Ancient Astrology

272 Pages·8.153 MB·English

by  Barton, Tamysn

ANCIENT ASTROLOGY
SCIENCES OF ANTIQUITY
Series Editor: Roger French
Director, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine,
University of Cambridge
Sciences of Antiquity is a series designed to cover the subject matter
of what we call science. The volumes discuss how the ancients saw,
interpreted and handled the natural world, from the elements to the
most complex of living things. Their discussions on these matters
formed a resource for those who later worked on the same topics,
including scientists. The intention of this series is to show what it
was in the aims, expectations, problems and circumstances of the
ancient writers that formed the nature of what they wrote. A
consequent purpose is to provide historians with an understanding
of the materials out of which later writers, rather than passively
receiving and transmitting ancient ‘ideas’, constructed their own
world view.
ANCIENT ASTROLOGY
Tamsyn Barton
ANCIENT NATURAL HISTORY
Histories of nature
Roger French
COSMOLOGY IN ANTIQUITY
M.R.Wright
ANCIENT
ASTROLOGY
Tamsyn Barton
London and New York
First published 1994
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

© 1994 Tamsyn Barton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 0-203-41071-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-71895-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-08066-5 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11029-7 (pbk)
CONTENTS

List of illustrations viii
General series introduction x
Preface xxiv
INTRODUCTION 1
1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: MESOPOTAMIA,
EGYPT AND GREECE 9
Introduction 9
Early Mesopotamian evidence 10
The great omen-series: Enuma Anu Enlil 12
Astronomical observations 13
Babylonian horoscopes 14
Theoretical texts 17
Babylon and Greece 18
Ancient Egypt 19
The Greek background 21
Ptolemaic Egypt 23
Summary 30
2 GREECE AND ROME 32
Introduction: the beginnings in Rome 32
Greek culture and the Roman elite 33
From Republic to Empire 38
Astrology under the Principate 41
Emperors and astrology 44
Astrology and the law 49
Doubt and disbelief 52
Astrological literature under the Early Empire 57
Summary 62
v
CONTENTS
3 THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY 64
Introduction 64
Astrology and the law under Christian emperors 64
Jewish attitudes towards astrology 68
Christian attitudes towards astrology 71
Astrology under threat 78
Astrological literature under the Christian Empire 80
Summary 84
4 THE PRINCIPLES OF ASTROLOGY 86
Introduction: astronomy and astrology 86
Basic principles of ancient astrology 92
Notions of astral influence: the natural-philosophical
background 102
Notions of influence: Ptolemy’s explanations 107
Notions of influence: the divine stars and the soul 109
The stars as gods 111
Summary 113
5 ASTROLOGICAL PRACTICE: CASTING A
HOROSCOPE 114
Introduction: the astrologers 114
Firmicus Maternus 115
Dorotheus of Sidon 125
An ancient parallel 131
Some explanations 134
Summary 141
6 THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE ASTROLOGERS 157
Introduction: the context of predictions in the treatises 157
The poorer classes 160
Occupations: jobs for the boys 162
Sex: polymorphous perversity 163
Death: varieties of violence 166
Cameo lives 169
Astrology in everyday life 172
Summary 178
7 REFLECTIONS AND RAMIFICATIONS 179
Introduction 179
Chorography: mundane astrology 179
Astrology and medicine 185
Astrology and magic 191
Astrology and cult theology: the Unconquered Suns 197
Summary 206
vi
CONTENTS
CONCLUSION 208
Glossary 212
Notes 215
Bibliography 229
Index 235
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES
1 Horoscope from Rhetorius for the year 497 CE. 83
2 Ecliptic and equator. 87
3 Ecliptic and equator against the visible sky. 87
4 Latitude and longitude. 88
5 The solstices. 89
6 The direction of the Sun’s diurnal movement. 89
7 The orbit of the Earth. 91
8 The Sun seen against the zodiac. 92
9 Positions of the planets in their orbits relative to Earth. 93
10 The same positions represented in the birth chart. 93
11 Diagram from first-century CE papyrus. 94
12 Types of diagrams in manuscripts. 94
13 The cardines (as at the equator). 95
14 Zodiacal houses of the planets. 96
15 The decans. 97
16 The Places. 98
17 The antiscia. 99
18 Opposition. 100
19 Square. 100
20 Trine. 101
21 Sextile. 101
22 Horoscope of Prince Charles. 116
23 Figures of the thirty-six decans from a manuscript. 192
24 Housesteads: schema of Mithraic birth-scene. 201
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
(between pp. 142 and 157)
1 Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa.
2 Part of the ceiling of the Sepulchral Hall of the tomb of King
Seti I.
3 Sandstone relief of the zodiac on a ceiling in Dendera, Egypt.
4 Thoth, The Egyptian god identified with Hermes Trismegistus.
5 Coins of Augustus illustrating his use of his zodiac sign,
Capricorn, in conjunction with different political messages.
6 The first Greek horoscope found on an original document,
identified as the coronation-horoscope of Antiochus of
Commagene, of 7 July 62 BCE.
7 Celestial globe, supported by Atlas, Roman, first century CE.
8 Octagonal altar from Roman Gaul.
9 Mosaic from the centre of the floor of an excavated synagogue
of the first half of the sixth century CE.
10 Gnostic relief, showing the goddess of the sky, second or third
century CE.
11 Part of the papyrus known as the ‘Old Coptic Horoscope’.
12 One of the earliest printed maps of the world, done to
illustrate Ptolemy’s Geography in 1478.
13 Impressions from magical seal-stones with astral emblems.
14 Restored Mithraeum in Ostia, known as Sette Sfere.
15 Scene of the birth of Mithras out of an egg, from Housesteads
on Hadrian’s Wall.
16 Front face of an altar to the Sun-god.

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