Chaldean theory of the sky (1)

Text
Diodorus Siculus 2.30.6-7:
Under the course in which these planets move are situated, according to them (= Chaldeans), thirty stars, which they designate as “counselling gods”; of these one half oversee the regions above the earth and the other half those beneath the earth, having under their purview the affairs of mankind and likewise those of the heavens; and every ten days one of the stars above is sent as a messenger, so to speak, to the stars below, and again in like manner one of the stars below the earth to those above, and this movement of theirs is fixed and determined by means of an orbit which is unchanging for ever. Twelve of these gods, they say, hold chief authority, and to each of these the Chaldeans assign a month and one of the signs of the zodiac, as they are called. And through the midst of these signs, they say, both the sun and moon and the five planets make their course, the sun completing his cycle in a year and the moon traversing her circuit in a month.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Diodorus Siculus 2.30.6-7

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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