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IV.5‑7

This webpage reproduces part of the
Tetrabiblos

by
Claudius Ptolemy

published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1940

The text is in the public domain.

This page has been carefully proofread
and I believe it to be free of errors.
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Ptolemy
Tetrabiblos

 p423  Book IV

Cam.2 p195 8. Of Foreign Travel.

The topic of foreign travel​56 receives treatment by observing the position of the luminaries to the angles, both of them, but particularly the moon. For when the moon is setting or declining from the angles,​57 she portends journeys abroad or changes of place. Mars too sometimes has a similar force, either when he is setting or when he himself also has declined from mid‑heaven, when he is in opposition or quartile to the luminaries. If the Lot of Fortune also falls among the signs that cause travel, the subjects spend their whole lives abroad and will have all their personal relations and business there. If beneficent planets regard the aforesaid places or succeed them, their activities abroad will be honourable and profitable and their return quick and unimpeded; but if the maleficent planets regard them, their journeys will be laborious, 196injurious, and dangerous, and the return difficult, although in every case the mixture of influences is taken into consideration, determined  p425 by the dominance of the planets that bear an aspect to these same places, as we explained at first.58

In general, it happens that, if the luminaries fall in the lower parts of the eastern quadrants, the travel is to the eastern and southern parts of the world, but if in the western quadrants or in the occident itself, to the north and the west; and if the zodiacal signs which caused the travel chance to be those of a single figure, either themselves or the planets that rule them, the journeys will be made at long intervals and upon occasion; but if they are bicorporeal signs, or of a double form, they will travel continuously and for a very long time. If Jupiter and Venus are the rulers of the places which govern travel, and of the luminaries, they make the journeys not only safe but also pleasant; for the subjects will be sent on their way either by the chief men of the country or by the resources of their friends, and favourable conditions of weather and abundance of supplies will also aid them. Often, too, if Mercury is added to these, profit, gain, gifts, and honour result from this good fortune of which we have spoken. If Saturn and Mars control the luminaries, however, and particularly if they are in opposition to each other, 197they will make the results useless and will involve the subject in great dangers, through unfortunate voyages and shipwreck if they are in watery signs, or  p427 again through hard going and desert places; and if they are in solid signs, through falling from heights and assaults of winds; in the solstitial and equinoctial signs, through lack of provisions and unhealthy conditions; in the signs of human form, through piracy, plots, and robberies; in the terrestrial signs, through the attacks of beasts, or earthquakes, and if Mercury is present at the same time, through the weather, dangerous accusations, and, furthermore, through the bites of reptiles and other poisonous creatures. The peculiar quality of the events, whether they be beneficial or harmful — that is, the differentiation in the cause — is observed from the government of the places significant of action, property, body, or dignity, according to our original disposition of them,​59 and the occasions which will to the greatest degree bring about these portended events are judged from the time of the ingresses​60 of the five planets. Such be our general account of the matter.

9. Of the Quality of Death.

Since after all the others the inquiry concerning the quality of death remains, 198we shall first determine, through the means furnished by the discussion of the length of life, whether the destruction will be accomplished by the projection of a ray or by the descent  p429 of the significator to the occident.​61 For if the destruction should come about through the projection of rays and occourse, it is fitting to observe the place of the occourse in order to determine the quality of the death, but if it occurs by the descent of the significator to the occident, we must observe the occident itself. For of whatever quality are the planets that are upon the aforesaid places, or, if they are not upon them, the first planets to approach them, such we must understand that the deaths will be, while at the same time the planets in aspect by their natures contribute to the complexity of the events, as do also the peculiar characters of the aforesaid destructive places themselves, both through the signs of the zodiac and through the nature of the terms.62

Now then, if Saturn holds the lordship of death, he brings about the end through long illness, phthisis, rheumatism, colliquations, chills and fever, and splenic, dropsical, enteric, or hysteric conditions, and such as arise through excesses of cold. Jupiter causes death through strangulation, pneumonia, apoplexy, spasms, headaches, and cardiac affections, and such conditions as are accompanied by irregularity or foulness of breath. Mars kills by means of fevers, 199continued or intermittent at intervals of one and a half days, sudden strokes, nephritic conditions  p431 and those that involve the spitting of blood, haemorrhages, miscarriages, childbirth, erysipelas, and pestilences, and such diseases as induce death by fever and immoderate heat. Venus causes death by stomachic, hepatic, and intestinal conditions, and furthermore through cancers, fistulas, lichens, taking poisons, and such misfortunes as come about from excess or deficiency of moisture. Mercury portends death by madness, distraction, melancholy, the falling sickness, epilepsy, diseases accompanied by coughing and raising, and all such ailments as arise from the excess or deficiency of dryness.

Thus, then, those who depart from life in the way described die natural deaths,​63 whenever the lords of death happen to be in their own or in kindred natural characters,​64 and if no planet that is able to do injury and to make the end more remarkable overcomes them. They die, however, by violent and conspicuous means whenever both the evil planets dominate the destructive places, either in conjunction, or in quartile, or in opposition, or also if one of the two, or both, 200seize upon​65 the sun, or the moon, or both the luminaries. The affliction of the death in this case arises from their junction, its magnitude  p433 from the testimony of the luminaries, and its quality, again, from the way in which the other planets regard them, and from the signs in which the evil planets are found.

For if Saturn is in quartile to the sun from a sign of the opposite sect, or is in opposition, in the solid signs he causes death by trampling in a mob, or by the noose, or by indurations, and similarly if he is setting and the moon is approaching him; in the signs that have the form of animals, he causes death by wild beasts, and if Jupiter, who is himself afflicted, bears witness to him, death in public places, or on days of celebration, in fighting with the beasts; but in ascendant, in opposition​66 to either of the luminaries, death in prison. If he is in aspect to Mercury, and particularly in the neighbourhood of the serpents​67 in the sphere, or in the terrestrial signs, he makes men die from the bites of poisonous creatures, and if Venus is present with them, by poisoning and by feminine plots; but in Virgo and Pisces, or the watery signs, if the moon is in aspect, by drowning and suffocation in water; in the neighbourhood of Argo, as the victims of shipwreck; in the tropical or four-footed signs, when [Saturn] is with the sun or is in opposition to him, or if he is  p435 with Mars instead of the sun, by being caught in the collapse of a house; 201and if they are in mid‑heaven, above or below the earth, by a fall from a height.

If Mars is quartile or in opposition to the sun or the moon, from a sign of the other sect, in the signs of human form, he causes the subjects to be slaughtered in civil factions or by the enemy, or to commit suicide, and to die because of women or as murderers of women, whenever Venus testifies to them;​68 and if Mercury also is in aspect to these, he causes death at the hands of pirates, robbers, or criminals in the mutilated and imperfect signs,​69 or in the Gorgon of Perseus, death by decapitation or mutilation; in Scorpio and Taurus, death through cautery, cutting,​70 or amputation by physicians, or death in convulsions; at mid‑heaven or the opposite point, by being set up on stakes,​71 and particularly in Cepheus and Andromeda; at the occident or in opposition to the horoscope, by being burned alive; in the quadrupedal signs, death by the collapse of houses, by breaking, or by crushing; if Jupiter also bears witness to him and is afflicted at the same time, again the subjects perish  p437 conspicuously by condemnation and through the anger of generals or kings.

If the maleficent planets are together and in this state are in opposition in some one of the aforesaid significant positions, they work together all the more for the affliction of the death. In this case the signification of the quality of the death lies with the one 202that chances to occupy the destructive place, or else the fatal occurrences are multiplied, or doubled, either in quality or in quantity, whenever both have some relation to the destructive places. Persons with such genitures are even left without burial, and are consumed by wild beasts or birds, whenever the maleficent planets chance to be in signs of such form,​72 if none of the beneficent planets is witnessing to the lower mid‑heaven or to the destructive places. Deaths occur in foreign lands if the planets that occupy the destructive places fall in the declining places,​73 and particularly whenever the moon happens to be in, or quartile to, or in opposition to, the aforesaid regions.

10. Of the Division of Times.

As we have treated systematically under its several heads the outline of each kind of inquiry only so  p439 far as to explain the general doctrine, which was our original intention, it would remain to add in the same manner any observations that should be made about the division of times, in such manner as to agree with nature and to be consistent with the specific doctrines which have already been set forth. So then, as, among all genethlialogical inquiries whatever, a more general destiny takes precedence of all particular considerations, namely, that of country of birth, 203to which the major details of a geniture are naturally subordinate, such as the topics of the form of the body, the character of the soul and the variations of manners and customs, it is also necessary that he who makes his inquiry naturally should always hold first to the primary and more authoritative cause, lest, misled by the similarity of the genitures, he should unwitting generally call, let us say, the Ethiopian white or straight-haired, and the German or Gaul black-skinned and woolly-haired, or the latter gentle in character, fond of discussion, or fond of contemplation, and the Greeks savage of soul and untutored of mind; or, again, on the subject of marriage, lest he mistake the appropriate customs and manners by assigning, for example, marriage with a sister to one who is Italian by race, instead of to the Egyptian as he should, and a marriage with his mother to this latter, though it suits the Persian. Thus in general it is needful first to apprehend universal conditions of destiny, and then to attach to them the particular conditions which relate to  p441 degree. In the same fashion likewise, dealing with the division of time, one must take as a basis in each single prediction the differences and special properties of the temporal ages, and see to it that we do not, in the ordinary, simple treatment of matters incident to the inquiry, carelessly assign to a babe action or marriage, or anything that belongs to adults, 204or to an extremely old man the begetting of children or anything else that fits younger men; but once and for all let us harmonize those details which are contemplated in temporal terms with that which is suitable and possible for persons in the various age-classes. For in the matter of the age-divisions of mankind​74 in general there is one and the same approach, which for likeness and comparison depends upon the order of the seven planets; it begins with the first age of man and with the first sphere from us, that is, the moon's, and ends with the last of the ages and the outermost of the planetary spheres, which is called that of Saturn. And in truth the accidental qualities of each of the ages are those which are naturally proper to the planet compared with it, and these it will be needful to observe, in order that by this means we may investigate the  p443 general questions of the temporal divisions, while we determine particular differences from the special qualities which are discovered in the nativities.

For up to about the fourth year, following the number which belongs to the quadriennium,​75 the moon takes over the age of infancy and produces the suppleness and lack of fixity in its body, its quick growth and the moist nature, as a rule, of its food, the changeability of its condition, and the imperfection 205and inarticulate state of its soul, suitably to her own active qualities.

In the following period of ten years, Mercury, to whom falls the second place and the second age, that of childhood, for the period which is half of the space of twenty years,​76 begins to articulate and fashion the intelligent and logical part of the soul, to implant certain seeds and rudiments of learning, and to bring to light individual peculiarities of character and faculties, awaking the soul at this stage by instruction, tutelage, and the first gymnastic exercises.

Venus, taking in charge the third age, that of youth, for the next eight years, corresponding in number to her own period, begins, as is natural, to  p445 inspire, at their maturity, an activity of the seminal passages and to implant an impulse toward the embrace of love. At this time particularly a kind of frenzy enters the soul, incontinence, desire for any chance sexual gratification, burning passion, guile, and the blindness of the impetuous lover.

The lord of the middle sphere, the sun, takes over the fourth age, which is the middle one in order, young manhood, for the period of nineteen years, wherein he implants in the soul at length the mastery and direction of its actions, desire for substance, glory, and position, 206and a change from playful, ingenuous error to seriousness, decorum, and ambition.

After the sun, Mars, fifth in order, assumes command of manhood for the space of fifteen years, equal to his own period.​77 He introduces severity and misery into life, and implants cares and troubles in the soul and in the body, giving it, as it were, some sense and notion of passing its prime and urging it, before it approaches its end, by labour to accomplish  p447 something among its undertakings that is worthy of note.

Sixth, Jupiter, taking as his lot the elderly age, again for the space of his own period, twelve years, brings about the renunciation of manual labour, toil, turmoil, and dangerous activity, and in their place brings decorum, foresight, retirement, together with all-embracing deliberation, admonition, and consolation; now especially he brings men to set store by honour, praise, and independence, accompanied by modesty and dignity.

Finally to Saturn falls as his lot old age, the latest period, which lasts for the rest of life. Now the movements 207both of body and soul are cooled and impeded in their impulses, enjoyments, desires, and speed; for the natural decline supervenes upon life, which has become worn down with age, dispirited, weak, easily offended, and hard to please in all situations, in keeping with the sluggishness of his movements.

The foregoing, then, may be taken as a preliminary description of the characteristics of the ages of life, viewed generally and in accordance with the ordinary course of nature. But as for particulars,​78 which are  p449 to be discovered from the peculiarities of the nativities, some of them again we shall base upon the general considerations already set forth, that is, upon the prorogations of greatest authority, all of them, however, and not one, as in the case of the space of life. We shall apply the prorogation from the horoscope to events relating to the body and to journeys above; that from the Lot of Fortune to matters of property; that from the moon to affections of the soul and to marriage; that from the sun to dignities and glory; that from the mid‑heaven to the other details of the conduct of life, such as actions, friendships, and the begetting of children. For thus it will come about that one beneficent or maleficent star will not be the ruler of all of them on the same occasion, for usually many contradictory events take place at the same time. One may, for example, lose a relative and receive an inheritance, 208or at once be prostrated by illness and gain some dignity and promotion, or in the midst of misfortune become the father of children, or have other experiences of this sort which are apt to occur. For it is not usual that alike in goodness or badness of body, one must by very necessity be either fortunate or, again, unfortunate in all these particulars. This, to be sure, might perhaps happen upon occasions that are completely blessed or completely unhappy, when the occourses of all the beneficent planets, or of all the maleficent planets, converge upon all or the majority of the prorogations. Rarely would this take place, however, because  p451 human nature is imperfectly adapted to either one of the extremes, but is inclined toward the balance of good and evil arising from their alternation. We shall, then, make distinctions among the prorogatory places in the manner described, and as for the stars whose occourses take place in the prorogations, we must take into account not only the destructive ones, as in the case of the length of life, but absolutely all of them, and similarly not those alone that meet the prorogation only bodily, or by opposition, or in quartile,​79 but also those that are in the trine and sextile aspects.

In the first place, we must give the ruler­ship of the times in each prorogation to the star that is actually upon the prorogatory degree or in aspect to it, or, if this condition does not exist, 209to the one that most nearly precedes, until we come to another which is in aspect with the next following degree in the order of the signs; then to this as far as the next following, and so on; and the planets which govern the terms are to be given a part of the ruler­ship. And again we must assign years to the degrees of the intervals: in the prorogation from the horoscope a number equal to the times of ascension in the latitude concerned; in the prorogation from mid‑heaven, as many as the times of the culminations; and in the prorogations from all the others, in proportion to or in accordance with the nearness of the  p453 risings, or settings, or culminations, to the angles, as we explained in the discussion of the length of life.

We shall discover the general chronocrators,​80 then, in the manner described, and the annual chronocrators by setting out from each of the prorogatory places, in the order of the signs, the number of years from birth, one year to each sign,​81 and taking the ruler of the last sign. We shall do the same thing for the months, setting out, again, the number of months from the month of birth, starting from the places that govern the year, twenty-eight days to a sign; and similarly for the days, we shall set out the number of the days from the day of birth, starting with the places which govern the months, 210two and a third days to a sign.82

We must also pay attention to the ingresses​83 which are made to the places of the times, for they play no small part in the prediction of the times of  p455 events; particularly to the ingresses of Saturn to the general places of the times, and to those of Jupiter to the places of the years; to those of the sun, Mars, Venus, and Mercury to those of the months, and to the transits of the moon to those of the days. The reason for this is that the general chronocrators have greater authority to realize the prediction, while the partial chronocrators assist or deter, in accordance with the familiarity or unfamiliarity of their natures, and the ingresses influence the degree of increase or diminution in the event. For in general the special quality and the length of time are signified by the prorogatory place and the lord of the general times together with the lord of the terms, because each one of the planets at the very time of the nativity is made familiar with the places which they happened at first to govern.

Whether the event will be good or bad is discovered from the natural and composite properties of the chronocrators, whether they are beneficent or maleficent, 211and from their original familiarity with or antipathy to the places which they possess. At what time the predicted event will be evidenced is shown by the aspects of the annual and monthly signs to the places which furnish the causes, and by the aspects of the signs into which the planets are making ingress and in which the phases of the sun​a and moon occur to the annual and monthly signs. For those whose relation to the affected places under  p457 consideration is harmonious from the beginning made in the nativity, and which in their ingresses are in favourable aspect to them, exert a good effect upon the species of the matter concerned, even as they cause evil if they oppose. And those which are inharmoniously related and of opposite sect cause evil if they are in opposition or in quartile to the transits, but not in the other aspects.

And if the same planets are lords of both the times and the ingresses, the nature of the predicted event is made excessive and unalloyed, whether it incline to the good or to the bad; all the more so if they govern the species of the cause​84 not only because they are chronocrators, but also because they ruled it originally in the nativity. The subjects are unfortunate or fortunate in all respects at once, 212whenever either all or most of the prorogations are found in one and the same place, or if these are different, whenever all or most of the occourses occurring at the same times are similarly fortunate or unfortunate. The character of the investigation of the times, then, is of this fashion.85

 p459  Conclusion according to Parisinus 2425:

by the style which agrees with the natural procedures.​86 At this point, however, the method of attacking, in particular cases, the problem of the quality of temporal predictions, with a complete account of the results, which is a complicated matter difficult of explanation, must, in accordance with our original programme, be left to the astrologer's good judgement of the matter of temperaments, for thereby he is able correctly to accommodate to specific instances the effective force of the stars' general nature. Now since the topic of nativities has been summarily reviewed, it would be well to bring this procedure also to a fitting close.

Conclusion according to MADProc.Cam.:

We shall, however, omit adding at this point​87 a detailed account of the kinds of predicted events that happen at the times, on account of the plan which I stated at the outset, namely that the effective power which the planets exercise in general situations can be made to apply similarly and consistently in particular cases also, if the cause furnished by the astrologerº and the cause arising from the mixture are combined with due skill.


The Editor's Notes:

56 The insecurity and uncertainty of travel in ancient times made it a much more serious undertaking than nowadays, and consequently the astrologers devoted much attention to it.

57 I.e. when she is in the Occident (seventh house) or the so‑called ἀποκλίματα (third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses). These and the zodiacal signs that fall upon them are the "signs that cause travel." The moon is the greatest traveller among the celestial objects. Cf. Bouché-Leclercq, p455.

58 Cf. III.4 ad fin.

59 Cf. IV.4, IV.2, III.11, and IV.3 respectively.

60 Presumably into the "signs that cause travel."

61 Cf. III.10, especially p279. The "significator," as the anonymous commentator points out, is the prorogator (ἀφέτης).

62 For the "terms," cf. I.20‑21.º

63 Literally, "by their own deaths," contrasted with violent (βίαιοι) deaths caused by some external agency. The anonymous commentator thus explains.

64 When they are in the houses of members of their own sect, says the Anonymous.

65 Apparently the word is used in the sense of "affliction" (see III.9, p267).

66 The Anonymous, p165, Wolf, explains the rare word ἀνθωροσκοπήσας thus. Melanchthon, however, took it in the opposite sense, "in the occident and opposing the luminaries."

67 The Anonymous says that he means the constellations, such as Draco and Hydra, of serpent-like form.

68 I.e. Mars and the luminaries.

69 Such as Taurus, the blind Cancer, Scorpio, Sagittarius; cf. Bouché-Leclercq, p151.

70 καῦσις and τομή were the two principal methods of ancient surgery, were often applied together, and so are frequently mentioned together, as in Plato, Rep. 406D (see Adam ad loc.).

71 I.e. crucifixion.

Thayer's Note: Not quite so certain as that; impalement may well be meant. See Livy I.26 and the Supplicium de More Maiorum (TAPA 39:49‑72). Ptolemy's text reads σταυροῖς ἀνορθουμένους.

72 That is, constellations that have the form of wild beasts or birds. The anonymous commentator cites as an instance "if the dog star (κύων) or Corvus (κόραξ) were rising at the same time," i.e. were παρανατέλλοντα (cf. Bouché-Leclercq, p125, n1).

73 The "places" (twelfths of the zodiac) may be classified as κέντρα, the angles; ἐπαναφοραί, succedents, the signs rising immediately after the angles; and ἀποκλίματα, the declining places, which follow the succedents.

74 Boll, Studien, p123, points out that this chapter, with its account of the seven ages of man, does not properly belong to the plan adopted for the Tetrabiblos and is in certain details at variance with what has preceded; e.g. (p441)there are seven ages instead of four, as in I.10, and "seven planets," although elsewhere the two luminaries are kept distinct from the five planets. We may, however, agree with his conclusion that the style of the chapter is unquestionably Ptolemaic and that it is more probably an addition by the author than an interpolation by another hand. Nevertheless, Ptolemy has probably borrowed much of this material from others, and the differences in his sources will account for apparent discrepancies. The ages of man, most familiar to us through As You Like It, II.VII, are found in many ancient writers.

75 The Anonymous says that four years is assigned to the moon because after a period of that length its phases again occur in the same degrees.

Thayer's Note: The anonymous commentator, or this interpretation of him at least, is mistaken. The return of the moon to the same phase at (very close to) the same degree does not occur every 4 years — but every 19, the so‑called Metonic cycle; as can be verified by inspection of any ephemerides.

76 Only half the period is assigned to Mercury because of the latter's double nature, according to the Anonymous.

77 As Bouché-Leclercq (p409) remarks, why fifteen years should be given as the "period" of Mars is a mystery. The synodic period of this planet is 780 days and its sidereal period 687 days. In the next paragraph twelve years, stated to be the period of Jupiter, is not far from the actual sidereal period of this planet (11.86 years) and is the measurement ordinarily given by ancient astronomers. For this astrological, not astronomical, statement about Mars cf. P. Mich. 149, col. v, 18 ff., which speaks of the "period of Mars, who returns to his original position in fifteen years" (ἐν τῷ Ἄρεως κύκλῳ, ὃς ἐν ἔτεσιν ιε′ τὴν ἀποκατάστασιν ἔχει). In the Michigan astrological treatise, however, the length of the period of Mars is associated with the age of boys at puberty rather than with the length of a division of the life of man, as in the Tetrabiblos.

78 Bouché-Leclercq, pp502 ff., discusses the following sections of this chapter, which present Ptolemy's treatment of the subject of καταρχαί, "initiatives" — the prediction of the success or failure of individual enterprises — insofar as he recognizes the theme. The general method is the same as that of III.10, but five places are taken simultaneously as prorogatives, and the planets that influence by their occourse (ὑπάντησις), which may be either bodily or by aspect, need not be merely the destructive ones, as in the prorogation discussed in III.10, but also the beneficent stars.

79 That is, not only in the harmful aspects but also in the favourable ones.

80 Literally, "masters of the times." The Anonymous (p173, Wolf) says that there are three "general chronocrators" (i.e. in each of the five general prorogations), the (p453)ἀφετης (prorogator), ὑπαντήτωρ ("the one which comes to meet" the prorogator), and ὁριοκράτωρ ("master of the term").

81 This is evidently the meaning of the text and it is so taken by the Anonymous, Proclus' Paraphrase, Gogava, and Cardanus, yet Bouché-Leclercq (p504) and Melanchthon's translation would count one year to each degree.

Thayer's Note: and this apparent translation error — I concur — in the widely available Melanchthon translation may very well have been what eventually gave rise to, or at least provided the excuse for, the late‑19c invention of "progressions", a very conveniently simple way of making more finely detailed predictions over the course of time. Ancient astrology knew nothing of this method, and used transits for such predictions, which require much more work, and, more importantly, more understanding on the part of the practitioner. As the arithmetic (and even trigonometry) involved in casting a chart can now be altogether concealed in the bowels of computers, allowing any ignoramus to get a good chart by pressing a key, transits and the related solar and lunar returns are staging a definite comeback.

82 There is dispute over the readings in this passage: the text reports what is best attested by the MSS. Bouché-Leclercq (p505, n1) would assign 30 days to a sign in laying out the number of months (so too Cardanus, but without any manuscript support), and 2½ days to a sign in the calculation of days (this reading is found in two MSS.). If "28 days" is correct, it represents roughly the length of the lunar month.

83 ἐπέμβασις, "ingress," is the time taken by a planet to pass through one sign of the zodiac; cf. Bouché-Leclercq, p506; Cardanus, p364.

84 I.e. determine the quality (good or bad) of the causation.

85 The original ending of the treatise is in doubt; see the Introduction, pp. xviii‑xx.

86 Parallels to many of the words and expressions used in the conclusion which appears in PL can be found in III.1; see the Introduction, p. xx, n1.

87 This concluding paragraph, found in MAD among the MSS. studied, seems to have been borrowed bodily from the Paraphrase of Proclus. Camerarius used it in both his editions.


Thayer's Note:

a In English at least, this makes no sense of course, since the sun cannot have phases. It does appear to translate the Greek, though: καὶ τὰς φάσεις ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης. The Ashmand translation (q.v., p142) glosses over the difficulty, translating "The mode in which the Sun and Moon may be disposed, in reference to the signs relating to annual and monthly periods, is also indicative." The simplest solution is to bracket ἡλίου καὶ, attributing the insertion of the sun here to a copyist whose writing hand got carried away, as the body will do to us, by Ptolemy's very frequent references to both luminaries together.


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