Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
I’m not really all that interested in ancient astrological texts. What I am very interested in, tho, is that we should have access to ancient literature, whatever it may be. And it’s really quite hard to access to stuff when you don’t know it exists! The technical works of antiquity are just as much part [...]
A few weeks ago I wrote of my discovery that a bunch of ancient astrological texts existed in an largely unknown English translation by Robert Schmidt of Project Hindsight. These can be obtained by emailing the site and sending money by Paypal (a price list is here, but prices are actually more flexible than the [...]
I’m still thinking about parapegma, the ancient peg-calendars to predict star- and weather-movements. A google search has revealed that the opening parts of Daryn Lehoux’s 2007 book are a version of his 2000 PhD thesis, which is online at ScribD here. It’s a Canadian thesis, which leads me to wonder whether Canadian theses are online for free, and [...]
I thought it might be useful to signal how the calendar of Antiochus got to us. We have Boll’s nice printed edition, and Daryn Lehoux’s even nicer text, translation and explanatory notes. But … how did these get to us? What is the text based on? Boll lists the copies available to him, which were [...]
In a very useful comment on a recent post, Alexander Jones drew my attention to the term “parapegma”, and to Daryn Lehoux, “Astronomy, weather, and calendars in the ancient world: parapegmata and related texts in classical and Near Eastern societies”, CUP, 2007. The link is to the Google Books preview. At a price of $155, [...]
At last, here we are at the point of greatest interest — December. But we now have much more context for what we find. Μὴν Δεκέμβριος. December βʹ. Κύων ἑῷος δύνει. 2. Sirius sets in the east. γʹ. Ἀρκτοῦρος δύνει · ἐπισημασία. 3. Arcturus sets : weather change. δʹ. Σκορπίος ἐπιτέλλει ἅμα ἡλίῳ · ἐπισημασία. [...]
Μὴν Νοέμβριος. November αʹ. ὁ κατὰ τὸ γόνυ τοῦ Τοξότου κρύπτεται. 1. The portion below the knee of the Archer is absent from the sky. γʹ. ὁ λαμπρὸς τῶν Ὑάδων ἑσπέριος ἀνατέλλει. 3. The radiance of the Hyades arises in the west. εʹ. Ὑάδες δύνουσιν · ἐν ἡμέραις ἑπτὰ ἐπισημασία. 5. The Hyades are setting [...]
Μὴν Ὀκτώβριος. October βʹ. Αἲξ ἑσπερία καὶ ὁ Στάχυς ἀνατέλλει. 2. The Goat arises in the west, and Stachys. εʹ. ὁ λαμπρὸς τοῦ Στεφάνου ἀνατέλλει · ἐν ἡμέραις θʹ ἐπισημασία. 5. The radiance of the Crown arises: weather change in 9 days. ζʹ. Ταύρου οὐρὰ καὶ ὁ λαμπρὸς τῆς βορείας χηλῆς τοῦ σκορπίου ἀνατέλλει. 7. [...]
The Chronography of 354 tells us of a Roman state festival on 25 December. I saw a reference to the Calendar of Antiochus of Athens, quoted to support the idea that this festival was earlier than 354 AD. After all, Antiochus must pre-date Porphyry, who refers to him. So I’ve been translating the calendar. But [...]
Μὴν Αὔγουστος. August αʹ. Λέων ἀνατέλλει · ἐπισημασία. 1. Leo arises : weather change. βʹ. γαυρίαμα Κυνὸς σὺν εξάλματι Λέοντος. 2. The exaltation of Sirius with the interval of Leo. ζʹ. Ὑδροχόος μέσος δύνει · ἐπισημασία. 7. The middle of Aquarius sets : weather change. ιαʹ. ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς καρδίας τοῦ Λέοντος ἀνατέλλει καὶ Λύρα [...]