuis la période hellénistique jusqu’à l’Antiquité tardive. Étant donné la forme et le contenu de ces compositions, l’enjeu est de considérer l’interaction de ce corpus avec le genre de la poésie didactique, afin de mieux définir la place de ces poèmes astrologiques dans l’histoire littéraire gréco-latine.

Algunos textos astrológicos medievales escritos en lengua árabe aluden a las “estrellas-corazones” en referencia a tres estrellas de gran luminosidad pertenecientes a constelaciones del círculo del zodíaco: Qalb al-Ṯawr (El Corazón de Tauro, situada en el ojo de la fi gura del toro), Qalb al-Asad (El Corazón de Leo, en el pecho del león) y Qalb al-‘Aqrab (El Corazón de Escorpio, en el tórax del escorpión); en la constelación boreal de Andrómeda, hay una cuarta estrella-corazón, Qalb al-Ḥūt (El Corazón del Pez) que, sin embargo, no tuvo una significación astrológica tan importante. Este artículo ilustra las características astrológicas de una estrella-corazón, su asociación con el concepto astrológico «cortador» que las convertía en especialmente dañinas en los horóscopos, así como su relación con bābanī, un término de origen persa.
Abstract: Medieval astrologers writing in Arabic used the term “heart-stars” to refer to three unusually bright stars that appear in the zodiac circle. They are Qalb al-Thawr (the Heart of Taurus, which appears as the eye of the bull), Qalb al-Asad (the Heart of Leo, which is in the lion’s chest) and Qalb al-‘Aqrab (the Heart of Scorpio, which appears in the thorax of the scorpion). In the northern constellation of Andromeda there is a bright star called Qalb al-Ḥūt (the Heart of the Fish), but its astrological significance was not so great. This paper illustrates how these astrologers attributed an evil influence to the three heart-stars on the zodiac circle. According to them, the heart-stars had an affinity with the planet Mars, which was known to have maleficent powers. Due to this connection, the heart-stars could block the motion of any heavenly body on its way around the circle of the zodiac. This meant that the heart-stars had a harmful effect on human affairs. In a prediction on the length of a human life, they were used to determine the date of death. In some astrological texts, the heart-stars were distinguished with a Persian adjective: the biyabāniyya stars.

Following a description of Cercidas’ Meliamb 1, the identification of the Stoic philosophers with the ‘astrologers’, alluded to in the poem as μετεωροκόποι (l. 29 Livrea = 67 Lomiento), is revisited. A more precise date of the poem is proposed around 218 BCE based on the testimony of Polybius (5.1.6–12), which allows the poem to be interpreted as a complaint against the Macedonians and the Achaean League.

Se defiende con matices el mantenimiento por parte de Kroll de la lección manuscrita, γυναικοκαυσίαι, en Vett. Val., II 37, 17 (p. 105, 27) frente a la conjetura γυναῖκες Καυνίαι de Pingree.

Kroll’s maintenance of the manuscript reading γυναικοκαυσίαι in Vett. Val., II 37, 17 (p. 105, 27) is defended, in opposition to Pingree’s conjecture γυναῖκες Καυνίαι.

Approximately one-third of the Oration to the Greeks composed by Tatian the Assyrian is devoted to exposing the origin and current activity of demons in human affairs. The primary goal of the present article is to elucidate the source and logic of Tatian’s demonology, specifically as it relates to astrological fate and pharmacology, the two “hostile devices of the demented demons” that he denounces. I argue, first, that his focus upon these two areas is not by chance, but is due to the influence of 1 Enoch, since, like 1 Enoch, he holds that these domains of human expertise derive from malevolent heavenly beings. I argue, second, that Tatian’s criticisms of both astrology and pharmacology are structurally analogous insofar as he claims both are purely the product of demonic contrivance. As a result, these seeming areas of knowledge are in fact based upon nothing real or natural about the world but are instead arbitrary and nonsensical. Moreover, Tatian’s emphasis upon demonic delusion serves the polemical goal of his Oration in an additional way, since it casts the demons as a foil for Tatian himself. Unlike the demons, whom he compares to bandits, Tatian speaks as a representative of the true world order and its one legitimate ruler, and he offers his own Oration as a kind of harsh logotherapy that can accomplish the very thing the demons mendaciously claim to be able to effect through astrology and pharmacology.

The editio princeps of three fragments in the papyrus collections of Berlin and Vienna
presents the relics of a political horoscope that connects prophecies of misfortune imminent to Egypt with certain astronomical constellations. We also find this kind of astrology in the demotic pOmina and pCairo CG 31222 with which our horoscope is
related but not identical. Reymond’s previous classification of the text, which is edited
here, in a preliminary report of hers as Egyptian 'pattern-composition' that,
translated into Greek, resulted in the Potter’s Oracle does not withstand closer investigation.