PTOLEMY TETRABIBLOS EDITED AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY F. E. ROBBINS, Ph.D. UNIVIIKSITV OF MICUIGAN *w*-tS<S-' CAMBRIDOK, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD. MCMLXIV PiFST Printed . 1940 RepkINTED . 1948, 1956, 1964 Printed in Oreat Britain at The University Press, Aberdeen CONTENTS Introduction . The Luminaries and Planets XXIII The Signs of the Zodiac xxiii BOOK I 1. Introduction ..... 2. That Knowledge by Astronomical Means is Attainable, and How Far 4 3. That it is also Beneficial . 20 4. Of the Power of the Planets 34 5. Of Beneficent and Maleficent Planets 38 6. Of Masculine and Feminine Planets . 40 7. Of Diurnal and Nocturnal Planets 42 8. Of the Power of the Aspects to the Sun 44 9. Of the Power of the Fixed Stars 46 10. Of the Effect of the Seasons and of the Four Angles ..... 58 11. Of Solstitial, Equinoctial, Solid, and BicoRPOREAL Signs .... 64 12. Of Masculine and Feminine Signs 68 13. Of the Aspects of the Signs 72 14. Of Commanding and Obeying Signs 74 15. Of Signs which Behold each other and Signs of Equal Power 76 16. Of Disjunct Signs .... 76 17. Of the Houses of the Several Planets 78 18. Of the Triangles .... 82 19. Of Exaltations ..... 88 20. Of the Disposition of Terms 90 21. According to the Chaldaeans 98 22. Of Places and Degrees 108 23. Of Faces, Chariots, and the Like 110 24. Of Applications and Separations and the Other Powers . 112 BOOK II 1. Introduction ...... 116 2. Of the Characteristics of the Inhabitants OF the General Climes .... 120 3. Of the Familiarities betwee.w Countries anii THE TrIPLICITIES AND StARS 128 iii . CONTENTS PAGE 4. Method of Making Particular Predictions . 160 5. Of the Examination of the Countries Affected ...... 162 6. Of the Time of the Predicted Events . .164 7. Of the Class of those Affected . .168 8. Of the Quality of the Predicted Event . 176 9. Of the Colours of Eclipses, Comets, and THE Like . .190 10. Concerning the New Moon of the Year . 194 11. Of the Nature of the Signs, Part by Part, AND their Effect upon the Weather . 200 12. Of the Investigation of Weather in Detail 206 13. Of the Significance of Atmospheric Signs . 212 BOOK III 1. Introduction ..... 220 2. Of the Degree of the Horoscopic Point 228 3. The Subdivision of the Science of Nativities 234 4. Of Parents 240 5. Of Brothers and Sisters 250 6. Of Males and Females, 254 7. Of Twins 256 8. Of Monsters 260 9. Of Children that are not Reared 264 10. Of Length of Life 270 1 1 Of Bodily Form and Temperament 306 12. Of Bodily Injuries and Diseases 316 13. Of the Quality of the Soul. 332 14. Of Diseases of the Soul 362 BOOK IV 1. Introduction 372 2. Of Material Fortune . 372 3. Of the Fortune of Dignity 376 4. Op the Quality of Action 380 6. Of Marriage 392 6. Of Children 408 7. Of Friends and Enemies 412 8. Of Foreign Travel 422 9. Of the Quality of Death 426 10. Of the Division of Times 436 Index .... 461 INTRODUCTION I. From his own day well into the Renaissance Claudius Ptolemy's name was well-nigh pre-eminent in astro- nomy, geography, and astrology alike. " The divine Ptolemy," he is called by Hephaestion of Thebes,^ and the expression shows that the reverence accorded him fell little short of idolatry. In such circum- stances it is surprising that all we know of Ptolemy's personal history must be pieced together from passages in his own works, two scholia in ancient manuscripts, and brief notices to be found in later writers, some of them Arabian.^ The result, when the reliable is summed up and the false or fanciful subtracted, is meagre indeed. We can probably rely upon the reports that he was born at Ptolemais in ^ * Egypt and lived to the age of 78 ; he tells us that his astronomical observations were made on the ' In Catalogus Codicum Astrologicorum Oraecorum (here- after cited as CCAG), viii. 2, p. 81, 2. * The sources are collected and discussed by F. Boll, " Studien vibor Claudius Ptolemaus," Jahrb. f. CI. Ph., Supplementbd. xxi. 1894, pp. 53-66 (hereafter cited as Boll, Studien). ' Theodore of MelitS is the authority ; Boll, op. cit., pp. 54-5.5. An eleventh-century work of Abulwnfa (ibid., ])[). 58-G2) gave rise to the belief that lie was born at I'clu.siuin, so that, e.g., he is called n-rjXovaievs in the title of the first edition of the Telnthiblos. * This comes from Abulwafa. PTOLEMY parallel of Alexandria, which convinces Boll that Alexandria was his home, although there is another tradition ' that for 40 years he observed at Canopus, which was about 15 miles east of Alexandria, and it is known that he erected votive stelae in the temple at Canopus inscribed with the fundamental principles of his doctrines.^ Combining the various traditions with the fact that the earliest of his observations recorded in the Almagest was made in 127 and the latest in 151, we may conclude, further, that his life fell approximately in the years 100-178,^ covering the first three-quarters of the second century of our era and the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. A detailed and not too flattering description of Ptolemy's personal appearance and habits goes back, again, to the Arabic tradition, and has been repeated in some of the modern editions of Ptolemy's works,'* * Preserved by Olympiodorus (fourth century), In Plat. Phacd., p. 47, 16 (Finckh). ^ Boll, Studien, p. 66. Heiberg gives the text in his edition of the Opera astronomica minora of Ptolemy (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 149 ff. ^ This is Boll's conclusion {op. cit., p. 64), accepted by Christ, Griechische Litterafurgeschichte, 6th ed., 1924, ii. 2, p. 896. Boll, ibid., pp. 63, 65, cites the passages of the Almagest which refer to the dated observations. He points out that a very slight change in the text of Almagest, x. 1, would make the date of the latest observation 141 instead of 151, but though this would, perhaps, agree better with some of the traditions, there is no real reason for altering the figure. ^ E.g. in the preface of the Latin version of the Almagest puhHshed at Venice in 1515 ; and the preface of the translation of the Tetrabiblos by Whalley (see below, p. xiii). INTRODUCTIOiN but on examination it proves to be nothing but the stock characterization of the philosopher given by the Greek physiognomists.^ There is, in fact, no more to be learned about Ptolemy from external sources, and his own works contain little that is biographical. We learn from them, however, that he took, in general, an Aristotelian position philo- sophically, though his predilection for mathematics led him to regard that division of science with far greater reverence than the more biologically minded Aristotle.^ One of his minor works and chapters in the longer ones are philosophical and testify to his knowledge of and interest in the subject. Though he was himself amplv capable of original thought, he was acquainted with the work and writings of his predecessors, of Menelaiis in mathematics, of Hipparchus in astronomy, of Marinus of Tyre in geography, of Didymus in music, and of Posidonius in astrological ethnology and the arguments whereby astrology was defended. He drew freely and openly from them, and had the gift of systematizing the materials with which he dealt, a characteristic which is especially evident in the Tetrabiblos. The works, genuine and false, ascribed to Ptolemy are : (1) the Almagest or Syntaxis Mathematical in 13 books, the great treatise on astronomy ; (2) 0da€i? arrXavaju aarepojv kol awaycoyr) eTTiarjfia- aicji' (" On the Apparitions of the Fixed Stars and a Collection of Prognostics ") ; (3) 'YTTodeaci^ rujv TrXavojiiiuiov (" On the Planetary Hypothesis ") ; (4) Kaviuv fiaaiXeiow (" Table of Reigns "), a chrono- ' Boll, Stiulien, pp. 58-62. ^Op. cit.. pp. 66-111, 131-163. PTOLEMY y' logical table of reigns ; (5) ' ApixoviKcbv /3t/SAt'a (" On Music," in three books) ; (6) the Tetrabiblos, of which later ; (7) IJepl dvaXt^ixfiaros, De Analemmate, the description of a sphere on a plane (extant only " in translation) ; (8) Planisphaerium, The Plani- " sphere ; (9) the Optics, in 5 books (its genuineness has been doubted) ; (10) the Kaprros or Centiloquium, a collection of astrological aphorisms (generally thought to be spurious); (11) the Geography; (12) the np6x€LpoL Kaioves or " Ready (astronomical) " Tables ; (13) npo-)(eipiov Kavovojv hiaTa^is Kai ^r](f>o(f>opia. " Scheme and Manipulation of the " Ready Tables ; (14) TlepL Kpm]piov Kai rjyefio- viKov, a short treatise dealing with the theory of knowledge and the soul. Of these, the Almagest, since it is mentioned in the Geography, the 'Y-nodeaeis, and the Tetrabiblos, and since it contains no reference to observations after the year 151, was certainly not the latest. The three books mentioned, and possibly others, belong to the last third of the author's life. II. The treatise with which we are especially con- cerned is now, and usually has been, called the Tetrabiblos or Quadripartitum, but more accurately it should be MadrjfxaTiKrj Terpa/St/SAo? avvra^is, " Mathematical Treatise in Four Books," which is the title found in some of the MSS.^ and is likely to have been that used by Ptolemy himself. Many of the MSS.. however, use the title To. npo? ' E.g. N (see below). TeTpajSijSAos alone is used by P and E. INTRODUCTION Zvpov d-iToreA€0[j.aTLKd,^ " The Prognostics addressed to Syrus," in which certain of them substitute the similar but less common word au/LtTrepaa/iart/ca for dTToreXeafiaTLKd.'- The book is a systematic treatise on astrology, but it should be remembered that in Ptolemy's time the two words darpoXoyia and darpovoixia meant much the same thing, " astro- nomy," and that he called what we mean by " astrology '' ~6 Si' da-povop.ia'S TTpoyvioarLKOv,^ " prog- nostication through astronomy," which indeed it was, in his estimation.