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G: Greek Constellations
14: Sphaera Barbarica and Sphaera Graecanica
Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac.' Outside the central roundel there are 2 rings, the inner ring containing the dodekaoros and the outer ring the Greek zodiac.
'Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac'
Roman-period Greek zodiac that is loosely called the 'Zodiac of Cairo' or the 'Daressy Zodiac.' The marble plaque (also described as a disk or slab, and made of bronze) was sighted by Georges Daressy in an antiquities dealer's shop Cairo prior to 1901. (It has also been described as being found by Georges Daressy in (a) Cairo market at the beginning of the 20th-century.) Georges Daressy (1864-1938) was a leading French Egyptologist. The Daressy Zodiac remains one of the few extant examples of an Egyptian zodiac (Dodekaoros) from Roman times. (Another example is the 18th-century planisphere of the Italian philosopher and scientist Francesco Bianchini.) The Daressy Zodiac is now lost in that its present location remains unknown. What we have is a squeeze that was made by Georges Daressy. The squeeze is now kept in the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo.
The dodekaoros was a system of 36 "decans' according to which 3 "paranatellonta" were attached to each sign of the zodiac. Also, each zodiacal sign was divided into 12 equal parts or dodecatemories. The 'Daressy Zodiac' follows the the Egyptian tradition in that it includes the dodekaoros.
Depicted on the Daressy Zodiac are the Greek zodiacal signs and associated animals according to a doctrine called "Dodekaoros." (The astrological doctrine of Dodekaoros is known to us from the writings of the astrologer Teucrus (circa 1st-century BCE) and the Byzantine astrologer Rhetorios (circa 600 CE).) There are 2 concentric bands enclosing a central area. Depicted in the central area are busts of the sun (Sol) as Apollo and the moon (Luna) as Phoebe (with a bow); and a snake(?). The outer band has the clockwise depiction of the signs of the Greek zodiac. The inner band has 12 animals depicted. Twelve radial lines divide the bands into 12 individual sectors. In his book Sphaera (1903) the German philologist Franz Boll showed that the inner band contains representations of animals that are associated with the zodiacal signs according to an astrological doctrine called "Dodekaoros."
The pairs pictorially depicted (juxtapositioned) on the Daressy Zodiac are:
Aries (ram (with belt): cat (sitting),
Taurus (bull): dog, (or jackal)
Gemini (twins (man and woman): serpent,
Cancer (crab): scarabaeus/crab,
Leo (lion): donkey/ass,
Virgo (virgin): lion (walking),
Libra (balance (borne by a man): goat (or gazelle),
Scorpio (scorpion): bull/ox,
Sagittarius (archer (centaur)): falcon,
Capricorn (goatfish): baboon/ape,
Aquarius (waterman): ibis,
Pisces (fishes): crocodile.
The dodekaoros circle follows the description given by the astrologer Teucrus.
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' or 'Tabula Bianchini,' a marble astrological table. The illustration above was included as 1 of 22 engravings (plates) in l'Origine de tous les cultes ou religion universelle by Charles-François Dupuis (1795) with the title/description 'Planisphere astrologique de style Egyptian.' The centre of the system is drawn on the pole of the ecliptic (with the constellation Draco or Dragon), not on the pole of the equator (with the constellation Ursa Major) because the Sun's passage through the sky along the ecliptic is the relevant path for the system of astrology. The separation of the 2 bear constellations is accurately represented in the central roundel. Around the central roundel are a series of concentric bands (rings). From the centre outwards the bands contain: (1) the dodekaoros (i.e., the Egyptian zodiacal signs), (2) and (3) the Greek zodiacal signs repeated in 2 identical bands, (4) the 36 decans (i.e., the guardians of each third of each sign, of Egyptian origin like the dodekaoros), and (5) the planetary deities corresponding to each decan.
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' (or 'Tabula Bianchini')
'Planisphaerium Bianchini' (or 'Tabula Bianchini') now held in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. It is a remaining fragment of a largely damaged Roman (Egyptian-Roman) planisphere dated to the 2nd- or 3rd-century CE incorporating the Sphaera Barbarica (i.e., Greek, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian (zodiacal) constellations). (It appears that it was an astrological dicing board.) The artifact is made of marble. It was found in fragments in 1705 (1708?) on Mount Aventin (the Aventine Hill) in Rome and given to the French Academy by Francesco Bianchini.
It basically presents 3 circular zodiacs side-by-side. Depicted in the centre are the 2 Bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) and the intertwined Dragon (Draco). (The centre of the system is drawn on the pole of the ecliptic and, from the nature of the depiction, is obviously located in alpha Draconis. This placement is a concept within the scheme of the Sphaera Barbarica and is devoid of any precessional concept. That said, whilst the pole of the equator moves due to precession the stars in the region of the pole of the ecliptic are not subject to precessional movement. In the Classical Graeco-Roman sky sky the coils of Draco entwine the pole of the ecliptic.) There are then 4 concentric bands and an outermost ring of figures. The figures comprising a "Chaldean" zodiac are depicted in the first circle (i.e., the 12 animals of the Dodecahōros Chaldaikē). Two identical Greek zodiacs are depicted in bands 2 and 3 - meaning evidently the fixed and the movable ecliptic distinguished by Ptolemy and coinciding accurately as they were at the instant of the creation. (This dates the item to no earlier than the the 2nd-century CE.) We then have a zone of Greek numerals giving the oria or limits of the planetary influences in the several signs of the zodiac. The figures in the fourth band (the second most outer ring of depicted figures) depict the Egyptian decans, the Graeco-Egyptian names of each one inscribed below the figure. On the outermost ring, outside of the fourth band, we have the prosōpa, facies (= faces/persons) depicted. These faces are loosely the Greek decans. (The interpretation by Robert Eisler is they are the faces of the 7 planetary gods repeated again and again, in the septizonium order, each one co-ordinated with one of the decans.) On the planisphere each of the Egyptian decans is associated with a planetary ruler (dignitary) prosōpa, facies. Lines drawn from the circumference of the central circle, through the limits of the zodiacal signs, divide the whole planisphere into 12 sectors. In each of the 4 corners (extremities) the winged heads of the 4 main winds are depicted.
The Italian polymath and Vatican courtier Francesco Bianchini was a noted antiquarian and director of antiquities in Rome. However, he is largely forgotten today. He was born in Verona (Northern Italy), studied in Bologna and Padua, and in 1684 permanently transferred his residence to Rome and became part of the scholarly circle there. He achieved high levels of church patronage through a combination of family connections, fortunate circumstances, and his demonstrated intellectual ability. (His enormous breadth of learning included expert knowledge of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and the natural sciences.) Throughout his life Francesco Bianchini remained financially dependent on the Roman Curia. On arriving in Rome he immediately found a patron in Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (later Pope Alexander VIII (1689-1691)) and became custodian of his library. He also held minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church. He studied theology and in 1699 achieved deaconship but never progressed to ordination as a priest. As presidente delle antichità di Roma (to which he was elected in 1703) he was enormously influential in the Vatican museums and also in the archaeological excavations in the Papal States. He was especially interested in the transmission of knowledge through images which functioned both as a form of illustration (historical evidence) and as a mnemotic aid (memory aid). During the course of several journeys in Europe he traveled with a wagon-load of scientific instruments.
Franz Boll (Sphaera (1903), Page 303) reproduces a similar fragment, now lost, known only through an old engraving by the French antiquarian Nicolas Peirese (1580-1637) that was later reproduced in a book by the French Benedictine monk and scholar Bernard Montfaucon (1655-1741).
The Sphaera Babarica
After the traditional Greek constellations were established some Graeco-Roman astrologers began modifying the constellation set by introducing foreign (non-Greek) constellations and stars, both Babylonian and Egyptian, into the Greek scheme of constellations. (The Greek zodiac, however, was basically left unchanged.) This Sphaera Barbarica has been described as a kind of parasite on the Sphaera Graecanica. It eventually came to rival the Sphaera Graecanica.
The Sphaera Barbarica means the "sky-map of the foreigners" (predominantly Babylonian and Egyptian) and the Sphaera Graecanica means the "sky-map of the Greeks." The Sphaera Graecanica was based on the 12 zodiacal constellations. Construction of a Sphaera Barbarica in antiquity was carried out from the 2nd-century BCE onwards. In Hellenistic times the non-Greek constellations were still well-known. It is doubtful whether there was a definitive Greek Sphaera. The Greek astronomer Eudoxus in the 4th-century BCE and the Greek poet Aratus in the 3rd-century BCE laid the basis of a Greek celestial picture-atlas. However, it was the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2nd-century BCE who first defined the outlines of the constellations systematically in terms of individual stars identified by coordinates. Hipparchus basically followed the constellation scheme of Eudoxus and Aratus. The Greek Sphaera which was passed down to the West was that of the Hellenized astronomer Ptolemy (2nd-century CE), which owed much to Hipparchus. No addition was made to it until the 17th-century CE.
In the 1st-century BCE the Roman senator and astrologer Nigidius Figulus (circa 100-45 BCE) wrote his 2 books (now lost) on the Sphaera Barbarica and the Sphaera Graecanica. (Note: Perhaps a single book Sphaera graecanica et sphaera barbarica.) The Sphaera Barbarica dealt with the pre-Greek nomenclature of the stars and constellations, mostly Mesopotamian and Egyptian in origin. (It is most likely that there were two "barbaric" constellation schemes, a Mesopotamian one and an Egyptian one.) Teucrus the Babylonian (circa 1st-century BCE (circa 1st-century CE?)) also wrote a basic work (now lost) on the Sphaera Barbarica. Traces of the Sphaera Barbarica also exist in the astrological writings of Marcus Manilius (circa 1st-century CE), of Vettius Valens (circa 2nd-century CE), of Antiochos of Athens (circa 2nd-century CE), and Firmicus Maternus (circa 4th-century CE). The fact of the Sphaera Barbarica being encountered in the astrological writings of Firmicus Maternus demonstrates that its progress into oblivion was not rapid.
Teucrus is (first?) called "the Babylonian" by the Greek philosopher Porphyrius (circa 270 CE). It is generally accepted that "Babylon" presumably designated Seleukeia on the Tigris. The historian Robert Eisler suggested (without evidence) that "Babylon" referred to the fortress-town of this names in Egypt (near Cairo).
Most of our knowledge about non-Greek constellations and star names comes from extant fragments of the Latin book on the Sphaera Barbarica by Nigidius Figulus. Figulus seems to have dealt methodically with both the Greek and "barbaric" constellations. However, Teucrus also transmitted many names of the Sphaera Barbarica. The Sphaera Barbarica seems to have been a composite of Mesopotamian constellations and Egyptian constellations. (Additional information about this syncretic "barbaric" constellation scheme is contained in Greek astrological texts, especially those of the first and second centuries CE.)
Prior to the time of Claudius Ptolemy (circa 85 - circa 165) a system of paranatellonta was developed that could be used to tell the hours of the night when the signs of the zodiac were hidden. Paranatellonta (or synanatellonta) are stars which rise at the same time as a given zodiacal sign, or bright stars such as Regulus or Sirius. Teucrus laid stress on the decans and their paranatellonta. The use of these paranatellonta for astrological purposes has been ascribed to Teucrus but is undoubtedly earlier. In the Sphaera Barbarica Figulus gave for each of the 360 degrees of the ecliptic the astral forecasts based on the character of the stars "rising together" (paranatellontes). (The references to constellations, in particular their simultaneous risings and settings, make it possible to distinguish between two different sets of uranography - a Sphaera Barbarica and a Sphaera Graecanica.)
Evidence for direct constellation borrowing from Mesopotamian is almost non-existent. During the Hellenistic period it is possible that Berossus and some Chaldaean contemporaries made the Babylonian sphaera familiar to the Greeks. It is possible that Babylonian uranography was passed to the Greeks through particular intermediaries such as the Phoenicians and Egyptians. In the early Ptolemaic period Hellenistic scholars were involved in the mass-translation of Egyptian texts into Greek and would have encountered the Egyptian sphaera.
The ultimate success of the Sphaera Graecanica (i.e., its complete acceptance by the Greek world and later the Roman world was largely due to the work of the Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus (4th-century BCE) and the Greek poet Aratus of Soli (3rd-century BCE). Eudoxus constellated and catalogued the entire Greek sky in his works Enoptron and Phaenomena. Aratus later turned these works into an astronomical poem concerning the constellations. The Phaenomena became hugely popular in the Graeco-Roman world. Without this popularisation by Aratus the works of Eudoxus may never have exerted the lasting influence they achieved.
The first major modern work devoted to elucidating the Sphaera Barbarica was the classic book-length study Sphaera by the German philologist Franz Boll (1903). Perhaps the next most important study of the Sphaera Barbarica is the monograph-length study forming the last section of the Introduction to the book Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, III, Volumes 1-2: Manuscripts in English Libraries by Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Edited by Harry Bober (1953, 2 Volumes).
Antonio Panaino has pointed out Teucrus' work was very important in the transmission of the astrological system of the decans. (This astrological system of decans (involving the subdivision of the zodiac into 36 decans, each decan of 10 degrees length, with 3 decans per constellation (sign)) also included the so-called paranatellonta (those constellations rising on the eastern horizon simultaneously with a certain decan).) The writings of Teucrus later influenced the Arabs. In his Sphaera (1903) Franz Boll showed that the Persian astrologer Abū Ma'shar (Latin name: Albumasar) (circa 787-886 CE) used a (Middle) Persian translation (or rearrangement) (made in 542 CE under Xusraw Anōširwān) of the Sphaera Barbarica of Teucrus the Babylonian in the writing of his Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum (Latin title: Introductorium maius). Abū Ma'shar also used Indian sources, derived from the 6th-century CE Indian astronomer Varāhamihira, about the iconography of the decans. (Varāhamihira had in turn used the Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja (a 3rd-century CE Indian astrologer) which was a versification of a 2nd-century CE Sanskit translation of a Greek-Alexandrian astrological text.) In his book Abū Ma'shar Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum also linked astrology to both Neoplatonic Aristotelianism and to Hermeticism. (The titles of Latin translations of key books by Abū Ma'shar are: Flores astrologiae (1488), Introductorium maius (1489), Introductorium in astronomiam (1489), and De magnis conjunctionibus (1489).) In this way Abū Ma'shar is an important source for early Hellenistic constellation lore. Abū Ma'shar was also the father of European Medieval and Renaissance astrology. (Abū Ma'shar was born in northern Afghanistan and settled permanently in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph al-Ma'mum (813-833).) For scholars in western Europe the principal source of scientific astrology was the Graeco-Roman tradition of Ptolemy.
The Egyptian iconography of the decans, modified with Indian and Sasanian elements, was transferred through the Arabic work of Abū Ma'shar Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum (Latin title: Introductorium maius) to Spain, and then to France. A Latin translation of the treatise Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum was completed by Hermann of Dalmatia in 1143 CE. An abridgement based on this version was made in the second half of the 12th-century CE by Georgius Fendulus. Numerous copies of both Latin manuscripts were made and circulated in Europe. The Egyptian iconography of the decans in Introductorium maius finally became embedded in the book Astrolabium planum by Pietro d'Abano (a famous Italian physician, philosopher, and astrologer; circa 1257-circa 1316). The 14th-century CE program of decoration of the so-called Salone (begun in 1306) in the Palazzo della Ragione (Padua's massive secular and civil centre) was inspired by the Sphaera Barbarica and astrological concepts in Astrolabium planum. Later, the Sphaera Barbarica and astrological concepts in Astrolabium planum also played an important role in the decoration (begun in 1470) of the Salone dei Mesi at the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. (The series of allegorical frescoes in each building each depict the concept of the "yearly astrological cycle" and comprise a compendium of symbolic, astrological, religious, scientific, and philosophical beliefs of the Middle Ages.)
The Sphaera Barbarica did not obtain wide popularity in western Europe and interest in it remained within the domain of specialist scholars. There were 3 different iconographic schemes for illustrated versions of the Sphaera Barbarica. The most common iconographic scheme involved the depiction of the Persian, Indian, and Graeco-Roman spheres in separate strips placed one above the other. (MS M.785 (A Latin translation, circa 1400, of a work originating from Abū Ma'shar) now in the Pierpont Morgan Library is a typical example. The Sphaera Persica (i.e., Sphaera Barbarica) appears in the top register, the Sphaera Indica appears in the middle register, and the Sphaera Graeca appears in the lower register.) This artistic tradition originated with manuscripts produced in southern Italy in the 12th-century CE and continued through to the 15th-century CE. The illustrations accompanied the translated Latin text of Introductorium maius by Abū Ma'shar and were primarily for manuscripts made for the (educated and/or wealthy) layperson.
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