Cuneiform horoscopes (1)

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The cuneiform horoscopes are based on the idea of applying the situation of the heavens at the moment of birth to the life and fortune of an individual. Babylonian horoscopy originates with the late Babylonian documents, all dating to the second half of first millennium. From this branch of Babylonian astrological practice developed Hellenistic Greek genethlialogy which is the basic fund of the later astrological doctrines. The Babylonian horoscopes represent a significant departure from Babylonian celestial divination, as neither the zodiac as the reference system for celestial positions, nor the personal predictions from celestial phenomena at the time of birth are found in the omen series Enūma Anu Enlil, whose concern was strictly public, i.e., matters of importance for the king and the state as a whole. Few personal predictions, however, are found in the Babylonian horoscopes, and those few are given in the form of omen apodoses familiar from nativity omens. The subject of such apodoses are generally concerned with family and fortune, such as: “he will be lacking in wealth,” “his days will be long,” “he will have sons,” or, “he will have sons and daughters.”

The scholarly tradition underlying the development of horoscopy, therefore, can be seen as a combination of the tradition of celestial divination as represented first by the omen series Enūma Anu Enlil, which always retained its concern with public matters (king and state), second, the tradition of birth omens, in which the birth had mantic significance in the way of any action occurring on a certain month and day, just as is seen in menologies and hemerologies (Iqqur īpuš 64), and finally, the personal divination such as is represented by the physiognomic series. In this way, the Babylonian “horoscope” may be seen as an outgrowth from a complex foundation of interrelated mantic forms: the date-of-birth omen, the personal omen, the celestial omen and the nativity omen. The resemblance of cuneiform horoscopes to Greek horoscopes is quite superficial, although the basic idea of predicting an individual’s life based on the positions of planets in the hour of birth is essential to each. The Babylonian horoscopes do not attest to the Greek idea of the “horoscopus,” or rising point of the ecliptic at the moment of birth. By extension neither do they attest to the recognition of the other so-called “centers” (kéntra), such as the setting point, midheaven or lower midheaven, all of which appear in the Greek horoscopes.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Iqqur īpuš 64

Bibliography

Francesca Rochberg

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