As Fontes para o Estudo da Astrologia Antiga e a sua Situação Actual: Exemplo Textual

Jones, Alexander, 2018, "Greco-Roman Astronomy and Astrology" in The Cambridge History of Science, vol. I: Ancient Science, 377-8.

  The evidence for Greco-Roman astrology deserves to be considered separately from that for astronomy. Our primary source of information is again transmitted astrological texts, and these include books with named authors, among them Ptolemy. But in the surviving literature of this field Ptolemy is a comparatively early author. Our only transmitted astrological works composed before Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos are Manilius’ Astronomica (early first century ce), a Latin didactic poem popularizing the science for a general readership, and the poem of Dorotheus of Sidon (mid-first century ce), meant for practitioners, which we have only in an Arabic translation of a lost Pahlavī translation. Other treatises with identified authors from after Ptolemy include those of Vettius Valens (late second century ce), Firmicus Maternus (first half of the fourth century ce, in Latin), and Hephaestion of Thebes (ca. 400 ce). Besides such more or less coherent works, however, the Byzantine manuscript tradition presents us with a vast quantity of anonymous astrological texts and texts that bear dubious or pseudepigraphic attributions, for the most part difficult to date or trace to original sources, and hence constituting a great challenge to the historian of the subject. The majority of this indiscriminate material is still either unpublished or available in unsatisfactory editions such as those in the appendices of the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum (1898–1953).  

  Many papyri and ostraca from the first century bce on contain astrological texts. Much of this material is similar in character to the transmitted astrological literature, consisting of didactic and reference texts. They are an underutilized resource, and numerous identified fragments still lack even an edition. This is even truer of the many astrological papyri in demotic Egyptian, which have the potential to illuminate the role of Egypt in the formation of Greek astrology as well as later relations between the two linguistic groups in Egypt. 

  Personal horoscopes constitute a special and important category of astrological papyri and ostraca. Unlike the horoscopes intermittently embedded in the transmitted literature, which were chosen if not actually fabricated to illustrate particular theoretical or methodological points, these are the unmediated horoscope documents pertaining to real people, and thus they inform us in various ways about the chronological and social patterns of astrology’s popularity in Egypt. A small number of archaeologically recovered horoscopic documents are also known from outside Egypt in the form of graffiti, inscriptions, and inscribed gems and jewellery. One example of a public astrological inscription exists, the so-called horoscope frieze of Antiochus I of Commagene (first century bce) at Nemrud Dag, a royal monument displaying visually what must have been understood to be an astrologically significant configuration of the heavenly bodies, though it is not a complete horoscope. Other inscribed objects relating to astrology include zodiac boards used by astrologers to display astrological configurations to their clients and peg-board inscriptions that allowed one to track significant time cycles including the astrological sevenday week.

  Lastly, images relating to astronomy and astrology in ancient visual art are witnesses to the extent to which these sciences were in the public eye, and also sometimes to religious or political appropriation of this imagery. The most common entities to be portrayed were celestial spheres, provided with the principal circles in spherical astronomy, such as the equator, tropics, and ecliptic, or with constellation figures, or with both; sundials; zodiacs; and figures of individual constellations, especially those of the zodiac.

Jones, A., 2018, "Greco-Roman Astronomy and Astrology" in The Cambrdige History of Science, vol. I: Ancient Science, ed. A. Jones & L. Taub, 374-401. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A Construção Antiga de um Sentido para o Termo "Astrologia": Exemplo Textual

 Pérez-Jiménez, A., 2015, "La Astrología, Un Método Científico de Adivinación" in Adivinación y Astrología en el Mundo Antiguo, 49-50.

Pues bien, durante casi toda la Antigüedad los términos ἀστρονομία y ἀστρολογία, lat. astronomia y astrologia, designaban nuestra ciencia “astronomía”, no la “astrología”. De hecho, el único nombre atestiguado antes de Platón para la “astronomía” era ἀστρολογία; después de él se utiliza uno u otro indistintamente, aunque por lo general el de ἀστρονομία queda vinculado a la filosofía platónica. Y, si bien ya en los primeros siglos de nuestra Era se percibe cierta diferenciación entre los dos términos latinos, habrá que esperar hasta el siglo IV (san Jerónimo) para encontrar una distinción más tajante; el primer autor que define claramente astronomia como “astronomía” y astrologia como “astrología” es san Isidoro de Sevilla. En cuanto a los términos griegos, Sexto Empírico conserva el nombre de ἀστρολογία para la “astronomía” y la “astrología” y reserva el de ἀστρονομία para la “astrometeorología ”. Hasta Simplicio y Olimpiodoro, en el siglo VI, no encontraremos una oposición en sentido moderno. Pero, si esto era así, ¿cómo se referían los griegos y romanos a los astrólogos y su doctrina?

En todas las épocas, cuando quería designarse la astrología, frente a la astronomía, se añadía a los términos anteriores el adjetivo γενεθλιακή (de γενέθλη = “nacimiento”) o ἀποτελεσματική (de ἀποτέλεσμα = “efecto”, por la creencia en que los astros producían efectos determinados sobre el mundo sublunar) o bien se empleaban estos adjetivos solos con el artículo o con el sustantivo τέχνη. A partir de ellos se formó el sustantivo γενεθλιαλογία o γενεθλιολογία, genethliologia. En relación con tales nombres, a los astrólogos se los llamaba ἀποτελεσματικοί, γενεθλιακοί, genethliaci. Como es obvio, estos términos tienen que ver con el ámbito de actuación principal de la astrología (la fijación del horóscopo en el momento del nacimiento) y con la esencia misma de este arte, el cumplimiento en la tierra de los efectos que producen las configuraciones planetarias y/o zodiacales.

Otra forma para referirse a la astrología fue el uso restringido de los términos μαθηματική τέχνη, mathematica y μάθησις, mathesis, para la profesión y μαθηματικοί, mathematici, para los astrólogos, que tienen que ver con el prestigio adquirido en determinada época por estas prácticas o con su relación inicial, fundamentos y método compartido con la astronomía, una ciencia matemática cuya base es la aritmética, la geometría y, luego, la trigonometría.

Por último, el nombre más popular a partir del siglo III a.C. en que, según la tradición recogida por Vitrubio, la astrología fue divulgada en Grecia por Beroso y sus discípulos Antípater y Aquinápolo, fue el de χαλδαική o Χαλδαίων τέχνη, ars o doctrina Chaldaeorum, de forma que, a partir de este momento, χαλδαῖος, Chaldaeus, pierde casi por completo su sentido étnico para designar al profesional de este arte, al astrólogo.

Pérez-Jiménez, A., 2015, "La Astrología, Un Método Científico de Adivinación" in Adivinación y Astrología en el Mundo Antiguo, ed. J. A. D. Delgado & A. Pérez-Jiménez, 45-76. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Fundación Mapfre Guanarteme.

Seleuco e a Prova da Antiguidade do Heliocentrismo: Exemplo Textual

Russo, L., 2004, The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn, 311-2.

   Seleucus of Babylon, already encountered on page 88 in connection with the infnity of the universe, was an astronomer from the second century B.C. about whom not much else is known. But Plutarch offers a very interesting testimonium, whose import appears to have been neglected by historians of science: 

Was [Timaeus] giving the earth motion . . . , and should the earth . . . be understood to have been designed not as confned and fixed but as turning and revolving about, in the way expounded later by Aristarchus and Seleucus, the former assuming this as a hypothesis and the latter proving it?

The passage refers to two types of terrestrial motion, rotation and revolution. The verb ἀποφαίνομαι appearing at the end of the passage allows different possibilities for what Seleucus actually did, but the contrast with "as a hypothesis" clearly implies that he found new arguments in support of these motions.

   To state, as Seleucus did, that the sun really is fixed and the earth is moving is equivalent to stating that planetary stations and retrogressions don't just disappear under the assumption that the sun is stationary, as Aristarchus said, but that they really don't exist. That retrogressions and stations are merely apparent is repeated by pre-Ptolemaic Latin sources, including Pliny and Seneca, suggesting that the notion of heliocentrism as a physical reality, far from being exceptional, was well-known. Thus we might hope to find traces of Seleucus' proof in the literature.

   One argument in favor of heliocentrism is what we reconstructed in Section 10.7 based on a passage of Seneca. With the sun as the reference, the planets' motion admits a simple dynamical description, where centrifugal force balances attraction. In a geocentric model this is not so easy to do: if the planets are attracted by the earth, why wouldn't they fall when they stop in the sky? And if not attracted by the earth, why don't they go off forever? One is tempted to deduce that only the motion around the sun is real. Since classical literature contains no other arguments in favor of heliocentrism, it is reasonable to conjecture that the proof that Plutarch attributes to Seleucus is based on the argument just given, which is reported by Seneca.

Russo, L., 2004, The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn. Berlim/ Heidelberg/ Nova Iorque: Springer Verlag)

Kleper, a Astrologia e os seus 1.170 Horóscopos

 

Rublack, U., 2015, The Astronomer & the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for his Mother,135.

In the late sixteenth century, people usually explained personalities through astrology. Astrology formed a routine part of elite education, and was part of many universities’ curricula. Kepler, too, had learnt to cast horoscopes and predict the weather in Tübingen as part of studying mathematics, which in turn was integral to studying theology and the arts. During his career, he went on to compile a vast collection of more than 1.170 horoscopes for over 850 individuals. Although commissions from clients near and far provided him with welcome additional income, Kepler also collected horoscopes and data from a broad range of other practitioners in order to study them. When news reached him of an illness or the death of a particular person, he updated his records in order to verify his predictions. Horoscopes of famous, or ordinary, ill-fated people, such as a woman executed in Tübingen for infanticide, were closely scrutinized for patterns and causes. This immersed him in contemplating many different biographies. It made him curious about others. Anything but a distant academic dissociated from ordinary lives, he mined this information as a tool of empirical observation, so as to understand human nature through the movements of the stars.

Rublack, U., 2015, The Astronomer & the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for his Mother. Oxford/ Nova Iorque: Oxford University Press.

Os Eclipses e as Observações de Gregos e Babilónios: Exemplo Textual

Steele, J. M., 2000, Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers, 95-6. 

There has been much debate over the years concerning the source for the Babylonian observations in he Almagest. As I have suggested above, Ptolemy probably obtained them from Hipparchus. But how did Hipparchus come to possess them? Did he travel to Babylon himself and persuade a Babylonian astronomer to translate the records for him, as has been suggested by Toomer (1988: 359)? Or was knowledge of Babylonian astronomy widespread among Greco-Roman astronomers? Certainly, Babylonian mathematical astronomy must have been known fairly widely. The Oxyrhynchus papyri show that astrologers both used and understood Babylonian ACT methods, and there is nothing to suggest that the Oxyrhynchus material would differ from that which would have been found in any other medium size city had the conditions for survival of papyri been as good. But the transmission of actual observations is a different matter. To be of any value in determining, say, some parameter of a lunar theory, not just any lunar observation will do. Eclipses, of course, are the most useful, but even then what one really needs are eclipses fulfilling tions. Furthermore, these conditions certain condiare in part dependent upon the theory that one is developing. Thus, a Greek astronomer wanting to use Babylonian eclipse observations would probably have to obtain a long run of records, from which he could select certain ones at a later date. 

The Babylonian records described by Ptolemy range in date from 721 BC to 382 Be. Even if these represent the earliest and latest reports available to him, Ptolemy must have had access to records covering a period about 350 years. Furthermore, this list of eclipses must have been fairly complete. It has generally been supposed that the original source for these records was the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries. However, there are good reasons for doubting that this was the direct source from which Hipparchus made his compilation. A typical Diary covers a period of six months, during which there will be one, or occasionally two, lunar eclipse possibilities (i.e., observations or predictions). In compiling a collection spanning 350 years, therefore, one would have to consult about 700 tablets. It seems unlikely that a Babylonian astronomer would read through all of these tablets, even if they were all preserved, and then explain them at the request of a visiting Greek. There is, however, another ready-made source which would have been of much greater use to Hipparchus: the large compilation of eclipse records, preserved in part on LBAT * 1414, LBAT 1415 + 1416 + 1417, and LBAT *1419.

Steele, J. M., 2000, Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.

O Deus da Lua de Harã, as Observações Astronómicas Sumérias, Assírias e Babilónicas e a Génese da Astrologia Genetliacal: Exemplo Textual

Green, T. M., 1992, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran, 42-3.

  Although there are records of observation of the appearance and disappearance of the planet Venus as early as the seventeenth century B.C.E. (during the reign of Ammisaduqa at Babylon), prior to the eighth century B.C.E., the only clearly demonstrable scientific interest in charting the "wandering stars" is found focused on the moon and the sun; and, in fact, it was only beginning with the reign of Nabonassar (747 B.C.E.) that accurate records of eclipses were kept and that the reports of the court astronomers were regularly recorded. Certainly the importance of the moon in the interpretation of various celestial omina (including the meteorological) had developed quite early in Mesopotamia, but by the very nature of the lunar cycle, these forecasts could not be long-range.

  In any event, divination through celestial phenomena was just one aspect of prophecy; much more popular during the Babylonian and Assyrian periods were incubation and haruspicy. Even that royal champion of the Moon god, the sixth century B.C.E. Nabonidus, was commanded to restore the temple of the Moon god at Harran through a dream. Further support for this view is found in the seventh century B.C .E. copies of the collection of celestial omens known as the Enuma Anu Enlil, which is dated in its earliest form to around 1000 B.C .E., and probably contains even earlier material. Most of its contents may be considered to be descriptive rather than analytical; only one quarter of the omens may be regarded as ''astrological,'' i.e., specifically concerned with the stars and planets. Yet, within two hundred years of Nabonassar, a shift in interest may be observed, for a cuneiform tablet dated 523 B.C. E. indicates the ability to calculate the monthly ephemerides of the sun and moon, the conjunctions of the moon with the planets, and of the planets with each other, and eclipses.

  Despite these relatively rapid advances, however, Neugebauer has posited a date no earlier than the fifth century B.C. E. for theregularization of the solar-lunar intercalated calendar, which knowledge would be necessary for the development of a genethialogical astrology. It was Naburimanni, a "descendant of the priest of the Moon god," who early in that century devised the lunar computational tables, used to determine the true date of the full moon, by which at least lunar eclipses might be predicted. It has been suggested that the growing interest in the astral deities and astral prophecy in the Near East during this period was a direct consequence of the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Persians, whose own religion contained many astral elements. 

Green, T. M., 1992, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. Leiden/ Nova Iorque/ Köln: E. J. Brill.

A Astrologia como Astronomia Cultural: Exemplo Textual

Campion, N., "Astrology as Cultural Astronomy" in Ruggles, C. L. N., 2015, Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, vol. 1, 104 (103-16).

Astrology, from the Greek, astro-logos, is the assumption that the stars and planets contain meaning and significance for terrestrial affairs. Logos is simply translated as “word”, so astrology is, then, the “word” of the stars: the stars “speak”. However, in the context of classical thought, we may also consider that the stars possess reason or a kind of logic that can provide important information. Until the seventeenth century, the word was frequently interchangeable with astronomy, the “regulation” or “law” of the stars. Most non-Western countries do not employ different words to distinguish traditional astronomy from astrology, except where the distinction has been imported from the modern West. In India, both are jyotish, the “science of light”; in Japan, they are onmyōdō, the “yin-yang way”; and in China, li fa (calendar systems) and tian wen (sky patterns) are suitable terms (Campion 2008, 2012a, p. 100). Astrology appears to be a universal feature of human culture and may be understood as a form of cultural astronomy; an important contribution to the understanding of astronomy’s cultural uses, applications, uses, and functions; and an indication of society’s attitudes to the stars.

Ruggles, C. L. N., 2015, Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, 3 vols. Nova Iorque: Springer.

Kepler: Astronomia e Astrologia, uma Harmonia Geométrica

Boner, Patrick J., Kepler's Cosmological Synthesis: Astrology, Mechanism and the Soul, 42 e 42 n.20.

Yet despite the many differences Kepler identified between astrology and astronomy, he claimed the two shared in geometry the same metaphysical foundations. As a consequence, Kepler applied geometrical principles to the two areas by way of analogy. He also extended these principles to the study of music. In fact, Kepler argued that all material phenomena, from the motions of the planets to the effects of the heavens on the weather to the production of particular melodies, derived from the same singular set of geometrical principles. Seen in this way, astrology, astronomy, and music shared the same archetypal origins. Kepler even described astrology as “a silent music” whose appreciation was made possible by a soul that could “dance to the tune of the aspects.” As Kepler made clear, the universal nature of geometrical principles accounted for the underlying consistency of the cosmos, where the idea of harmony encompassed far more meaning than our modern understanding. On the occasion of accepting three new aspects as influential, Kepler wrote to Herwart in 1599 on his discovery of an “absolute analogy” between astrology, astronomy, and musical theory:

. . . The analogy [analogia] with music and astronomy is absolute. I show that the analogy must necessarily be seen in this way, since the origins of all things are derived from geometry. Nature confirms these principles in the creation of a single species and employs these principles in everything that is capable of them. This occurs in music, the motions of the planets, the operation of the planets [on earth], the measure of musical notes according to time, the dances of men, and the composition of songs. For although these things are the discoveries of men, nevertheless man is the image of the creator.

n.20: JKGW, 14, no. 130, 640–651: “. . . perfecta sit analogia musices et astronomiae. Quam analogiam necessariò spectandam hoc medio demonstro, quia omnium rerum origines ex eometria petitae sunt, et quas natura rationes probat in creatione unius generis rerum easdem adhibet in omnibus omninò rebus, quae earum sunt capaces. Propterea in musica, in motibus planetarum, in operatione planetarum, in dimensione notarum musicalium causâ temporis, in hominum saltationibus, in ratione carminum. Nam etsi sunt haec hominum inventa, tamen homo imago conditoris est.”

Fonte:

Boner, P. J., 2013, Kepler's Cosmological Synthesis: Astrology, Mechanism and the Soul.

Leiden/ Boston: Brill.

Tempos de Ascensão dos Signos para Portugal Continental e Ilhas

  Os Tempos de Ascensão (anaphoroi chronoi) ou Arcos Ascensionais dos Signos são o número de ascensão recta ou graus equatoriais que transitam o círculo do meridiano durante o tempo em que um certo grau do Zodíaco ascende. Devido à relação oblíqua da Eclíptica com o Equador, cada signo do Zodíaco ascende num tempo diferente, originando aquilo que se designa de signos de ascensão larga e signos de ascensão curta. Esta formulação permite ao astrólogo uma visão de totalidade que transcende a perfeição do círculo. 

  Por meio da aplicação dos Tempos de Ascensão às técnicas preditivas, tendo por base o princípio de que um grau equivale a um ano, podemos conhecer o tempo de activação das influências planetárias, os períodos planetários, o período dos seus regentes e do próprio signo que ocupa e o período de qualquer de qualquer ponto do mapa. Esta técnica pode também ser combinada com outras, como, por exemplo, a dos Ciclos Planetários. 

  O cálculo dos Tempos de Ascensão para o território português foi elaborado de raiz a partir dos princípios expostos por Ptolomeu no Almagesto, embora numa computação moderna. Desta forma e apesar de naturalmente existirem variações de latitude para as diversas localidades, aquelas que aqui apresento permitem um cálculo bastante preciso, até porque na técnica original, expressa por Vétio Valente, os valores finais eram unitários. Porém, hoje com a possibilidade de cálculos mais precisos devemos aspirar a uma maior precisão. 

  Os Tempos de Ascensão dos Signos são uma técnica pouco utilizada, mas com um valor considerável. Espero portanto que os valores apresentados contribuam para uma nova utilização desta técnica astrológica.