Planetary gods like a flock (1)

Text
In his Introduction to Arithmetic the Neopythagorean Nicomachus of Gerasa reports that “the best-qualified among the Babylonians and Ostanes” the famous Magus, “and Zoroaster” call the seven planetary spheres “herds” or “flocks” (agélai). The standard way of referring to the seven planets in Babylonian religious and astronomical texts was as “the seven sheep” (bibbi). In the seventh tablet of Enūma Eliš the planetary gods are once compared to “flock” (line 131; see CAD s.v. ṣēnu). The conversion by Greeks of the Babylonian flock of planetary sheep into planetary flocks is clearly related to the forced parallel, emphasized by Nicomachos, between the word agelai “flocks” and aggeloi “messengers, angels”.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Enūma Eliš 7.131
Nicomachus of Gerasa, Introduction to Arithmetic, 56.13-57.8

Bibliography

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001173.php