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Invention of triplicities (1)

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05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore



 		Keywords
astrology
Greece
Mesopotamia
omens
Period
1st century BCE
Roman Empire 		Channel
Helleno-Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
In the Sin section of Enūma Anu Enlil, in tablet 20, lunar eclipses are associated with the four geographical directions according to four sets of three months each spaced as are the zodiacal signs in the four triplicities of the Greeks. These are the groups Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, which is associated by the Greeks with fire; Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn associated with earth; Gemini, Libra and Aquarius associated with air, and Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces associated with water. The triplicities are explicitly attributed to the Chaldeans by Geminus in his Introduction to Astronomy, who also associates them with the four cardinal directions (2.7-11 and 2.4).

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Enūma Anu Enlil 20
Geminus, Introduction to Astronomy 22.4
Geminus, Introduction to Astronomy 22.7-11

Bibliography

Pingree 1997, 28Pingree, David. From Astral Omens to Astrology. From Babylon to Bikaner. Serie Orientale Roma 78. Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente 1997.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001115.php

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