Ancient Astrology

Tamysn Barton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134836536
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

An account of astrology from its beginnings in Mesopotamia, focusing on the Greco-Roman world, Ancient Astrology examines the theoretical development and changing social and political role of astrology.

1
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT AND GREECE

INTRODUCTION

In antiquity there was disagreement over whether astrology originated in Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, or in Egypt. The name ‘Chaldaean’, which in the first place referred to the people who provided the last dynasty which ruled in Babylon before Cyrus of Persia, came commonly by the Roman period to designate all astrologers, regardless of ethnic origin. On the other hand, as Egypt, since the time of the fifth-century historian Herodotus, was judged the repository of antique wisdom, astrologers tended to claim that the ‘ancient Egyptians’ were their sources.

Astrologers’ own claims are to be greeted with caution in this regard; since Greeks had long considered their own civilisation as relatively young, claims for astrology’s great age inevitably involved attibuting its invention and development to those civilisations they saw as older. The astonishing declarations astrologers made are reflected in our sources. In the first century CE, the Elder Pliny, who wrote a great compendium of natural-philosophical scientific matters, mentions that Berossus, who was believed by many to have brought astrology to Greece from Babylon, claimed that observations had been carried out in Chaldaea for 490,000 years. In the previous century, Cicero was sceptical of the figure of 470,000 he had heard. Diodorus, who accepted in the first century BCE that the Chaldaeans were colonists from Egypt, and was impressed by the antiquity of their predictive star-science, still baulked at the figure of 473,000. Others who favoured Egypt were less sceptical, and claimed that in the 48,863 years from Ptah to Alexander, 373 eclipses of the Sun and 832 lunar eclipses had been observed.¹

Though there were reasons to doubt ancient testimonies to theultimate sources of astrology, in the absence of firm evidence scholars in the nineteenth century revived the old debate over the relative influence of Mesopotamia and Egypt. At the end of the century, a group of scholars who came to be nicknamed the ‘Pan-Babylonians’ found much support for their ideas about Mesopotamian origins for most forms of ancient wisdom, including biblical stories. Such sweeping theories naturally generated strong reactions, and many of those who worked on astrology and astronomy were driven to overemphasise the role played by Egypt in response.

Assigning intellectual achievements to one culture over another is a process which carries a heavy ideological load. This was recently evident in the reception among contemporary Afro-Americans to Martin Bernal’s Black Athena, subtitled ‘The Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation’. This work, which attempted to put the case for giving more credit to non-Western peoples, in particular the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, than to the Greeks for the roots of European cultural accomplishments, was taken up with enthusiasm by Afro-American activists but received little endorsement for the basic thesis from Classical scholars. The most convincing part of the book was his account of the role of what we would call racism in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Classicists’ attribution of all intellectual and cultural achievements of significance to the Greeks, and in their assimilation of the Greeks to modern Europeans.

Although astrology itself has not been seen as one of the glories of the Greek legacy, there remained a role for cultural stereotyping in arguments that it was Greek astronomy and the Greek scientific approach which transformed a crude form of divination into a sophisticated enquiry into the relation between the cosmos and the Earth, which retained the prestige of a science at least until the Early Modern era. Inevitably, in giving a historical picture of the development of astrology, we need to address real questions about the contributions of different civilisations. However, in doing so it would be unwise to rely on generalisations about ethnic mentalities to fill in the gaps in our evidence, as has too often been done.

EARLY MESOPOTAMIAN EVIDENCE

The earliest evidence we have to consider in fact comes from Mesopotamia. The oldest texts in existence are written in cuneiform script, a form of writing invented by the Sumerians, who dominated the area from at least the fourth millennium BCE, and continued by the Akkadians, who were dominant by the latter half of the third millennium BCE. Each used the script to represent their language. One of the first surviving clues to the existence of divination based on the stars among the Sumerians comes from a document concerning Gudea, who ruled Lagash from around 2122 to 2102 BCE. It is recorded that in a dream the king was told to build a temple. He saw a woman razing a building-plot; she studied a clay tablet on which were set down the constellations. At the goddess Nanše’s shrine, Gudea was told that the woman was the goddess Nisaba, and that she was studying a tablet of the stars, to build the temple in accordance with the stars.² One of the earliest lists of star-names is found in the Old Babylonian ‘Prayer to the Gods of the Night’ of around 1800 BCE, which shows that these stars were regarded as divinities capable of influencing earthly events:

May the great gods of the night, Shining Fire-star, heroic Irra, Bow-star, Yoke-star, Sitaddaru, Mushussu-star, Wagon, Goatstar, Goatfish-star, Serpent-star, stand by and put a propitious sign on the entrails of the lamb I am blessing now.³

The mention of the lamb’s entrails refers to the practice of sacrifice and the related form of divination, inspection of the entrails, or extispicy. This was the dominant method of seeking messages from the gods during the second millennium BCE. The secondary status of divination from celestial phenomena in relation to extispicy is suggested by a letter from a diviner found in Mari, on the middle Euphrates, which dates back to the time of Hammurabi (around 1780 BCE. The writer reports an eclipse of the Moon, which he suspects is a bad omen. However, he is not content to interpret it on its own terms, but checks it by means of extispicy.⁴

Also from the Old Babylonian period (probably the first half of Hammurabi’s dynasty), we find a short manual of celestial omens, some of which is included in the great omen series known as Enuma Anu Enlil. An example is the following statement. ‘If, on the day of its disappearance, the god Sin [the Moon] slows down in the sky [instead of disappearing suddenly], there will be drought and famine in the country.’⁵

There is also a text of the Cassite period (1500–1250 BCE) from Nippur, which was copied from older material. It could be the earliest known attempt to map the sky; it seems to measure distances between eight constellations, in answer to the question ‘how much is one god [star] beyond the other god?’⁶

THE GREAT OMEN-SERIES: ENŪMA ANU ENLIL

The Enūma Anu Enlil, the compilation of around seventy tablets comprising some 7,000 omens and corresponding predictions found in the royal archives in Nineveh, was inscribed in the seventh century BCE, though it incorporated much older material. It is named after its first words: ‘When (the gods) Anu, Enlil [and Ea established in council the plans of Sky and Earth]’. (Anu, Enlil and Ea are the spirits of Heaven, Earth and Water respectively.) The sixty-third tablet, known as the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, records observations of the planet known to the Babylonians as Ištar (see Plate 1). The first ten omens are followed by the date of the eighth year of Ammisaduqa. Scholars have dated them between 1922 and 1542, but most agree on 1646 BCE. Here we have the first detailed observations of planetary movements. Predictions are made in accordance with observed phenomena:

[If] in the eighth month, on the eleventh day Ištar disappeared in the East and stayed away from the sky for two months and …days, and became visible in the West again in the tenth month on the…day, the harvest of the land will prosper.⁷

The Enūma Anu Enlil is a kind of index to earlier omen literature, and its compilation may go back to the beginning of the second millennium BCE. The first fifty tablets deal with lunar, solar and meteorological omens, while the last twenty are concerned with the planets and the stars. Early or late rising and setting, position, size, colour, brightness are all taken into consideration. Here is a selection:

If Nergal [Mars] approaches the Scorpion, there will be a breach in the palace of of the prince.

If the Worm is massive—there will be mercy and reconciliation in the land.

If the star of Dignity, the vizier of Tispak, approaches the Scorpion—for three years there will be severe cold, cough and phlegm will befall the land.

If in Month I the Demon with the gaping mouth rises [heliacally]—for five years in Akkad at the command of Irra there will be plague, but it will not affect cattle.

If the True Shepherd of Amu’s navel is red, there is a black spot in its right side—there will be a revolt.⁸

In this omen-series, only one branch of divination is discussed, that of celestial omens. It reveals sky-omens as similar to other sources of omens treated in other texts. The Mesopotamians found messages from the gods in fields such as noises, animal behaviour and monstrous births, or looked for messages by techniques such as throwing oil or flour on water or burning incense.

It has often been remarked on the basis of the Enuūma Anu Enlil that Mesopotamian astrology was not concerned with individuals. But the apparent abundance of material on sky-omens should not encourage too much generalisation, since it may only typify one sort of text. The concentration on the fate of the king or the whole country does not preclude interest in the fate of ordinary individuals, as is clear from the texts concerning omens of other sorts; even in the royal archives there are records of the meaning of omens for their perceiver, and a large number of predictions from individuals’ physical appearance, or their dreams.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS

However, if these omens seem a long way from what we would recognise as astrology, the astronomical foundations for the art were being put in place. A text which perhaps reached its final form in around 1000 BCE, written down in about 700 BCE, known as Mul.Apin (the Plough-star), reveals these foundations. It lists the constellations in three broad bands running roughly parallel to the equator. Each band is envisaged as the path of one of the gods, who enter through gates on the horizon. Seventeen constellations along the ecliptic are set down. Though there are many unfamiliar stargroups, the origins of the modern zodiac are clearly here. The Bull of heaven, the Crab, the Lion, the Balance, the Scorpion, the Goatfish and the Tails (Pisces), the Barley-stalk (Virgo) and the Great Twins are all obviously ancestors of zodiac signs. The text also includes the dates of heliacal risings, simultaneous risings and settings of stars, an account of the Moon’s path, some account of the planets, schemes for adding extra days to the calendar in order to reconcile solar and lunar data and a shadow table recording variations throughout the year, as well as instructions for using a water-clock. It ends with a list of omens, some of which are also found in the Enūma Anu Enlil, and which are generally of a similar type.

In 747 BCE, dated observations of eclipses begin at Babylon. By the seventh century BCE, the royal archives at Nineveh reveal that skyomens have taken priority over those revealed by extispicy in the reports of diviners to their Assyrian rulers. These diviners are now apparently organised to collect information, based in various cities. They report in teams, according to a format, and give predictions, and directions as to the necessary procedure:

That fellow Akkulānu has sent word as follows. It so happens that the Sun made an eclipse when rising, about two ‘digits’ wide, but there is no namburbu ritual (needed), this is not the same as an eclipse of the Moon. But if you give the order, I can write down the pertinent omen and send it to you.⁹

Some reports are precise about locating planets in relation to the map of the sky similar to that of Mul.Apin.

To the king my lord [from] your servant Mar-Ištar. As regards the planet Jupiter about which I previously wrote to the king my lord: It has appeared on the way of the Anu stars, in the area of the True Shepherd of Anu [Orion].¹⁰

He offers a variety of interpretations. If the star of Marduk (Jupiter) moves into Orion, the gods will consume the land, but if it appears on the way of the Anu stars, a crown prince will rebel against his father and seize the throne.

It was from the middle of the seventh century BCE that monthly summaries of planetary movements were kept. The first astronomical ‘Diary’, as these texts are known, is of 652 BCE. Dates of first and last visibility and precise positions in relation to the constellations were recorded. A probable motivation for these records was an interest in constructing a calendar. In fact there were two calendars in use, a more precise one for astronomical records, and another, schematic one, which assumed a year of twelve months of thirty days each, for day-to-day affairs such as economic transactions.

It was in an attempt to gain precision for the astronomical Diaries and other similar texts that the division of the ecliptic into twelve equal parts of 30 degrees was adopted, probably early in the Achaemenid period, after the Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. However, the system of plotting positions in relation to the fixed stars continued to be used in ‘observation-texts’. The first time the zodiac is used in a Diary, consisting mainly of monthly summaries, is in 464 BCE.

BABYLONIAN HOROSCOPES

The dates of the nativities in the earliest horoscopes to survive are at the end of the fifth century. The earliest has only been published recently, and it shows a transitional stage in the casting of horoscopes. Instead of recording the positions of planets in relation to the zodiac on the day of the birth, it is constructed around the synodic appearances of the planets surrounding the birth, and even records calendaric and meteorological data. It thus simply applies the sort of data available in the Diaries to an individual’s birth, in this case datable to 13 January 410 BCE.

Month Tebeētu, the 24th, toward morning of the 25th, year 13 of Darius [II], the child was born. Month Kisliīmu around the 15th, Mercury behind [=east of] Gemini, first visibility in the east. Month Tebeētu: Tebeētu 9 solstice; the 26th [last lunar visibility before sunrise]; Month Šabatu: Šabatu dense clouds, around the 2nd Mercury in Capricorn last visibility in the east. Šabatu 14 Venus last visibility in the east in front of Aquarius; the year had an intercalary month Addaru. Month Tašïtu, the 22nd, Jupiter 2nd stationary point in front of Aquarius; around month Addaru, the 2nd, last visibility in Pisces. Month Du’ūzu, the 30th, Saturn first visibility in Cancer, high and faint; around the 26th [ideal] first visibility; Month Kislïmu, the 7th, first stationary point, Month Tebētu the 17th, opposition. [The year had] an intercalary month Addaru.¹¹

As is the case with most Greek horoscopes preserved on papyrus (as opposed to those found in astrological treatises), there is no interpretation. There is the bare minimum of interpretation in the other Babylonian horoscope cast for a birth only a short time later, on 29 April 410 BCE, but here we have for the first time the positions of the planets on the day:

Month [?] Nisan[?], night[?] of the 14th[?]…son of Shumausur, son of Shuma-iddina, descendant of Dēkē, was born. At that time the Moon was below the horn of the Scorpion, Jupiter in Pisces, Venus in Taurus, Saturn in Cancer, Mars in Gemini. Mercury, which had set [for the last time], was [still]in[visible]. Month Nisan, the 1st [day of which followed the 30th day of the preceding month], [the new crescent having been visible for] 28 [US], [the duration of...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• GENERAL SERIES INTRODUCTION
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• 1: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT AND GREECE
• 2: GREECE AND ROME
• 3: THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY
• 4: THE PRINCIPLES OF ASTROLOGY
• 5: ASTROLOGICAL PRACTICE: CASTING A HOROSCOPE
• 6: THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE ASTROLOGERS
• 7: REFLECTIONS AND RAMIFICATIONS
• CONCLUSION
• GLOSSARY
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY