Vettius Valens of Antioch, Anthology, Book One

by Vettius Valens Antiochenus, Robert Schmidt (Translator), Robert Hand (Editor)

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Anthology of Vettius Valens, Book I by Robert Hand .................................... i
The Dodekatemorion ....................................................................................................... vii

Translator's Preface by Robert Schmidt .................................................................................... xv
General Note ................................................................................................................. xvi

The Anthology of Vettius Valens of Antioch , Book I ................................................................... 1
1. Concerning the Nature of the Stars ............................................................................. 1
2. Concerning the Nature of the Twelve Zoidia ................................................................. 7
3. Concerning the Sixty Boundaries ............................................................................... 18
4. Concerning the Horoskopos ........................................................................................ 25
5. Concerning the Midheaven ........................................................................................ 30
6. Concerning the Ascension of the Zoidia ..................................................................... 31
7. Concerning the Zoidia that See and Hear .................................................................. 33
8. Synodic Conjunctions and Whole Moons, Roughly ..................................................... 34
9. Concerning the Seven-Zoned Sphere or Sabbatical Day, Roughly ............................. 35
10. Concerning the Ruler of the Year ............................................................................. 36
11. Concerning Masculine and Feminine Degrees .......................................................... 37
12. Concerning the Lights of the Moon .......................................................................... 37
13. Concerning the Concealment of the Moon ............................................................... 38
14. Concerning the 3rd, 7th, and 40th day of the Moon ................................................ 38
15. To Roughly Find the Ascending Node ....................................................................... 39
16. Concerning the Finding of Steps and Winds of the Moon ......................................... 40
17. After Hipparchus, Concerning the Calculation of the Zoidion of the Moon ................ 41
18. Concerning the Calculation of the Other Planets ..................................................... 43
19. Concerning the Commixtures of the Stars ............................................................... 47
20. Commixture of Three Stars ...................................................................................... 52
21. Concerning Conception ............................................................................................ 61
22. Concerning Children Born in the Seventh-Month ..................................................... 64

Appendix I - Translation Conventions ...................................................................................... 66

Genres: Astrology

90 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Vettius Valens (February 8, 120 – c. 175) was a 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy.

Valens' major work is the Anthology (Latin: Anthologia), ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 to 175. The Anthology is the longest and most detailed treatise on astrology which has survived from that period. A working professional astrologer, Valens includes over a hundred sample charts from his case files in the Anthology.

Reviews

[Andrei Stinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book of Valens' Anthology is a good introduction to Hellenistic Astrology, although it sometimes feels like it's been put together of various parts that the early editors of this work didn't know for sure where else to put them. On the one hand it introduces basic concepts like planet and sign (zoidion) signification, the 60 terms, commixtures of two and three stars, and on the other hand it introduces topics like various methods of calculating an unknown ascendant, zoidion ascensions, various conception techniques etc.

One of the key features is that Vettius Valens' work does not reference Ptolemy's four qualities (moist, dry, cold and hot) hence he does not use them to explain the various concepts and techniques of Hellenistic Astrology. It is certainly interesting in this regard.

One other thing of note is that once in a while you encounter vague references to platonic philosophical concepts that give rise to the hypothesis that the early founders of Hellenistic Astrology belonged to the platonic school of thought, which is certainly an entertaining hypothesis.

All in all, it just makes me want to delve deeply into Hellenistic Astrology, as well as Platonic Philosophy.