The zodiacal signs (1)

Text
The zodiacal signs were developed as a convenient measuring device for the longitudes of the planets by the Babylonians in the late 5th century BCE, and are perhaps referred to already by Plato (Phaedrus 246e-247c), though named and described first by Eudoxus (fr. 9). In later cuneiform texts appears the mini-zodiac in which each zodiacal sign is divided into twelve equal parts of 2,5⁰ each, and each of these sub-sections is called by the name of one of the twelve signs. These are the dodekatemoria used by Greek astrologers, especially in order to modify the influence of the Moon by associating it with another zodiacal sign in addition to the one it happens to occupy. Also in the Seleucid and Parthian periods, in tablets found at Uruk, there occur elements of Greek genethlialogy, such as the aspects of a native’s life influenced by the individual zodiacal signs, the masculization and feminization of the planets, and the planetary melothesia, and some traces of catarchic astrology dependent on the zodiacal sign occupied by the Moon.

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Eudoxus of Cnidus, fr. 9
Plato, Phaedrus 246e-247c

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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