Lucian of Samosata, De astrologia, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 22

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[22] ’Tis chiefly from the verses of Homer the poet and of Hesiod that we may learn that antiquity holdeth with the astrologers. When he describeth the chain of Jupiter¹ and the kine of the Sun, which I con- ceive to be daies,² and the cities that Vulcan made upon the shield, and the choir, and the vineyard³ ... All that he hath said of Venus and of Mars his passion, is also manifestly composed from no other source than this science. Indeed, it is the conjunction of Venus and Mars that createth the poetry of Homer. And in other verses he distinguished the duties of each, saying unto Venus,

Nay, be it thine to control the delightsome duties of wedlock,

and anent those of warfare,

These shall all be the care of impetuous Mars and Minerva.

Iliad, V, 429, 430.

De astrologia. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Astrology (English) (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τῆς Ἀστρολογίας Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 5. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).) — 22 focus

[22] μάλιστα δʼ¹ ἔκ τε Ὁμήρου τοῦ ποιητέω καὶ τῶν Ἡσιόδου ἐπέων μάθοι ἄν τις τὰ πάλαι τοῖς ἀστρολογέουσιν ὁμοφωνέοντα. εὖτʼ ἂν δὲ τὴν σειρὴν τοῦ Διὸς ἀπηγέηται καὶ τοῦ Ἠελίου τὰς βόας,² τὰ δὴ ἐγὼ ἤματα εἶναι συμβάλλομαι, καὶ τὰς πόλιας τὰς ἐν τῇ ἀσπίδι Ἥφαιστος ἐποιήσατο καὶ τὸν χορὸν καὶ τὴν ἀλωήν ³ τὰ μὲν γὰρ ὁκόσα ἐς τὴν Ἀφροδίτην αὐτῷ καὶ τοῦ Ἄρεος τὴν μοιχείην λέλεκται, καὶ ταῦτα ἐμφανέα οὐκ ἄλλοθεν ἢ ἐκ τῆσδε τῆς σοφίης πεποιημένα· ἡ γὰρ δὴ ὦν Ἀφροδίτης καὶ τοῦ Ἄρεος ὁμοδρομίη τὴν Ὁμήρου ἀοιδὴν ἀπεργάζεται. ἐν ἄλλοισι δὲ ἔπεσι τὰ ἔργα ἑκάστου αὐτῶν διωρίσατο, τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ μὲν εἰπών,

ἀλλὰ σύ γʼ ἱμερόεντα μετέρχεο ἔργα γάμοιο·

τὰ δὲ τοῦ πολέμου,

ταῦτα δʼ Ἄρηι θοῷ καὶ Ἀθήνῃ πάντα μελήσει.

Notes on the current edition

Astrology

Homer, in the Iliad, VIII, 18-26: Zeus, boasting of his strength, says that if a golden “chain should be let down from heaven and all the other gods and ni agi should lay hold of it, they could not pull him down, but he could pull them up, along with the earth and the sea, fasten the chain about the peak of Olympus, and leave everything hanging. Socrates in the Theaetetus, 153A, says that by the golden chain Homer means nothing else than the sun; others, according to Hysteria (695, 9), took him to mean the orbits of the planets.

Odyssey, XI, 104 ff.; XII, 260 ff.

Iliad, XVII, 490 (the cities); 561 (the vineyard); 590 (the chorus). Following these words there appears to be a break in the text which very probably has deprived us of Lucian’s allegorical explanation. It is easy to see that the chorus would be the planetary song and dance (cf. Dance, § 7), but the astronomical significance of the cities and the vineyard is just a bit obscure.

Lucian of Samosata De astrologia 22

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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