Saturno e a Melancolia - A Origem das Qualidades Saturninas: Exemplo Textual

 

Klibansky, R., E. Panofsky & F. Saxl, 1979, Saturn and Melancholy,137-8.

The Greeks at first developed the planetary doctrine transmitted to them in classical times in a purely scientific direction. In this, an astrophysical viewpoint seems from the beginning to have been adopted simultaneously with the purely astronomical. 

Epigenes of Byzantium, who is thought to have lived in early Alexandrian times and therefore to have been one of the oldest mediators between Babylon and Hellas, classified Saturn as "cold and windy". The epithet "cold", according both with the planet's great distance from the sun and with the god's great age adhered to Saturn throughout the years and was never questioned. The property of dryness, implied by "windy", on the other hand, came into conflict with the fact that Pythagorean and Orphic texts described the mythical Kronos as just the opposite, namely, as the god of rain or of the sea; and this accounts for the fact that in later, especially in astrological literature, we so often encounter the singular definition "natura frigida et sicca, sed accidentaliter humida", or something of the sort - a contradiction which can only be explained, if at all, with the help of laborious argumentation. 

Whether it was really Posidonius who reduced the elemental qualities of the planets to an orderly system, we would not venture to decide, but it would be safe to say that it was, within the framework of the Stoic system that the doctrine was efldowed with its full meaning. Not till the formation of a cosmological system in which the opposites heat and cold determined the basic structure of the universe, did the qualities hitherto more or less arbitrarily tributed to the stars reveal a general and universally applicable law of nature, valid for both heavenly and earthly things and therefore establishing for the first time a rationally comprehensible connexion between the one set and the other. To Saturn, which was cold because of its distance from the sun (whether the Stoics thought it moist or dry we do not know), everything cold on earth was first related and finally subordinated ; and it is clear that this embodying of planetary qualities in a universal framework of natural laws must have brought the basic tenet of astrology, namely, the dependence of all earthly things and events upon the "influence" of the heavenly bodies, considerably nearer to Greek thought. 

Klibansky, R., E. Panofsky & F. Saxl, 1979, Saturn and Melancholy. Nendeln/ Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint.

Mimésis (Poesia)

Rembrandt, Harmenszoon van Rijin, Scribe sharpening his quill by candlelight, c.1635.
Weimar: Kunstsammlungen.
https://www.wga.hu/

Mimésis

Textualizada a viagem

Da palavra um êxtase

E de chegada o verbo

Corria da letra a sílaba

06/06/2020

RMdF

A Roma Imperial de Augusto e a Ascensão do Signo de Capricórnio: Exemplo Textual

Barton, T. S., 1994, Power and Knowledge: Astrology, Medicine and Physiognomies under the Roman Empire, 40-1.

Astrology was firmly constructed as a legitimator with Augustus’s establishment of the principate. The Iulium sidus belonged to the realm of traditional omens, but the princeps’s publication of his birth sign on coins to be seen all over the empire accorded astrology a new, superior status. Suetonius says that Augustus made his horoscope (thema) public and issued a silver coin with Capricorn, his birth sign, on it. He attributes Octavian’s confidence to a consultation with the astrologer Theogenes in 44 b.c. and sets the publication of the horoscope some unspecified time soon afterward. As Libra was Augustus’ Sun sign, there has long been some debate about the role of Capricorn: both signs are given prominence by the poets. Bouchd-Leclerq and others argue that it was the “chronocrator” of the month of conception (the sign designated as presiding over that month), despite Suetonius’ specification that it was his birth sign. Meanwhile, Riess (1896) and others argue that, as the sign in which the Moon was at the hour of the birth, it was the determining “birth sign.” Gundel (1926) argues that it was the sign in which Augustus’s “Lot of Fortune” was to be found as well as where the Moon was, which would help explain the cases in which Capricorn is to be found portrayed with the attributes of Fortune and Manilius’ use offelix of Capricorn. 

Whatever Capricorn’s precise relation to Augustus’s birth, it is probably significant that it was seen as the birth sign of the Sun, in that the winter solstice takes place in Capricorn. According to Suetonius, he was bom just before the sun rose. As Dwyer (1976) points out, a clever astrologer could have suggested to the young Octavian that Capricorn was an auspicious sign for this reason. Given the associations the princeps cultivated with the sun and Apollo in the early years, it fits well Dwyer himself suggests that, on the basis of Nigidius Figulus’ commentary on the sign of Capricorn, it is to be associated with Pan and his role in restoring the rule of the gods, saving the world from the tyranny of the Titans. He goes further and suggests that, before Actium, the theme of the righteous revenge of the son is implied by the myth narrated by Nigidius. Thus, Capricorn may have first of all symbolized Octavian’s just revenge on the killers of his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and, only after Actium, liberation from tyranny. Capricorn is also associated with rule over the West in the poets. Dwyer connects Capricorn’s rule over the West with Aeneas’ westward journey. In addition to all this speculation, it is worth noting that Augustus’s principate was inaugurated under Capricorn.

Kraft (1967), who provides photographs of several examples, argues that the appearance of Capricorn on coins from at least 41 /40 B.C. onward is to be linked in another way with Octavian’s careful self-presentation. He claims that the sign was used first of all against Mark Antony. The first surviving coin with the sign of Capricorn may have been minted by Q. Oppius, the praefectus classis (prefect of the fleet) based at Cyrene in 41/40, a partisan of Octavian, who set Capricorn by the head of the Venus of the Julian family, sometimes with the half-moon.Glass pastes and cameos with Capricorn on them, mainly Italian, were also produced before Actium. Examples show Capricorn with a bearded Octavian; or a young Octavian’s head over a ring (Caesar’s signet ring, pointing to his heirship), with Capricorn, com ears and a poppy; or with a child riding on its back over the waves, identified as Octavian and dated to the 40s. Hölscher even identifies one depiction of Capricorn on a glass paste as dating from the period of reconciliation with Antony, as Octavian’s head is placed above the intertwined signs of Capricorn and Leo, Antony’s conception sign. But the sign only played a small role in the public presentation of Octavian before Actium. The first appearance of Capricorn on Augustus’s own coins in 28 B.C. was on the obverse of a denarius (silver coin) from the Eastern mint, together with Augustus’s head, with the crocodile of Egypt and the legend Aegypto capta (Egypt taken), referring to the victory over Antony. Aurei (gold coins) and denarii of the same type followed, while from 27-20 b.c. tetradrachms (coins worth three denarii) from Asia showed Capricorn with a cornucopia on its back.

Barton, T. S., 1994, Power and Knowledge: Astrology, Medicine and Physiognomies under the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

No Trono de Eurínome (Poesia)

Francken, Frans II, The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite. 

Private collection 

https://www.wga.hu/

No Trono de Eurínome

Arconte de espuma e voragem

Eleito senhor do mar sem rosto

Ó tridente servo da deusa ninfa

Rainha da água mãe do tempo

Libertai no nosso fim a origem

Memória longínqua da criação

Da senhora trono seu novo rei

Libertai no nosso fim a origem

Um uterino mar de nascimento

Ó equino servo da deusa sereia

Criadora do mundo do humano

Libertai no nosso fim a origem

04/06/2020

RMdF

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)

A Procedência dos Decanos (Decanatos) e as Origens Egípcias do Horóscopo (Ascendente): Exemplo Textual

 

Greenbaum, D. G. & M. T. Ross, 2010, “The Role of Egypt in the Development of the Horoscope” in Egypt in Transition, 153-4.

Although no ascendant appears in the corpus of extant Babylonian horoscopes, this lack does not negate the cuneiform birth charts as examples of natal astrology. The earliest evidence connects Egypt to the introduction of the ascendant in astrological practice. Balbillus, whose antecedents were probably Egyptian, provides the earliest non-Babylonian literary charts containing cardines in Greek. Balbillus wrote in the first century CE, but his charts were cast for 72 BCE and 43 BCE. The earliest documentary chart containing cardines, Ashmolean D.O. 633, appears in a Demotic context and astronomically corresponds to 38 BCE. The date of composition was probably some time after this date. Barring lacunae, however, subsequent Demotic charts generally contain at least an ascendant. Greek charts follow this standard of composition. In pOxyrhynchus 235, the diagram for a chart dated between 15 and 22 CE contains perpendicular horizontal and vertical lines which divide the circular form of the diagram into quadrants. The author clearly labelled the ascendant, midheaven and lower midheaven angles; though the horizontal line indicates the setting cardine, there is no label for it.

Because of Balbillus’s probable origins, the Demotic context of Ashmolean D.O. 633 and the Egyptian provenance of pOxyrhynchus 235, the cardines display an early and strong connection to Egypt. In fact, the cardines – specifically the most important cardines, the ascendant and midheaven – relate to known Egyptian astronomical practices. A first century CE chart which equates the decans with “36 bright horoscopes” (λ̅ϛ̅ λάμπροι ὡροσκόποι) hints at the practices which may have prompted astrological interest in these positions.45 Before discussing this chart, along with other texts which call decans “horoscopes”, a brief overview of the decan system in Egypt, in particular the origin of rising and transit decans which correlate best with the astrological chart, will be useful.

Greenbaum, D. G. & M. T. Ross, 2010, “The Role of Egypt in the Development of the Horoscope” in Egypt in Transition: Social and Religious Development of Egypt in the First Millennium BCE, ed. L. Bareš, F. Coppens & K. Smolarikova, 146-82. Praga: Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.

Abu Ma'shar, Al-Kindi, a Grande Conjunção e o Conhecimento por Revelação: Exemplo Textual

 

North, J. D., 1989, Stars, Minds and Fate: Essays in Ancient and Medieval Cosmology, 63-4.

  Abu Ma'shar's work on conjunctions seems to have been much influenced by his teacher al-Kindi, the first great philosopher to have written in the Greek tradition in Arabic. Al-Kindi firmly believed that knowledge through revelation and prophecy is superior to the truths of unaided reason. He wrote on astrology, and, in a letter which is still extant, attempted to predict the duration of the empire of the Arabs on the basis of planetary conjunctions. Broadly speaking, the rarer the conjunction affecting political and religious events, the more potent its force. This is the doctrine central to my survey, and al-Kindi's editor, O. Loth, thought it began with him.

   In order of the slowness with which they traverse the zodiac, Saturn comes first (29.5 years), followed by Jupiter (11.9 years) and then Mars (1.88 years). Roughly speaking, Saturn and Jupiter meet every twenty years, while Mars meets with Jupiter about every two years and with Saturn marginally more often. Although it is impossible to be very precise without being inordinately tedious, we can say that the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter which are separated by a triple period, that is, about sixty years, will occur rather less than ten degrees apart. They can therefore occur within a single sign (30°) of the zodiac, if the first of the trio is close enough to the beginning of the sign. The character of the sign in which the conjunction occurred was thought to be important, but for the moment we need not go into details. Since the three signs in which successive conjunctions occur are likely to be equally spaced, comprising what is called a triplicity, three suitably chosen conjunctions in a series will be associated with one triplicity - which like the signs themselves was thought to have characteristic properties (fiery, earthy, aery, or watery, and so on). he successive conjunctions, occurring every 20 years, are simply the 'great conjunctions' of the title of Albumasar's book. There was also defined a coniunctio maior, which took place every 240 years, and a coniunctio maxima, which occurred every 960 years. The definitions of these were frequently misunderstood. Bacon, for example, gives a very hazy account in his Opus maius, and leaves us with the impression that he was paraphrasing Albumasar very carelessly. I will explain the periods of 240 and 960 years briefly, and those whose sympathies are with Bacon may omit the next paragraph. 

   Albumasar opens his Great Conjunctions with a detailed and rather precise account of the mean movements of Jupiter and Saturn, which we can summarize by saying that the conjunctions marked '0' and '3' in the series on the accompanying diagram will be thrice times 2°25'17"10'"6'v apart, or about 7 1/4º.11 We begin as near as possible to the beginning of Aries, in the fiery triplicity. Conjunction number 13, however, will fall into a new triplicity. If we reckon 20 years between great conjunctions, then the 'greater conjunction', when we pass from one triplicity to the next, should happen after 260 years; or, as Albumasar has it, the conjunctions may stay within a triplicity for about 240 years. They will then, by a loose extension of the argument, be in other triplicities for three similar periods, making 960 years in all, after which they will return to the original triplicity. Coniunctio maxima is that conjunction which marks the return to Aries. By virtue of the retrogradations of the planets in practice, and the fact that the figures quoted for the angles are not convenient sub-multiples of 360°, the argument is not precise and not worth discussing in any greater detail.12 What matters is that henceforth those who wished to find patterns in history had three convenient historical periods to conjure with, namely periods of 20, 240, and 960 years.

North, J. D., 1989, Stars, Minds and Fate: Essays in Ancient and Medieval Cosmology. Londres/ Ronceverte: The Hambledon Press.