Astrology / History

Ancient Greek

    
    Ancient Greek civilization extends back to the heroic period recorded by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and which flourished between about 1800 and 1100 B.C. This "Golden Age" of Greece went into decline under the impact of the "Dorian" invasions from the north, after 1,000 B.C. and it is only with the second wave of Greek civilization, that of "Classical" Greece, that astrology arrived in the Greek peninsular.
    
    Around 600 B.C. a remarkable growth took place in the intellect and spirit of the human race. In China Confucius and Lao Tzu, in India Buddha, in Persia Zoroaster and in Palestine Ezekiel, established the great world systems that are still the basis of modern religion. In Greece the equivalent figure was Pythagoras of Samos (born c 586-572 B.C.), still famous for his 'Pythagorean Theorem', who produced a synthesis of religion and science that was to be the basis of European thought until the 17th century, and is still the basis of the philosophy of astrology.
    
    Pythagoras and his contemporaries took all the available learning of the ancient world and set about applying it to various practical problems, such as the cause of irregular planetary orbits. It is thanks to the scientific and inquiring spirit of the Greeks that Mesopotamian star divination became the system of astrology that has persisted up to the present day. Some of the earliest references to astronomy in Greece occur in the Works and Days written by the poet Hesiod sometime before 750 B.C. Hesiod listed the days on which it was best to pursue various activities, such as harvesting grapes, and defined them according to the rising of particular stars:
    "When Orion and Sirius shall have reached mid-heaven and Arcturus shall rise with Dawn, then, oh Perses, gather your grapes and bring them home."
    
    This in itself represents an attempt to regulate agricultural practice with the seasons, but Hesiod implicitly argues that there is an appropriate time for humans to do other things, such as getting married. This attitude perhaps represents the beginning of an astrological point of view which was prepared to use celestial patterns as a guide to terrestrial patterns in all their forms.
    
    The founder of Greek astronomy is usually considered to be Thales (b. 624 B.C.), who is remembered as the founder of the Lonian School, which was based in Mellitus on the Aegean coast of Turkey. The most famous story told about Thales is that he predicted an eclipse whose effect was to halt a war between the Medes and the Lydians, who lived in Asia Minor (Turkey). The date of this eclipse was probably in 585 B.C. although the exact date is by no means certain. In Thales' action is revealed what was to be one of the great strengths of astrologers and astronomers up until the advent of modern astronomy, their ability to predict eclipses. These events were likely to have a disturbing effect on public behaviour and rulers in all cultures at all times found that it made their task considerably easier if they knew when eclipses were likely to occur. The other great strength of course was that it was only astronomers who had the necessary knowledge to regulate the calendar, and all centralising monarchs at all times have sensed the virtue of a uniform and regular calendar. Little is known of Thales, and there is even confusion as to whether he thought the Earth was flat or spherical, although the former is probably true. The genius of Thales lay in his materialism, his emphasis on gaining knowledge through observation of natural phenomena and his rejection of mythology as a means of scientific explanation. With Thales the search begins for the natural causes of celestial phenomena.

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