De astrologia

This treatise concerneth heaven and the stars, yet not the stars themselves nor heaven itself, but the auspiciall verity that from them assuredly entereth into the life of man. My discourse containeth not counsell, nor proffereth instruction how to ply this auspiciall art, but my aim is to chide those learned men who cultivate and expose unto their disciples all other studies, but neither esteem nor cultivate astrology.

Although the science is ancient, not come to us newly, but the creation of divinely favoured kings of antiquity, yet men of these daies, through ignorance, supinity, and mislike of labour, hold opinions repugnant unto theirs, and when they encounter men that make false prognostickes, they impeach the stars and contemne astrology itself, which they consider neither sound nor veridicall but a vain and idle fiction; wherein, as I think, the judge unjustly. For a wright’s unskillfullness argueth not the wright’s art in error, nor a piper’s untunefullness the art of musick devoid of sense. Rather are they ignorant of their arts, and each of these in itself rationall.[*](For the argument, cf. The Dance, 80. )

It was the Aethiopians that first delivered this doctrine unto men. The ground thereof was in part the wisdom of that nation, the Aethiopians being in all else wiser than all men; but in part also the benignity of their clime, since clear skyes and calm weather ever invest them, and they are not subjected to the vicissitudes of the yeere, but live in onely one season.[*](In Lucian’s day current theory ascribed the origin of astronomy to the Egyptians. We must applaud his insight in favo the Ethiopians, since Diodorus (III, 2,1; doubtless on good authority) records that they were the first men, that they first taught people to worship the gods, that the Egyptians were their colonists, and that most of the Egyptian institutions were Ethiopian. And if, as we read in the Platonic Epinomis and in Macrobius (Comm. in Cic. Somn. Scip., I, 21, 9), the climate of Egypt is conducive to the study of the heavens, that of Ethiopia, naturally, would be far more so. ) Therefore when they discerned, first of all, that the moon hath not perpetually the same appearance, but carrieth a various aspect and changeth into divers figures, they accounted the thing good reason for wonder and empuzzlement. In consequence they sought and found the cause thereof, that the lustre of the moon is not her own but cometh to her from the sun.

And they determined also the course of the other stars, which we call planets or wanderers because they alone of all the stars do move; also their nature and potency, and the works that are brought to pass by each of them. Also, they ascribed names unto them, that yet were not names, as they seemed, but symboles.

All which the Aethiopians observed in the skye, and afterwards they transmitted their doctrine incompleat to the Aegyptians. And the Aegyptians, deriving from them the auspiciall art but half consummated, advanced it; and they indicated the measure of each planet’s motion, and determined the numericall extension of yeares and moneths and hours. The moneths they measured by the moon

And they devised other inventions much greater than these. For they divided the entire skye and the other stars that are inerrant and fixed, and do never move, into twelve segments for such as move: which they styled “houses,” although they resemble living creatures, each patterned after the figure of a different kind, whereof some are sea-monsters, some humans, some wild beasts, some volatiles, some juments.

For this reason, indeed, the Aegyptian deities are portrayed in various aspects.[*](In accrediting the invention of the signs of the Zodiac to the Egyptians, our author is at one with his contemporaries (cf. Macrobius, loc. cit.), but in deriving from these signs the animal forms of the Egyptian gods, and in connecting the fishtaboo in that country with the constellation Pisces he presents the results of original research. ) For it is not to be supposed that all Aegyptians were wont to draw prognosticks from all the twelve signs; but some had one sign in use, others another. The ram is reverenced by those who looked up unto Aries, fish is not eaten by those who attached signality unto Pisces, the goat is not slain by those who had knowledge of Capricorn, and the other creatures are severally venerated by other folk. Assuredly the bull too is adored in honour of the celestial Taurus, and Apis, esteemed by them an object of the uttermost sanctity, depastureth their land, and they that inhabit it vouchsafe him an oracle in token of the auspiciality of Taurus.

Not long after, the Libyans also espoused the science; for the Libyan oracle of Ammon was founded in regard of the heavens and his knowledge thereof;

And the Babylonians came to know all these things, even before the others, as they themselves say; but I think that the science reached them long afterward.[*](In the Goddesse of Surrye (2) Lucian is similarly minded as to Babylonian claims of priority in religion; and in the Runaways Philosophy goes successively to India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylon, and Greece. )

As for the Greeks, they learned not a whit of astrology either from the Aethiopians or from the Aegyptians. It was Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and Calliope, that first declared these matters unto them, but not at all plainly, nor did he bring the science forth unto illucidation but unto ingannation and pious fraude, such being the humour of the man.[*](It seems better established that Atlas was the first astronomer; cf. Cicero, 7’usc. Disp., V, 3, 8, and Vergil, Aen., I, 740. He taught the doctrine of the sphere to Heracles, and the fact that Heracles introduced it into Greece underlies the story of the golden apples of the Hesperides—so, at all events, says Diodorus. Orpheus, however, was no doubt a very active person in many ways; e.g. in connection with philosophy (Runaways, 8) and very likely dancing (Dance, 15), and the mathematician Nicomachus of Gerasa (pp. 241, 271, 274 Jan.), Lucian’s contemporary, agrees with him that the lyre of Orpheus had seven strings to match the number of the planets and played the harmony of the spheres. )_ For he made a harp and exposed his mystick rites in poesy and his theology in song; and the harp, that had seven chords, discoursed the harmony of the errant spheres. It was by investigating and ventilating these matters that he enchanted and enthralled all creatures; for he regarded not that harp of his nor yet concerned himselfe with other musick, but this was the mightie harp of Orpheus,[*](The thought is that the planets form the only musical instrument and render the only music in which Orpheus, as primarily an astronomer, had any real interest. ) and to honour these things, the Greeks set apart a station in the heavens and numerous stars are denominated Orpheus his harp.

If ever you see Orpheus pictured in mosaick stones or in pigment, he sitteth in the centre, in the simili-

They say, moreover, that Tiresias, a Boeotian man, whose fame as touching prophecie is greatly cried up, declared, unto the Greeks that of the errant stars some are masle, some female, and that they do not engender like effects; wherefore they fable that Tiresias himself was bisexous and amphibious, now masle, now female.[*](Here again we have “indepeniiont thought.” A widely variant explanation of the myth had previously been offered by Cephalio (cf. J. Malalas, Chron., p. 40, 1, in the Bonn ition), according to which Tiresias was a student of medicine who concerned himself with the mysteries of parturition. )

When Atreus and Thyestes contended for the throne of their fathers, even then, it is plain, the Greeks set great store by astrologie and celestial lore; and the commonwealth of Argos determined that which ever of them was more excellent than the other in this lore should bear rule. Thereupon Thyestes indicated and made manifest unto them the Ram in the heavens, in consequence whereof they fable that Thyestes had a golden lamb. But Atreus declared the doctrine of the sun and its risings, that the sun and the First Movable[*](The firmament, or orb, of the fixed stars. This was thought of as revolving from East to West. The sun particited, to be sure, in its motion, but had a contrary motion of is own, which was compared to that of an ant walking on the rim of a moving wheel in the direction contrary to the wheel’s motion. ) do not course in the same direction, but rowle contrariwise to one another

Concerning Bellerophon also I am of this opinion: that he had a volatile as horse I do not at all believe, but conceive that he pursued this wisdom and raised his thoughts on high and held conversation with the stars, and thus ascended unto heaven by means not of his horse but of his wit.

The same may be said of Phrixus, the son of Athamas, that is fabled to have ridden through the ayr upon a golden ram. And certainly of Daedalus the Athenian; although his story be strange, yet methinks it is not without relation unto astrology, but rather he practised it constantly himself and taught it unto his son.

But because Icarus was governed by youth and audacity, and sought not the attainable but let his minde carry him into the zenith, he came short of truth and defected from reason and was precipitated into a sea of unfathomable perplexities. But the Greeks tell an idle myth of him and loosely call a golfe of their sea Icarian after his name.

Doubtless Pasiphae also, hearing from Daedalus of the Bull that appeareth amongst the constellations and of Astrology itself, fell in love with the doctrine ;

Again, there be-those who, dissecting the science into parts, have made different discoveries, some collecting the particulars of the moon, some those of Jupiter, and some those of the sun, concerning their course and motion and potency.

So Endymion established the motions of the moon,[*](We are indebted to Germanicus, in his commentary on Aratus, for the information that Mnaseas of Sicyon credited Endymion with the discovery of the course of the moon. Having found the key to the flight-legends, it was easy for Lucian to supply a pendant to Endymion in Phaethon. )

so Phaeton inferred the course of the sun; yet not strictly, but left the theory incompleat at his death. Ignorant of this, men believe that Phaeton was Helius his son, and they relate a story of him that is not at all credible. Going, say they, unto Helius, his father, he asked to drive the car of light; whiche he suffered him to do, and also instructed him in the manner of its governance. But when Phaeton mounted the car, because of youth and inexpertness he drove now close to earth, now at a vast remove; and men were being destroyed both by cold and by heat that passed endurance. Thereupon, Jupiter in wrath smote Phaeton with a great bolt of lightning. After his fall his sisters surrounding him made great dole until they transmuted themselves, and now they are trees of black poplar and distil amber over him in place of tears. These things were not so, and it consisteth not with piety to believe in them; Helius begat no son, and no son of his perished.

But the Greeks relate many other fabulosities— which I do not credit at all. For how doth it consist with piety to believe that Aeneas was the’son of Venus, Minos of Jupiter, Ascalaphus of Mars, or Autolycus of Mercury? Nay, these were each and all divinely favoured, and at their birth one of them was under the regard of Venus, another of Jupiter, another of Mars. For what powers soever are in their proper houses at the moment of birth into this life, those powers like unto parents make men answerable to them in all respects, in complexion, in figure, in workes, and in humour. So Minos became a king because Jupiter was in his ascendancy, Aeneas fair by the will of Venus, and Autolycus a theef, whose theevery came to him from Mercury.