Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
7th century CE
trans. Giuseppe Furlani and Jason Colavito
1917/2025
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NOTE |
This highly unusual anonymous tract attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite offers a unique window into Late Antique astronomical, meteorological, and cosmological views. It bears a resemblance to the ideas presented in the Book of Enoch but has many aspects found nowhere else. Of particular interest is the author's view of the monsters of the subterranean sea and some of the astrological references. The text dates from approximately a century after the Greek works in the corpus of Pseudo-Dionysius and was written originally in Syriac. The manuscript proper I reproduce from the 1917 translation of Giuseppe Furlani, whose introduction and analysis I also reproduce in part. To this, I have appended the supplemental treatise on astrology attached to the original treatise and likely by the same hand, in my translation from the 1907 French edition of M. A. Kugener. I have included selections from Kugener's introduction and a few of his footnotes to the supplemental tract.
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A SYRIAC ASTRONOMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL TREATISE
ATTRIBUTED TO DIONYUS THE AREOPAGITE
INTRODUCTION
By M. A. KUGENER
THE MANUSCRIPT.
The Syriac manuscript add. 7192 (formerly Rich 7192) in the British Museum contains, among other writings, all of little length, an astronomical and meteorological treatise attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, that is, to Dionysius the False Areopagite. In the Rosen and Forshall catalog, this manuscript is dated to the 10th century. This date is clearly too late, and we must, following Wright, the great English orientalist who knew Syriac manuscripts so well, replace the 10th century with the seventh. The manuscript is on parchment; it is written in two columns in beautiful estrangelo (Syriac) characters. [...]
DATE OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE TREATISE.
We have seen that the manuscript which has preserved for us the treatise attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, add. 7192, was from the seventh century AD. The state in which the text of the treatise has come down to us, obliges us to admit some intermediaries between our manuscript and that of the author. We can therefore date the original manuscript back to the sixth century. If we take into account, on the other hand, that the attribution of our treatise to Dionysius the Areopagite supposes the diffusion of the writings of this forger in Syria, a diffusion which took place at the beginning of the sixth century, we will place, with great probability, the date of the composition of the treatise around the middle of the sixth century AD. It may be supposed, it is true, that our treatise was not put under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite by its author himself, but later by some reader, and that it might consequently be earlier than the Pseudo-Areopagite. This supposition, if it were well-founded, would hardly alter the date which we assign to the composition of the treatise, which must have been written after the introduction of Greek science into Mesopotamia, that is to say, in the 5th or 6th century AD.
THE AUTHOR OF THE TREATISE.
The treatise provides no direct information about the personality of its author. It is certain, however, that he was Syrian by origin: the purity of his language leaves no doubt on this subject. On the other hand, if it is clear from chapters V and VII that he was a Christian; the whole treatise gives the impression that he was neither a priest nor a monk. He never invokes the authority of the Bible, and never makes God play the role of deus ex machina. The bishop of Tikrit, Jacob bar Shakko, who, in the 13th century, made several borrowings from our treatise, seems to have been shocked by this “areligious” character; he toned it down, by bringing in the divinity on several occasions.
Our author does not like Greek science, that is, pagan Greek science, especially that of Aristotle. He openly attacks it at the end of the first chapter: “ Moreover, they made light before darkness, and after being ashamed of what they had said, they piled error upon error, saying that darkness is not a thing created or made. Moreover, they increased the error, attributing eternity to darkness. Is something that is neither created nor made eternal? The Greeks also mix error with all durations of revolution.” It is again Greek science that he attacks at the end of chapter IV regarding Aristotle’s theory on the formation of clouds: “And they (these scholars) were foolish enough to say that the clouds raise their waters from the sea, while they are the sources of the waters, that in them they are conceived, and that from them they are born.” Now, as Greek science, which our author combats, was much cultivated in Edessa from the 5th century AD, and on the other hand, the dualistic system of Persian origin with its two principles: light and darkness, which the author seems to defend at the end of the first chapter, must have been very widespread in this city, we can attribute, in all appearances, the composition of the treatise to a layman from Edessa, very attached to the common science of his time, that is to say, of the 6th century AD.
WHY THE TREATISE COULD HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DIONYUS THE AREOPAGITE.
It may seem strange, at first glance, that a Syriac astronomical and meteorological treatise, which is not translated from Greek, should have been attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. This attribution is, however, very easily explained. Dionysius the Areopagite relates in his letter to Polycarp that he was in Heliopolis with a certain Apollophanes when the Sun was darkened for three hours at the death of Christ. Struck by this unusual darkening, Apollophanes is said to have said to Dionysius, as it were predicting the future: “These, my dear Dionysius, are changes in divine things.”
Dionysius’s biographers amplified this forger’s account and, in a piquant detail, subjected it to the fate of many historical accounts: they interpolated and falsified them.
Michael Syncellus recounts, according to a tradition he traces back to his father, that Dionysius, when he saw the strange phenomenon that accompanied Christ’s agony, rose above human thought and cried out: “The Unknown God suffers in the flesh; it is because of him that everything has been covered with darkness and shaken.” Michael adds that Dionysius immediately noted the time at which the extraordinary darkening of the Sun occurred, and that later, when he heard Saint Paul declare, in the midst of the Areopagus, that the Unknown God to whom the Athenians had dedicated an altar was the God he was announcing, he received these words as words from heaven, and immediately left paganism to attach himself to the apostle of the Gentiles.
Such a remarkable prediction could not fail to become famous, and was more than enough to make Dionysius the Areopagite a great astronomer. It is therefore not surprising to see it mentioned often, nor to read in the biography of Dionysius by Michael Syncellus that Dionysius, among other scientific titles, had that of being “a very great observer of astronomical phenomena.”
From what we have just seen, a Greek astronomical and meteorological treatise could, without any difficulty, be attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. But is the same true of a Syriac astronomical and meteorological treatise? Yes.
There is now a general consensus that the composition of the writings of (Pseudo-) Dionysius the Areopagite dates from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 6th century AD. Now, “shortly after their appearance, these books were translated from Greek into Syriac by Sergius of Reschaina (d. 536) and they spread throughout Syria, where they were read and commented on by the Monophysites.” Accessible to Syrians from the beginning of the 6th century, the work of Dionysius not only gave rise to commentaries in Syria, but also gave rise to new Areopagitic writings: one of these is the treatise we are publishing today; another, to focus on those that are still unpublished, is a curious autobiography of the Pseudo-Areopagite. […]
POPULARITY OF THE TREATISE IN SYRIA.
Our author’s treatise seems to have enjoyed a certain vogue in Syria. We have found a passage from it in the Catena Patrum of the monk Severus, and several excerpts in the Book of Treasures of Jacob (or Severos) bar Shakko.
The monk Severus composed his catena in 861, based on Saint Ephrem’s commentary on the Old Testament, which has only survived in its original form for Genesis and part of Exodus, on Jacob of Edessa’s commentary and scholia on the Scriptures, and on an anonymous Hexameron. It is from this anonymous Hexameron that the excerpt from our treatise that appears in Severus’s Catena is taken. The Hexameron in question is not known to us; perhaps it is that of Moses bar Kepha (circa 813-903), which is preserved in Syriac ms. 241 of the Bibliothèque nationale.
Jacob the Great, who took the name Severos upon becoming Bishop of Tikrit, wrote his Book of Treasures in 1231. The fourth part, relating to cosmography and geography, contains excerpts borrowed from our treatise. Jacob the Great, like the monk Severus, quotes them secondhand. He does not attribute them to Dionysius, but to anonymous authors. One of these borrowings is preceded by the words: “Some say,” and another by the words: “Certain writers.” In Jacob the Great, as we have already said, our author’s conceptions took on a more religious form. It was God, according to Jacob the Great, who decided that four winds would surround the Sun’s sphere and regulate its course. It is at God’s command that the storehouse of violent wind that causes solar eclipses is opened. Finally, while for Dionysius there is nothing beneath the darkness of the earth, Jacob bar Shakko places there the will of God “on which the world rests.” […]
The Syriac manuscript add. 7192 (formerly Rich 7192) in the British Museum contains, among other writings, all of little length, an astronomical and meteorological treatise attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, that is, to Dionysius the False Areopagite. In the Rosen and Forshall catalog, this manuscript is dated to the 10th century. This date is clearly too late, and we must, following Wright, the great English orientalist who knew Syriac manuscripts so well, replace the 10th century with the seventh. The manuscript is on parchment; it is written in two columns in beautiful estrangelo (Syriac) characters. [...]
DATE OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE TREATISE.
We have seen that the manuscript which has preserved for us the treatise attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, add. 7192, was from the seventh century AD. The state in which the text of the treatise has come down to us, obliges us to admit some intermediaries between our manuscript and that of the author. We can therefore date the original manuscript back to the sixth century. If we take into account, on the other hand, that the attribution of our treatise to Dionysius the Areopagite supposes the diffusion of the writings of this forger in Syria, a diffusion which took place at the beginning of the sixth century, we will place, with great probability, the date of the composition of the treatise around the middle of the sixth century AD. It may be supposed, it is true, that our treatise was not put under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite by its author himself, but later by some reader, and that it might consequently be earlier than the Pseudo-Areopagite. This supposition, if it were well-founded, would hardly alter the date which we assign to the composition of the treatise, which must have been written after the introduction of Greek science into Mesopotamia, that is to say, in the 5th or 6th century AD.
THE AUTHOR OF THE TREATISE.
The treatise provides no direct information about the personality of its author. It is certain, however, that he was Syrian by origin: the purity of his language leaves no doubt on this subject. On the other hand, if it is clear from chapters V and VII that he was a Christian; the whole treatise gives the impression that he was neither a priest nor a monk. He never invokes the authority of the Bible, and never makes God play the role of deus ex machina. The bishop of Tikrit, Jacob bar Shakko, who, in the 13th century, made several borrowings from our treatise, seems to have been shocked by this “areligious” character; he toned it down, by bringing in the divinity on several occasions.
Our author does not like Greek science, that is, pagan Greek science, especially that of Aristotle. He openly attacks it at the end of the first chapter: “ Moreover, they made light before darkness, and after being ashamed of what they had said, they piled error upon error, saying that darkness is not a thing created or made. Moreover, they increased the error, attributing eternity to darkness. Is something that is neither created nor made eternal? The Greeks also mix error with all durations of revolution.” It is again Greek science that he attacks at the end of chapter IV regarding Aristotle’s theory on the formation of clouds: “And they (these scholars) were foolish enough to say that the clouds raise their waters from the sea, while they are the sources of the waters, that in them they are conceived, and that from them they are born.” Now, as Greek science, which our author combats, was much cultivated in Edessa from the 5th century AD, and on the other hand, the dualistic system of Persian origin with its two principles: light and darkness, which the author seems to defend at the end of the first chapter, must have been very widespread in this city, we can attribute, in all appearances, the composition of the treatise to a layman from Edessa, very attached to the common science of his time, that is to say, of the 6th century AD.
WHY THE TREATISE COULD HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO DIONYUS THE AREOPAGITE.
It may seem strange, at first glance, that a Syriac astronomical and meteorological treatise, which is not translated from Greek, should have been attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. This attribution is, however, very easily explained. Dionysius the Areopagite relates in his letter to Polycarp that he was in Heliopolis with a certain Apollophanes when the Sun was darkened for three hours at the death of Christ. Struck by this unusual darkening, Apollophanes is said to have said to Dionysius, as it were predicting the future: “These, my dear Dionysius, are changes in divine things.”
Dionysius’s biographers amplified this forger’s account and, in a piquant detail, subjected it to the fate of many historical accounts: they interpolated and falsified them.
Michael Syncellus recounts, according to a tradition he traces back to his father, that Dionysius, when he saw the strange phenomenon that accompanied Christ’s agony, rose above human thought and cried out: “The Unknown God suffers in the flesh; it is because of him that everything has been covered with darkness and shaken.” Michael adds that Dionysius immediately noted the time at which the extraordinary darkening of the Sun occurred, and that later, when he heard Saint Paul declare, in the midst of the Areopagus, that the Unknown God to whom the Athenians had dedicated an altar was the God he was announcing, he received these words as words from heaven, and immediately left paganism to attach himself to the apostle of the Gentiles.
Such a remarkable prediction could not fail to become famous, and was more than enough to make Dionysius the Areopagite a great astronomer. It is therefore not surprising to see it mentioned often, nor to read in the biography of Dionysius by Michael Syncellus that Dionysius, among other scientific titles, had that of being “a very great observer of astronomical phenomena.”
From what we have just seen, a Greek astronomical and meteorological treatise could, without any difficulty, be attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite. But is the same true of a Syriac astronomical and meteorological treatise? Yes.
There is now a general consensus that the composition of the writings of (Pseudo-) Dionysius the Areopagite dates from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 6th century AD. Now, “shortly after their appearance, these books were translated from Greek into Syriac by Sergius of Reschaina (d. 536) and they spread throughout Syria, where they were read and commented on by the Monophysites.” Accessible to Syrians from the beginning of the 6th century, the work of Dionysius not only gave rise to commentaries in Syria, but also gave rise to new Areopagitic writings: one of these is the treatise we are publishing today; another, to focus on those that are still unpublished, is a curious autobiography of the Pseudo-Areopagite. […]
POPULARITY OF THE TREATISE IN SYRIA.
Our author’s treatise seems to have enjoyed a certain vogue in Syria. We have found a passage from it in the Catena Patrum of the monk Severus, and several excerpts in the Book of Treasures of Jacob (or Severos) bar Shakko.
The monk Severus composed his catena in 861, based on Saint Ephrem’s commentary on the Old Testament, which has only survived in its original form for Genesis and part of Exodus, on Jacob of Edessa’s commentary and scholia on the Scriptures, and on an anonymous Hexameron. It is from this anonymous Hexameron that the excerpt from our treatise that appears in Severus’s Catena is taken. The Hexameron in question is not known to us; perhaps it is that of Moses bar Kepha (circa 813-903), which is preserved in Syriac ms. 241 of the Bibliothèque nationale.
Jacob the Great, who took the name Severos upon becoming Bishop of Tikrit, wrote his Book of Treasures in 1231. The fourth part, relating to cosmography and geography, contains excerpts borrowed from our treatise. Jacob the Great, like the monk Severus, quotes them secondhand. He does not attribute them to Dionysius, but to anonymous authors. One of these borrowings is preceded by the words: “Some say,” and another by the words: “Certain writers.” In Jacob the Great, as we have already said, our author’s conceptions took on a more religious form. It was God, according to Jacob the Great, who decided that four winds would surround the Sun’s sphere and regulate its course. It is at God’s command that the storehouse of violent wind that causes solar eclipses is opened. Finally, while for Dionysius there is nothing beneath the darkness of the earth, Jacob bar Shakko places there the will of God “on which the world rests.” […]
INTRODUCTION
By GIUSEPPE FURLANI
The small cosmological tract I here publish, and which is attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, I have taken from the MS. marked 7192 Rich., now Add. 7192, of the British Museum. This is a MS. in quarto on vellum, containing not more than seventy-six folios, and belongs probably, so far as we can judge from the good esṭrangĕlô chacter in which it is written, to the eighth century. The treatise begins on f. 57c—there are two columns of thirty-one lines on every page—and ends on f. 63b at the bottom. It is followed by another tract from the hand of the same author—the contents and the style, and especially the concluding lines which are nearly identical to the last ones of the tract we publish, at least point to the same author. It is an anti-astrological and anti-magical tract, as it undertakes to demonstrate that divination by means of the "stars, the zodiacal signs, the horoscopes, the fortunes, the chances, the hours, the convulsions, the auguries, the divinations, and all the deception of the Chaldæans, sons of deception" is not to be relied upon, and is contradictory the facts that daily observation affords us.
The MS. is, in the part at least we treat of, well preserved. Only column a of f. 58 is a little indistinct, but nowhere is the reading rendered difficult. The inscription and the words we have underlined are written with red ink. On the margin of f. 58c something has been written by some reader, but subsequently it has been erased.
The tract is attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, for reasons easily to be understood. It is impossible for us to discern whether the author of this tract himself is the cause of the pseudo-epigraphy or whether some copyist or reader has added the false attribution.
It presents a certain interest, as it is the first Syriac tract we know that bears a very strict connexion with the apocryphical book of Enoch, and is able to throw some light on the sources of "the book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries" that forms chapters lxxii-lxxxii of the aforesaid book.
The MS. is, in the part at least we treat of, well preserved. Only column a of f. 58 is a little indistinct, but nowhere is the reading rendered difficult. The inscription and the words we have underlined are written with red ink. On the margin of f. 58c something has been written by some reader, but subsequently it has been erased.
The tract is attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, for reasons easily to be understood. It is impossible for us to discern whether the author of this tract himself is the cause of the pseudo-epigraphy or whether some copyist or reader has added the false attribution.
It presents a certain interest, as it is the first Syriac tract we know that bears a very strict connexion with the apocryphical book of Enoch, and is able to throw some light on the sources of "the book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries" that forms chapters lxxii-lxxxii of the aforesaid book.
THE MANUSCRIPT
A Calculation and Computation, in which there is no mistake, made by the holy Mar Diônĕsiôs, Bishop of Athens.
As the calculation and computation of the sun and the moon are confused by many of those who think in themselves that they are wise men, . . . the heavenly courses of the sun and the moon and the stars, and the rotation and revolution of the firmament, and the breath of the air that is contained in the midst and also of the twelve winds that come out from the twelve storehouses in which the activity of the moon takes place and in which it is born. By these twelve storehouses of the wind, indeed, we know in which of them the birth of the moon takes place, whether it is born in the wind or the rain or the snow or the dew or the heat, or what is the function of every one of the months. Whensoever one of these storehouses is shut, the change of one produces darkness. For the sun and the moon do not run by one computation. That cannot take place, because the two have not one and the same course of movement. The sun completes the course of its movement in the number of three hundred and sixty-five days, or four thousand three hundred and eighty hours. The sun has every year, three super-abundant hours, which constitute every four years a complete day. This day is called the intercalary (day), and is intercalated at the 25th of Shebat according to the computation that the Greeks and the Syrians use. In the year that is called the intercalary (year) there are three hundred and sixty-six days by the computation of the Sun. But the moon has the number of three hundred and fifty-four days, and of these eleven days that are superabundant in the sun is constituted the month that is called intercalary. This month makes in the year in which it is intercalated a change in one of these four computations. The complete weeks of the sun are fifty-two and one day, and the weeks of the moon fifty and four days, since the sun was thirty days old when it was created and the moon fourteen, and those days that were before the sun and the moon came into existence, have been included by me in the total number. On the day, indeed, on which the sun and the moon were created they saw one another’s light, but the light of the sun did not overpower that of the moon, because as soon as the rays of the sun-globe appeared from the east, the moon sank in the west. But on the fifth day the sun came out from the eastern gate of the light and the moon from the western storehouse of the wind and they saw one another freely, and the rays of the sun entered into the circle of the moon and its light was extinguished. Behold, from that time it began this succession of waxing and waning and keeps the succession of conception and birth and the changes of the days. It does not change in consequence of its existence, but because it is the key of all the storehouses of the wind and these are not opened without it. It keeps this succession of waxing and waning and runs this track of its conception and birth in the number of sixty hours, twenty for the conception, in twenty the birth (takes place), and during twenty it is visible. At the same hour, indeed, it comes out from the storehouse in which it was born, since it has nine entrances and twelve exits of the months. But the Greeks say that there are only seven storehouses of the winds and five entrances of the moon. Hence they put the light before the darkness. Being ashamed of what they have said, they have added mistake to mistake by stating that the darkness is uncreated and has not been made. And hence they have inreased their blunder by giving eternity to the darkness. A thing that has not been created and made is eternal. With all their computations, too, the Greeks mingle blunders.
Here fix the eyes of your mind on this orbit of the sun, how it moves above in the air!
The sun keeps completely the course of its movement. For it has twelve gates on the path of its movement through which the passage of its course takes place. For these twelve gates a clock is fixed that the course of its path may be equal. Every gate is separated from the next by the space of only one hour. Every hour contains a degree (step). Four winds cause the disc of the sun to run. Since the wind that is above is a strong wind, that makes the eyes flow, and if this breeze above were near to (what is) below it would not leave anything on earth that it did not destroy, and since the wind above is strong these four moderate winds embrace the disc of the sun. If a wind did not run before it [the sun] on the path of its movement and bar its disc that it may move with diseretion, the east wind would drive its disc from one end of the world to the other in one hour. If the south wind did not press it to the ends of the world, the wind that is blowing from the north would hurl it (to the south), and the south wind to the north if the north wind (did not press it to the south). These four winds retain the disc of the sun and watch over it that it may not incline towards one side. And now and then one of the storehouses that serve the wind from above is opened and the wind that comes out from one of the storehouses becomes stronger from the fact that it is yoked to the chariot of the sun and it throws its disc under the step (degree) of its passage and its light is darkened till its dise rises (again) and stands on the path of its movement. For as soon as one of the big dragons that rose from the sea in which they were born, that is outside the dwelling-place of mankind, mounts and throws himself into the middle sea, or one of the animals that are called Leviathan, one of the storehouses of the whirlwinds is opened and with dreadful shaking and gusts and lightnings it mounts and throws itself into the midst of the mountains of the north. In these days great snakes, too, are born. The dragons, however, and the Leviathan are born only in the sea that is called Maqastekos (?). But in the days of summer the sun overpowers with its light all the ends of the earth, as soon as it mounts upon the fiery track, because when it mounts above, to the fervent heat that is under the firmament, its disc is heated by the heat from above. And the sun burns the whole earth like an oven of fire, because it has mounted to the wind of heat that blows from above.
Again, I explain without error to those who possess understanding the variation of the lower sea.
Under the earth is the dreadful sea (containing) much water, and under the water (there is) fire, and under the fire wind, and under the wind darkness, (but) under the darkness do not ask for anything. In the hot days of summer, as soon as the sun mounts to the upper region, to the heat of this firmament, its disc is heated in the heat above, and it heats the earth like an oven of fire. Suddenly the fire under the water is quenched, the waters of the lower sea stand up and the wind of cold blows on them, the cold mounts and ascends from the interior of the earth and passes into the roots of the trees and plants and into the veins of the rocks, and the dust of the earth becomes cold, that the sun may not burn the trees, the seeds, and the plants. For if the cold did not ascend from the interior of the earth the sun would not leave anything without burning it. People, too, would not be able to walk on the earth in consequence of the heat of the fire. Because the surface of the earth from beneath is made like a sponge and its whole interior is made of canals and hollows for the flowing of the water of the streams and springs, and also for the action of the cold and the heat. In the hot days of summer, where there is no water, the animals and the birds dig into the interior of the earth and find cold soil and are relieved by it. The men, too, who are in the southern countries, that is, in the land of Kûsh and Shebâ, dig into the sand of their land during the hot days of summer and, although naked, they are protected and relieved by the coolness.
Another season, the winter.
In the days of winter, as soon as the disc of the sun is thrown to the south to the cold, the storehouses of the wind of snow and ice and blasts and whirlwinds (are opened), and the heat of the sun is assuaged, that the cold may not destroy the trees, the seeds and the plants and the men, animals and birds may not die from the cold of the winter, the fire under the water is heated. The water is heated by the fire that is under it, and the heat mounts and ascends through the canals and hollows of the earth and enters into the veins of the trees and melts the cold that is in the interior of the trees, the water and the soil of the earth. By the vapour of the heat that rises from the interior of the earth, the water of the springs is melted, and instead of the wind of cold there rises from within them the vapour of heat. The course of the heat that rises from underneath flows and assuages the intensity of the cold. The animals find for themselves life in the excrements that are strewn on the dung-hills. The birds find shelter during the nights above the waters of the rivers and the fountains and springs and grow warm by what is rising from the waters of the rivers, fountains, and springs. Also the men who dwell in the north in the interior of the mountains that are called the Paps of the North—their stones are of crystal, and beyond them there is no human dwelling, since above the river called Fire-river there is nothing besides Oqîanôs, the sea that surrounds the whole earth. In Oqîanôs there is not one single reptile creeping in the water, and no bird is to be found flying above it, because it surrounds the sea, as a wall surrounds a city. Above it is the paradise of the gods. The angels bring the souls of men to the mansions that surround the paradise, as soon as they come out from their bodies, that is the souls of the saints. For the souls of those who have committed iniquities are not reckoned worthy to pass to that region of life. Those men who dwell amidst the mountains of the north, get their food from the fruits of the trees and are long-lived. On the crystal stones of these mountains descends the amazing Raphantion (?). Also the men who dwell in the western countries in the cold winter days make use of excrement (as a means) to support their life, since they are deprived of the use of wood, and in the evening they bury the food of the morning in the dung and in the morning they find it cooked. In the same way they treat the food of the evening.
Now that I have explained to you the combinations of the winter and the summer fix the eyes of your mind on this other treatise concerning the heavenly courses.
The chariot of the sun is not bound within the firmament since the disc of its light is set upon the wings of the wind and upon running wheels. It is a great distance under the firmament of which the Creator only knows the measure. For the stars are united to the firmament. Their creation is planted in it, and they are the lamps of its light and they come out from it and run in it. The moon, too, has a chariot that runs with the wind, and its course is under the firmament. They were called the luminaries of heaven, because the light of their creation is united to the firmament. Under the sun is the course of the clouds. The clouds are not something corporeal, and the shape in which they always appear is not a permanent appearance, since now and then they are turned by the wind and they are dissolved and change from their (former) appearance. You will believe this from the clear appearance that on the day when there is no mist and clouds and the air is clear and pure, is seen in the midst of the firmament like a palm of a hand and so it flies in the air and the whole mid-air is filled with it. From this understand that the clouds and the fogs are the fountains of the rain and the dew, and that they fly on the wings of the wind, and not by themselves, as some wise-minded (men) have erroneously stated, but by the wind. And they stated foolishly that the clouds draw the water from the sea, but they are the fountains of the water and in them it is conceived and from them it is born.
Now you need profound understanding about the twelve winds which come out from the ends of the earth.
The wind is not one variety only, because it has not one storehouse only. For the twelve storehouses contain twelve varieties, the twelve winds that are enclosed in them as the twelve Apostles received tongues differing from one another. For the Apostles, too, were storehouses of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles did not because they received twelve tongues receive from twelve (different) Spirits, but from one Spirit. So neither are the twelve storehouses twelve winds over which there is no command, but one wind, that speaks in the Apostles, dwells in them. But as the Roman tongue differs from the Greek tongue, and the Greek from the Syriac, and the Syriac from the Hebrew, and the Hebrew from the Gothic, and the Gothic from the Kushi, and the Kushi from the Barbarian, and the Barbarian from the Indian, and the Indian from the Babylonian, and the Babylonian from the Median, and the Median from the Armenian, and the Armenian from the Egyptian, and these twelve languages differ one from another, although all are included in one common name, that is in that of “men”, so the twelve winds, too, are included in one common name, in that of wind.
See, if you have no knowledge from reading, you are not profited. Here I speak with you about the science of the breath of the wind.
As when an Indian speaks, a Greek does not understand what he says, since he has not learned the language of the Indians, so, too, those who hear the voice of the wind do not know what its course is, if they do not distinguish the smell of its breath. The Greek also knows that he with whom he is speaking is an Indian, but he has no knowledge to distinguish what he is saying. About the wind, too, there are those who know from which storehouse it has come out—(they know it) from the activity of the months—but they do not know what its operation is. What knowledge has he who does not distinguish the breath of the wind, whether it is of snow, or ice, or hail, or rain, or dew, or heat, or sickness? And even if he knew these things, his knowledge would not be great. Since there are also animals and birds that have foreknowledge. As soon as you have known that, I will call the ant or the gnat and the fish, as these, too, are superior to you in knowledge. Or how do you desire to comprehend the books about the wheels of astronomy, if you do not possess these (items of knowledge), (if you do) not (know) how the heaven turns, and from which side, nor the passages of the sun and its gates, nor which are the winds that put its disc in motion, nor how the axis of the sphere turns, nor what are the names of the gates, nor where the path of the rays of the light is attained, nor whither the stretching out of the curtain of the heavenly garment goes, now fix the gaze of the eyes of your mind to know, of what kind is the way of the heavenly courses of the Pleiades and Aldebaran and the Wain and the Yoke and the Scales and the Balance and the Libra and the horizon and the path and the Hunter’s Way, and the Fold and the Temple and the Watchman and the Lawgiver and the Hearer and the Ambassador and the Preacher and the Giver and the Hun-star and the Instructor and the Knower and the Teacher of Wisdom and the Rich-in-Doctrine. These are for those who possess understanding nothing, because it is the part of science to know the passages of the sun and its gates and its paths and its courses and the variation of its light and its darkness and about the moon and its storehouses and its conception and birth, and also about the times and their variations, and when the sun and the moon are darkened and the earth quakes and about the variations of the years and the limits of the paths and the current of the sea and the ebbs and flows of the lower sea and the wars of the barbarians. These wisdom teaches through knowledge.
As the calculation and computation of the sun and the moon are confused by many of those who think in themselves that they are wise men, . . . the heavenly courses of the sun and the moon and the stars, and the rotation and revolution of the firmament, and the breath of the air that is contained in the midst and also of the twelve winds that come out from the twelve storehouses in which the activity of the moon takes place and in which it is born. By these twelve storehouses of the wind, indeed, we know in which of them the birth of the moon takes place, whether it is born in the wind or the rain or the snow or the dew or the heat, or what is the function of every one of the months. Whensoever one of these storehouses is shut, the change of one produces darkness. For the sun and the moon do not run by one computation. That cannot take place, because the two have not one and the same course of movement. The sun completes the course of its movement in the number of three hundred and sixty-five days, or four thousand three hundred and eighty hours. The sun has every year, three super-abundant hours, which constitute every four years a complete day. This day is called the intercalary (day), and is intercalated at the 25th of Shebat according to the computation that the Greeks and the Syrians use. In the year that is called the intercalary (year) there are three hundred and sixty-six days by the computation of the Sun. But the moon has the number of three hundred and fifty-four days, and of these eleven days that are superabundant in the sun is constituted the month that is called intercalary. This month makes in the year in which it is intercalated a change in one of these four computations. The complete weeks of the sun are fifty-two and one day, and the weeks of the moon fifty and four days, since the sun was thirty days old when it was created and the moon fourteen, and those days that were before the sun and the moon came into existence, have been included by me in the total number. On the day, indeed, on which the sun and the moon were created they saw one another’s light, but the light of the sun did not overpower that of the moon, because as soon as the rays of the sun-globe appeared from the east, the moon sank in the west. But on the fifth day the sun came out from the eastern gate of the light and the moon from the western storehouse of the wind and they saw one another freely, and the rays of the sun entered into the circle of the moon and its light was extinguished. Behold, from that time it began this succession of waxing and waning and keeps the succession of conception and birth and the changes of the days. It does not change in consequence of its existence, but because it is the key of all the storehouses of the wind and these are not opened without it. It keeps this succession of waxing and waning and runs this track of its conception and birth in the number of sixty hours, twenty for the conception, in twenty the birth (takes place), and during twenty it is visible. At the same hour, indeed, it comes out from the storehouse in which it was born, since it has nine entrances and twelve exits of the months. But the Greeks say that there are only seven storehouses of the winds and five entrances of the moon. Hence they put the light before the darkness. Being ashamed of what they have said, they have added mistake to mistake by stating that the darkness is uncreated and has not been made. And hence they have inreased their blunder by giving eternity to the darkness. A thing that has not been created and made is eternal. With all their computations, too, the Greeks mingle blunders.
Here fix the eyes of your mind on this orbit of the sun, how it moves above in the air!
The sun keeps completely the course of its movement. For it has twelve gates on the path of its movement through which the passage of its course takes place. For these twelve gates a clock is fixed that the course of its path may be equal. Every gate is separated from the next by the space of only one hour. Every hour contains a degree (step). Four winds cause the disc of the sun to run. Since the wind that is above is a strong wind, that makes the eyes flow, and if this breeze above were near to (what is) below it would not leave anything on earth that it did not destroy, and since the wind above is strong these four moderate winds embrace the disc of the sun. If a wind did not run before it [the sun] on the path of its movement and bar its disc that it may move with diseretion, the east wind would drive its disc from one end of the world to the other in one hour. If the south wind did not press it to the ends of the world, the wind that is blowing from the north would hurl it (to the south), and the south wind to the north if the north wind (did not press it to the south). These four winds retain the disc of the sun and watch over it that it may not incline towards one side. And now and then one of the storehouses that serve the wind from above is opened and the wind that comes out from one of the storehouses becomes stronger from the fact that it is yoked to the chariot of the sun and it throws its disc under the step (degree) of its passage and its light is darkened till its dise rises (again) and stands on the path of its movement. For as soon as one of the big dragons that rose from the sea in which they were born, that is outside the dwelling-place of mankind, mounts and throws himself into the middle sea, or one of the animals that are called Leviathan, one of the storehouses of the whirlwinds is opened and with dreadful shaking and gusts and lightnings it mounts and throws itself into the midst of the mountains of the north. In these days great snakes, too, are born. The dragons, however, and the Leviathan are born only in the sea that is called Maqastekos (?). But in the days of summer the sun overpowers with its light all the ends of the earth, as soon as it mounts upon the fiery track, because when it mounts above, to the fervent heat that is under the firmament, its disc is heated by the heat from above. And the sun burns the whole earth like an oven of fire, because it has mounted to the wind of heat that blows from above.
Again, I explain without error to those who possess understanding the variation of the lower sea.
Under the earth is the dreadful sea (containing) much water, and under the water (there is) fire, and under the fire wind, and under the wind darkness, (but) under the darkness do not ask for anything. In the hot days of summer, as soon as the sun mounts to the upper region, to the heat of this firmament, its disc is heated in the heat above, and it heats the earth like an oven of fire. Suddenly the fire under the water is quenched, the waters of the lower sea stand up and the wind of cold blows on them, the cold mounts and ascends from the interior of the earth and passes into the roots of the trees and plants and into the veins of the rocks, and the dust of the earth becomes cold, that the sun may not burn the trees, the seeds, and the plants. For if the cold did not ascend from the interior of the earth the sun would not leave anything without burning it. People, too, would not be able to walk on the earth in consequence of the heat of the fire. Because the surface of the earth from beneath is made like a sponge and its whole interior is made of canals and hollows for the flowing of the water of the streams and springs, and also for the action of the cold and the heat. In the hot days of summer, where there is no water, the animals and the birds dig into the interior of the earth and find cold soil and are relieved by it. The men, too, who are in the southern countries, that is, in the land of Kûsh and Shebâ, dig into the sand of their land during the hot days of summer and, although naked, they are protected and relieved by the coolness.
Another season, the winter.
In the days of winter, as soon as the disc of the sun is thrown to the south to the cold, the storehouses of the wind of snow and ice and blasts and whirlwinds (are opened), and the heat of the sun is assuaged, that the cold may not destroy the trees, the seeds and the plants and the men, animals and birds may not die from the cold of the winter, the fire under the water is heated. The water is heated by the fire that is under it, and the heat mounts and ascends through the canals and hollows of the earth and enters into the veins of the trees and melts the cold that is in the interior of the trees, the water and the soil of the earth. By the vapour of the heat that rises from the interior of the earth, the water of the springs is melted, and instead of the wind of cold there rises from within them the vapour of heat. The course of the heat that rises from underneath flows and assuages the intensity of the cold. The animals find for themselves life in the excrements that are strewn on the dung-hills. The birds find shelter during the nights above the waters of the rivers and the fountains and springs and grow warm by what is rising from the waters of the rivers, fountains, and springs. Also the men who dwell in the north in the interior of the mountains that are called the Paps of the North—their stones are of crystal, and beyond them there is no human dwelling, since above the river called Fire-river there is nothing besides Oqîanôs, the sea that surrounds the whole earth. In Oqîanôs there is not one single reptile creeping in the water, and no bird is to be found flying above it, because it surrounds the sea, as a wall surrounds a city. Above it is the paradise of the gods. The angels bring the souls of men to the mansions that surround the paradise, as soon as they come out from their bodies, that is the souls of the saints. For the souls of those who have committed iniquities are not reckoned worthy to pass to that region of life. Those men who dwell amidst the mountains of the north, get their food from the fruits of the trees and are long-lived. On the crystal stones of these mountains descends the amazing Raphantion (?). Also the men who dwell in the western countries in the cold winter days make use of excrement (as a means) to support their life, since they are deprived of the use of wood, and in the evening they bury the food of the morning in the dung and in the morning they find it cooked. In the same way they treat the food of the evening.
Now that I have explained to you the combinations of the winter and the summer fix the eyes of your mind on this other treatise concerning the heavenly courses.
The chariot of the sun is not bound within the firmament since the disc of its light is set upon the wings of the wind and upon running wheels. It is a great distance under the firmament of which the Creator only knows the measure. For the stars are united to the firmament. Their creation is planted in it, and they are the lamps of its light and they come out from it and run in it. The moon, too, has a chariot that runs with the wind, and its course is under the firmament. They were called the luminaries of heaven, because the light of their creation is united to the firmament. Under the sun is the course of the clouds. The clouds are not something corporeal, and the shape in which they always appear is not a permanent appearance, since now and then they are turned by the wind and they are dissolved and change from their (former) appearance. You will believe this from the clear appearance that on the day when there is no mist and clouds and the air is clear and pure, is seen in the midst of the firmament like a palm of a hand and so it flies in the air and the whole mid-air is filled with it. From this understand that the clouds and the fogs are the fountains of the rain and the dew, and that they fly on the wings of the wind, and not by themselves, as some wise-minded (men) have erroneously stated, but by the wind. And they stated foolishly that the clouds draw the water from the sea, but they are the fountains of the water and in them it is conceived and from them it is born.
Now you need profound understanding about the twelve winds which come out from the ends of the earth.
The wind is not one variety only, because it has not one storehouse only. For the twelve storehouses contain twelve varieties, the twelve winds that are enclosed in them as the twelve Apostles received tongues differing from one another. For the Apostles, too, were storehouses of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles did not because they received twelve tongues receive from twelve (different) Spirits, but from one Spirit. So neither are the twelve storehouses twelve winds over which there is no command, but one wind, that speaks in the Apostles, dwells in them. But as the Roman tongue differs from the Greek tongue, and the Greek from the Syriac, and the Syriac from the Hebrew, and the Hebrew from the Gothic, and the Gothic from the Kushi, and the Kushi from the Barbarian, and the Barbarian from the Indian, and the Indian from the Babylonian, and the Babylonian from the Median, and the Median from the Armenian, and the Armenian from the Egyptian, and these twelve languages differ one from another, although all are included in one common name, that is in that of “men”, so the twelve winds, too, are included in one common name, in that of wind.
See, if you have no knowledge from reading, you are not profited. Here I speak with you about the science of the breath of the wind.
As when an Indian speaks, a Greek does not understand what he says, since he has not learned the language of the Indians, so, too, those who hear the voice of the wind do not know what its course is, if they do not distinguish the smell of its breath. The Greek also knows that he with whom he is speaking is an Indian, but he has no knowledge to distinguish what he is saying. About the wind, too, there are those who know from which storehouse it has come out—(they know it) from the activity of the months—but they do not know what its operation is. What knowledge has he who does not distinguish the breath of the wind, whether it is of snow, or ice, or hail, or rain, or dew, or heat, or sickness? And even if he knew these things, his knowledge would not be great. Since there are also animals and birds that have foreknowledge. As soon as you have known that, I will call the ant or the gnat and the fish, as these, too, are superior to you in knowledge. Or how do you desire to comprehend the books about the wheels of astronomy, if you do not possess these (items of knowledge), (if you do) not (know) how the heaven turns, and from which side, nor the passages of the sun and its gates, nor which are the winds that put its disc in motion, nor how the axis of the sphere turns, nor what are the names of the gates, nor where the path of the rays of the light is attained, nor whither the stretching out of the curtain of the heavenly garment goes, now fix the gaze of the eyes of your mind to know, of what kind is the way of the heavenly courses of the Pleiades and Aldebaran and the Wain and the Yoke and the Scales and the Balance and the Libra and the horizon and the path and the Hunter’s Way, and the Fold and the Temple and the Watchman and the Lawgiver and the Hearer and the Ambassador and the Preacher and the Giver and the Hun-star and the Instructor and the Knower and the Teacher of Wisdom and the Rich-in-Doctrine. These are for those who possess understanding nothing, because it is the part of science to know the passages of the sun and its gates and its paths and its courses and the variation of its light and its darkness and about the moon and its storehouses and its conception and birth, and also about the times and their variations, and when the sun and the moon are darkened and the earth quakes and about the variations of the years and the limits of the paths and the current of the sea and the ebbs and flows of the lower sea and the wars of the barbarians. These wisdom teaches through knowledge.
The Supplementary Tract Against Chaldean Astrology
Refutation of the fallacies of the Chaldeans, the sons of error, and an annihilation of the stars, signs, horoscopes, fortunes, conjunctions, hours, moments, incantations, oracles, and all the errors of the Chaldeans, the sons of error.
It is not only the Chaldeans who indulge in this error of signs (stars), meetings (conjunctions), fortunes, spells, oracles, horoscopes, hours, moments, incantations and all the work of error and the worship of demons: this error has also spread in many countries (making people believe) that there are fortunes, meetings (conjunctions), incantations, tables of birth, and oracles; that there are men who are born in the good hour, and under the star of tranquility, and others who are born under the sign (star) of the rich star, others under (that of the healthy star), others under (that of the sick star), and finally others who are born under the sign of the poor star; and that if a Chaldean had been present to observe the hour and seize the moment, he would have made the bad sign pass and the man would not have been born under this sign (star).
What is the use of these signs (stars) in which the poor in spirit go astray, because they are devoid of instruction? What science can know their office, if not only that (which studies) their influences? Listen, friends of wisdom, to the refutation and annihilation of the error of the Chaldeans.
“The stars and the signs (astrology) give men the gifts of wealth and poverty, the degrees of respect and humiliation, and if someone is born under the royal star (Regulus), he who is born there governs a kingdom, because he was born under the sign of the royal star.” Now, this star serves the twenty-seventh day of April and the twenty-fifth of December, and every year, from the time the stars were created until this day, it has served thus. Therefore, every year, all those born on April 27 and December 25 become kings? See the fallacy of the Chaldeans, sons of error. Let them tell me what this royal star is, or what its office is. (But) know, friends of wisdom, that they do not even know what this star is. (Now) the star which is called “royal” is the one which the Israelites worshipped, and it was called by them the star “Kiyyun.” [1] For what reason did they worship it? Because, when they left Egypt in April and a pillar of fire preceded them at night, this star was the only one they saw in the sky before the pillar of fire; the other stars were hidden by the light of the pillar. Because the light of this star was brighter (than that of the others), it was the only one they saw in the sky. After the pillar of fire had hidden itself from their sight, since this star had become a guide for them, they worshipped it.
And because the Chaldeans attribute to this star the kingship, [know that] under it only one king was born: Christ, the son of God. For what reason do they attribute to this star the kingship? Listen, friends of wisdom. This is the star that the Magi saw on the mountain of splendors, where the gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense were deposited, and this cave (where these gifts were) was called “the cave of treasures.” This star was for them (the Magi) a guide, when they came up from Persia. This is why the Chaldeans attribute to it the kingship, and in this they were mistaken.
The Chaldeans also say that anyone born under the sign of the servile star is doomed to servitude. Now, this servile star is not one of the signs (of the zodiac), and since it has no office and is not taken into account, how do the wise men of error attribute an office to it?
“Those born under the star rich in light become rich.” Now, what star is rich in light, if not the dog of Orion (Sirius)? And see how many slaves, poor people, sick people, and beggars are born during the months when the dog of Orion is seen!
“Those born under the star poor in time become poor.” Now, this star is one of the stars of the Hyades, and what office do the stars of the Hyades have with the stars of the signs (of the zodiac)?
“Those born under Aries become masters of great wealth.” — Now, Aries serves for thirty days. So, not a single beggar would be born under it?
“Those born under Taurus, who is nicknamed ‘the swift begetter,’ become workers of the earth.” Now, this star, which is the Weight, under which wood is gathered so that it will not be eaten by worms, and the stars k-l-ton and b-r-kon [2] are part of the yoke of the Little Bear, and are not adjacent to the signs (of the zodiac).
“Those born under the star with the swift course become soldiers of the king, riding horses.” — Now, what is this star, if not the star of light, during whose service the blind, the paralytic, and the legless are also born?
They say there is a destiny for man. Therefore, they accuse God of forming the child in the womb so that he may be born at the appointed time. See, friends of wisdom, there are no destinies.
They also say that there are meetings (conjunctions) and fates. — Now, how is it that, if there are meetings (conjunctions), none of those who, in our time, prolong their life in the world for 150 years, while rising early in the morning, lingering in the evening, traveling by night on the roads, crossing the seas—and there are some among them who despoil the dead and plunder houses—how is it that not one of them has become sick, or paralyzed, or blind?
If there really are meetings (conjunctions) and spells, would no meeting (conjunction), spell, incantation, or fortune present itself to them within a hundred years? The Chaldeans also say that they observe the signs (stars) and the times. Now, as soon as labor pains seize the woman about to give birth, the Chaldean is called to observe the hour. He sits and looks at the sky, not knowing what the hour is. Five conjunctions of the signs (stars) pass (without his seeing them), and (while he sits like one who knows secrets), the sun rises and the stars hide themselves several times, and (only then) is the child born.
See, friends of wisdom, there are no fortunes, no meetings (conjunctions), no spells, no incantations, no oracles, but (only) the deception of demons. The stars and the courses that are seen in the sky, indicate, as the science of the astronomers (ἀστρονόμων) shows us, the signs and changes of the times. The royal star, the servile one, the one that gives tranquility, the one which is rich in light, the one that is poor in time, Aries, Capricorn, Taurus, Calf, Scorpio, Cancer, the seven Planets, the Distributor, the Guide, the Indicator, the Preceptor, the Swift Messenger, the Herald of Peace, the Giver of Knowledge, the intellectual star, the one that makes one understand, that makes one lean, the daughter of wisdom, the Giver of sight, the intelligent (star), the one that teaches wisdom which is rich in knowledge, the Pleiades, the Hyades, Orion, the Dog of Orion, the Yoke, the Little Bear, the Crown, the Weight, the Scales, the Milky Way, the Stable, the Temple—all these (stars) show without error, to those who have knowledge, who possess intelligence, and who are versed in wisdom, the entire service of the times.
This is the end of the account of oracles, incantations, fortunes and meetings (conjunctions).
It is not only the Chaldeans who indulge in this error of signs (stars), meetings (conjunctions), fortunes, spells, oracles, horoscopes, hours, moments, incantations and all the work of error and the worship of demons: this error has also spread in many countries (making people believe) that there are fortunes, meetings (conjunctions), incantations, tables of birth, and oracles; that there are men who are born in the good hour, and under the star of tranquility, and others who are born under the sign (star) of the rich star, others under (that of the healthy star), others under (that of the sick star), and finally others who are born under the sign of the poor star; and that if a Chaldean had been present to observe the hour and seize the moment, he would have made the bad sign pass and the man would not have been born under this sign (star).
What is the use of these signs (stars) in which the poor in spirit go astray, because they are devoid of instruction? What science can know their office, if not only that (which studies) their influences? Listen, friends of wisdom, to the refutation and annihilation of the error of the Chaldeans.
“The stars and the signs (astrology) give men the gifts of wealth and poverty, the degrees of respect and humiliation, and if someone is born under the royal star (Regulus), he who is born there governs a kingdom, because he was born under the sign of the royal star.” Now, this star serves the twenty-seventh day of April and the twenty-fifth of December, and every year, from the time the stars were created until this day, it has served thus. Therefore, every year, all those born on April 27 and December 25 become kings? See the fallacy of the Chaldeans, sons of error. Let them tell me what this royal star is, or what its office is. (But) know, friends of wisdom, that they do not even know what this star is. (Now) the star which is called “royal” is the one which the Israelites worshipped, and it was called by them the star “Kiyyun.” [1] For what reason did they worship it? Because, when they left Egypt in April and a pillar of fire preceded them at night, this star was the only one they saw in the sky before the pillar of fire; the other stars were hidden by the light of the pillar. Because the light of this star was brighter (than that of the others), it was the only one they saw in the sky. After the pillar of fire had hidden itself from their sight, since this star had become a guide for them, they worshipped it.
And because the Chaldeans attribute to this star the kingship, [know that] under it only one king was born: Christ, the son of God. For what reason do they attribute to this star the kingship? Listen, friends of wisdom. This is the star that the Magi saw on the mountain of splendors, where the gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense were deposited, and this cave (where these gifts were) was called “the cave of treasures.” This star was for them (the Magi) a guide, when they came up from Persia. This is why the Chaldeans attribute to it the kingship, and in this they were mistaken.
The Chaldeans also say that anyone born under the sign of the servile star is doomed to servitude. Now, this servile star is not one of the signs (of the zodiac), and since it has no office and is not taken into account, how do the wise men of error attribute an office to it?
“Those born under the star rich in light become rich.” Now, what star is rich in light, if not the dog of Orion (Sirius)? And see how many slaves, poor people, sick people, and beggars are born during the months when the dog of Orion is seen!
“Those born under the star poor in time become poor.” Now, this star is one of the stars of the Hyades, and what office do the stars of the Hyades have with the stars of the signs (of the zodiac)?
“Those born under Aries become masters of great wealth.” — Now, Aries serves for thirty days. So, not a single beggar would be born under it?
“Those born under Taurus, who is nicknamed ‘the swift begetter,’ become workers of the earth.” Now, this star, which is the Weight, under which wood is gathered so that it will not be eaten by worms, and the stars k-l-ton and b-r-kon [2] are part of the yoke of the Little Bear, and are not adjacent to the signs (of the zodiac).
“Those born under the star with the swift course become soldiers of the king, riding horses.” — Now, what is this star, if not the star of light, during whose service the blind, the paralytic, and the legless are also born?
They say there is a destiny for man. Therefore, they accuse God of forming the child in the womb so that he may be born at the appointed time. See, friends of wisdom, there are no destinies.
They also say that there are meetings (conjunctions) and fates. — Now, how is it that, if there are meetings (conjunctions), none of those who, in our time, prolong their life in the world for 150 years, while rising early in the morning, lingering in the evening, traveling by night on the roads, crossing the seas—and there are some among them who despoil the dead and plunder houses—how is it that not one of them has become sick, or paralyzed, or blind?
If there really are meetings (conjunctions) and spells, would no meeting (conjunction), spell, incantation, or fortune present itself to them within a hundred years? The Chaldeans also say that they observe the signs (stars) and the times. Now, as soon as labor pains seize the woman about to give birth, the Chaldean is called to observe the hour. He sits and looks at the sky, not knowing what the hour is. Five conjunctions of the signs (stars) pass (without his seeing them), and (while he sits like one who knows secrets), the sun rises and the stars hide themselves several times, and (only then) is the child born.
See, friends of wisdom, there are no fortunes, no meetings (conjunctions), no spells, no incantations, no oracles, but (only) the deception of demons. The stars and the courses that are seen in the sky, indicate, as the science of the astronomers (ἀστρονόμων) shows us, the signs and changes of the times. The royal star, the servile one, the one that gives tranquility, the one which is rich in light, the one that is poor in time, Aries, Capricorn, Taurus, Calf, Scorpio, Cancer, the seven Planets, the Distributor, the Guide, the Indicator, the Preceptor, the Swift Messenger, the Herald of Peace, the Giver of Knowledge, the intellectual star, the one that makes one understand, that makes one lean, the daughter of wisdom, the Giver of sight, the intelligent (star), the one that teaches wisdom which is rich in knowledge, the Pleiades, the Hyades, Orion, the Dog of Orion, the Yoke, the Little Bear, the Crown, the Weight, the Scales, the Milky Way, the Stable, the Temple—all these (stars) show without error, to those who have knowledge, who possess intelligence, and who are versed in wisdom, the entire service of the times.
This is the end of the account of oracles, incantations, fortunes and meetings (conjunctions).
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NOTES
[1] This star is mentioned only once in the Old Testament, in the prophet Amos 5:26. Yahweh, after asking the house of Israel if they had offered him sacrifices and cakes in the desert for forty years, adds (we translate literally without seeking to resolve the difficulties of the Hebrew text): “You have carried Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your idols, star of your gods that you have made for yourselves.” In the Syriac version of the Bible (the Peschitto), this verse is rendered as: “But you have carried the tabernacle of Malchum and Chewon, your idol, star that you have made for yourselves (to serve as) god”; and among the LXX by: “You took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, their images, which you made for yourselves.” It is in this latter form that the verse of Amos has passed, with some slight variations, into the Acts of the Apostles 7:43. The meaning attributed in the Peschitto, in the Septuagint, and in the Acts of the Apostles to this verse of Amos is the following: “instead of worshipping me in the desert, you worshipped idols, notably the star Kiyyun, which you raised to the rank of god.” Thus interpreted, this verse gave rise to the question: “Why did the Israelites worship the star Kiyyun in the desert?” To this question, our author replies: “because this star was the only one they saw in the sky before the pillar of fire which preceded them at night when they left Egypt.” The word “Kiyyun” is related to the Assyrian Kaiwanû, which designates the planet Saturn. [2] These stars that we have been unable to identify seem to be part of the Little Dipper. |
APPENDIX
EXCERPT FROM THE CATENA PATRUM OF THE MONK SEVERUS [861 CE]
The waters gathered within the seas, beneath the earth, within the earth, and above the earth. And God made within the earth canals, veins, and aqueducts for the passage of the waters and for the wind, so that, from within the earth, cold and heat would rise through these veins and canals to serve the earth, the plants, the seeds, the animals, and the birds according to the different seasons.
During the days (lit.: “times”) of winter, when the Sun’s sphere lowers and throws itself to the south and the coldness blows from the wind storehouses of snow, ice, blasts (of the wind) and storms and the heat of the Sun cools, so that the coldness does not dry up the trees, seeds and plants, and men and animals do not die from the cold of winter, the fire that is beneath them is kindled [corrupt text] ... that is, in (or through) those veins and channels that I have said are beneath the earth, because in the days of winter, the heat flees beneath (the earth). This (heat) rises through the channels and cavities of the earth, passes into the veins of the trees and dissolves the coldness that is spread within the earth and the trees that are above it. Thanks to the steam of heat rising from the earth’s interior, the waters of the springs dissolve, and instead of the cold wind, steam rises from within the waters. The heat rising from below tempers the harsh cold. Animals find relief in the manure thrown into the dung pits. Birds, on the other hand, rest at night above rivers and springs, and warm themselves in the steam rising from within the river waters.
The people who live in the north, within the mountains called the “Northern Breasts,” descend, during the cold days of winter, to the banks of the river called the “River of Fire.” For the two mountains which are called “Northern Breasts” also have their crystal stones, and within them there is no human habitation, because beyond this river there is nothing, except the Ocean, a great sea which surrounds the whole earth. No reptile creeps on it, according to what some of the wise men of the Greeks have written, and no bird can fly above it, because, as a wall surrounds cities, so it surrounds the world.
EXCERPT FROM JACOB BAR SHAKKO [1231 CE]
In the summer time, when the Sun rises to the fiery ether, his sphere there ignites, and sets the whole earth ablaze like a fiery furnace. Then God commands the wind, which is under the lower sea, for some writers say that there is under the earth a sea; under the sea, the air of the winds; under the winds, flaming fire, and under the fire, the will of God on which the world rests. They say therefore that God commands these winds, which then blow violently to ascend, temper the heat of the lower fire, pass and ascend into the waters of the sea, the lower waters, and cool them. The cold rises and ascends from the earth, passes into the veins of the trees, into the plants and into the arteries of the rocks, and the sand of the earth cools, so that the Sun does not cause the earth and the people on it to perish with its heat, so that the trees are not destroyed, and all creation is not stifled. On the other hand, the (lower) surface of the earth is made like a sponge, and its interior like canals and cavities for the winds, and aqueducts for the waters, for the service of heat and cold. This is evident from the sand of the earth: the deeper it is dug, the cooler it becomes. Animals too, when oppressed, in summer, by thirst, dig deep, lie down and find breath and relief. Men also who live in the southern regions, dig (holes) in the sand of their land and live therein.
The waters gathered within the seas, beneath the earth, within the earth, and above the earth. And God made within the earth canals, veins, and aqueducts for the passage of the waters and for the wind, so that, from within the earth, cold and heat would rise through these veins and canals to serve the earth, the plants, the seeds, the animals, and the birds according to the different seasons.
During the days (lit.: “times”) of winter, when the Sun’s sphere lowers and throws itself to the south and the coldness blows from the wind storehouses of snow, ice, blasts (of the wind) and storms and the heat of the Sun cools, so that the coldness does not dry up the trees, seeds and plants, and men and animals do not die from the cold of winter, the fire that is beneath them is kindled [corrupt text] ... that is, in (or through) those veins and channels that I have said are beneath the earth, because in the days of winter, the heat flees beneath (the earth). This (heat) rises through the channels and cavities of the earth, passes into the veins of the trees and dissolves the coldness that is spread within the earth and the trees that are above it. Thanks to the steam of heat rising from the earth’s interior, the waters of the springs dissolve, and instead of the cold wind, steam rises from within the waters. The heat rising from below tempers the harsh cold. Animals find relief in the manure thrown into the dung pits. Birds, on the other hand, rest at night above rivers and springs, and warm themselves in the steam rising from within the river waters.
The people who live in the north, within the mountains called the “Northern Breasts,” descend, during the cold days of winter, to the banks of the river called the “River of Fire.” For the two mountains which are called “Northern Breasts” also have their crystal stones, and within them there is no human habitation, because beyond this river there is nothing, except the Ocean, a great sea which surrounds the whole earth. No reptile creeps on it, according to what some of the wise men of the Greeks have written, and no bird can fly above it, because, as a wall surrounds cities, so it surrounds the world.
EXCERPT FROM JACOB BAR SHAKKO [1231 CE]
In the summer time, when the Sun rises to the fiery ether, his sphere there ignites, and sets the whole earth ablaze like a fiery furnace. Then God commands the wind, which is under the lower sea, for some writers say that there is under the earth a sea; under the sea, the air of the winds; under the winds, flaming fire, and under the fire, the will of God on which the world rests. They say therefore that God commands these winds, which then blow violently to ascend, temper the heat of the lower fire, pass and ascend into the waters of the sea, the lower waters, and cool them. The cold rises and ascends from the earth, passes into the veins of the trees, into the plants and into the arteries of the rocks, and the sand of the earth cools, so that the Sun does not cause the earth and the people on it to perish with its heat, so that the trees are not destroyed, and all creation is not stifled. On the other hand, the (lower) surface of the earth is made like a sponge, and its interior like canals and cavities for the winds, and aqueducts for the waters, for the service of heat and cold. This is evident from the sand of the earth: the deeper it is dug, the cooler it becomes. Animals too, when oppressed, in summer, by thirst, dig deep, lie down and find breath and relief. Men also who live in the southern regions, dig (holes) in the sand of their land and live therein.
ANALYSIS BY GIUSEPPE FURLANI
The conclusions we arrive at [...] can be summed up as follows:--
The work we have published is a compilation of an unknown Syriac author with anti-Greek and anti-Babylonian tendencies so far as cosmology and natural philosophy are concerned. It is a cosmological work dealing especially with the sun, the moon, the winds, and the calendar. The author assumes that his doctrines are derived from the Bible—although he never says that expressly—that they are therefore true, and that Greek science and Babylonian or Chaldæan astronomy are false. He thinks that his work is a useful introduction to the science of astronomy.
We cannot state definitely whether the author himself ascribed his work to Dionysius, the legendary first Bishop of Athens, or whether some reader or copyist has done so. It seems to us that the second alternative is more probable. The fact that it was ascribed to Dionysius can be explained very easily. As the Syrians and Arabs attributed all philosophical works, and particularly those about logic and metaphysics, to Aristotle when they did not know the name of the real author, and all medical works to Hippocrates or Galen, so, too, in our case we must not be surprised that this work has been ascribed to Dionysius, the reputed author of the celebrated mystical books about “heavenly science”, although these books do not treat of cosmological matters. But the Syrians were not so particular about such nice distinctions. Sergius of Rish’ainâ is the first Syriac author who knows the works of Pseudo-Dionysius—he has translated them into the Syriac language—the false inscription is therefore later than the sixth century. This treatise, too, is later than that date, as the style of it does not show in the parts the author has not translated from his Greek source any of the characteristics of the Old Syriac language.
The compilation can easily be divided into its component parts: the bulk of the work is a translation from the Greek, as is proved by the bad style. The author has himself added only the introduction, the conclusion, the observations about the darkness, the seven storehouses of the winds according to the Greeks, the souls of the just, and the nature of the clouds and the comparison between the oneness of all kinds of winds and the oneness of human languages. These parts are certainly to be ascribed to our author.
What remains of his work bears a close resemblance to the “book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries”, that is, section iii (cap. lxxii-lxxxii) of the Book of Enoch. It covers nearly the same ground, although it exhibits theories that are wanting in the Book of Enoch and does not contain some pieces—especially the long digression about the growth of the sun (cap. lxxii)—which we find in the third section of the Book of Enoch. The peculiarity of the theories of our author is remarkable. They do not agree exactly with any one of the doctrines contained in the third section or scattered elsewhere in the Book of Enoch. They belong, as it were, to the same family of theories, but have their distinctive features. Appel has demonstrated that the Book of Enoch is not unitarian so far as its physical theories are concerned, but that in it we find remnants of four different treatises of cosmological contents. Our work is not identical with any one of those four treatises but is a parallel text to them. The doctrines expounded in it are, so to say, more up-to-date and more in accordance with astronomy than the doctrines of the four treatises epitomized in the Book of Enoch. This holds good especially for the calendar.
From our treatise we can therefore infer that the literature about the mysteries of the heavens must have been very extensive indeed. Some remnants of this literature we find in the Book of Enoch and in the treatise we have published. The parallels we could cite from the so-called Slavonic Enoch (trans. by W. P. Morfill and ed. by R. H. Charles, Oxford, 1896) are only scanty and rather remote, if we except the calendar.
The work we have published is a compilation of an unknown Syriac author with anti-Greek and anti-Babylonian tendencies so far as cosmology and natural philosophy are concerned. It is a cosmological work dealing especially with the sun, the moon, the winds, and the calendar. The author assumes that his doctrines are derived from the Bible—although he never says that expressly—that they are therefore true, and that Greek science and Babylonian or Chaldæan astronomy are false. He thinks that his work is a useful introduction to the science of astronomy.
We cannot state definitely whether the author himself ascribed his work to Dionysius, the legendary first Bishop of Athens, or whether some reader or copyist has done so. It seems to us that the second alternative is more probable. The fact that it was ascribed to Dionysius can be explained very easily. As the Syrians and Arabs attributed all philosophical works, and particularly those about logic and metaphysics, to Aristotle when they did not know the name of the real author, and all medical works to Hippocrates or Galen, so, too, in our case we must not be surprised that this work has been ascribed to Dionysius, the reputed author of the celebrated mystical books about “heavenly science”, although these books do not treat of cosmological matters. But the Syrians were not so particular about such nice distinctions. Sergius of Rish’ainâ is the first Syriac author who knows the works of Pseudo-Dionysius—he has translated them into the Syriac language—the false inscription is therefore later than the sixth century. This treatise, too, is later than that date, as the style of it does not show in the parts the author has not translated from his Greek source any of the characteristics of the Old Syriac language.
The compilation can easily be divided into its component parts: the bulk of the work is a translation from the Greek, as is proved by the bad style. The author has himself added only the introduction, the conclusion, the observations about the darkness, the seven storehouses of the winds according to the Greeks, the souls of the just, and the nature of the clouds and the comparison between the oneness of all kinds of winds and the oneness of human languages. These parts are certainly to be ascribed to our author.
What remains of his work bears a close resemblance to the “book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries”, that is, section iii (cap. lxxii-lxxxii) of the Book of Enoch. It covers nearly the same ground, although it exhibits theories that are wanting in the Book of Enoch and does not contain some pieces—especially the long digression about the growth of the sun (cap. lxxii)—which we find in the third section of the Book of Enoch. The peculiarity of the theories of our author is remarkable. They do not agree exactly with any one of the doctrines contained in the third section or scattered elsewhere in the Book of Enoch. They belong, as it were, to the same family of theories, but have their distinctive features. Appel has demonstrated that the Book of Enoch is not unitarian so far as its physical theories are concerned, but that in it we find remnants of four different treatises of cosmological contents. Our work is not identical with any one of those four treatises but is a parallel text to them. The doctrines expounded in it are, so to say, more up-to-date and more in accordance with astronomy than the doctrines of the four treatises epitomized in the Book of Enoch. This holds good especially for the calendar.
From our treatise we can therefore infer that the literature about the mysteries of the heavens must have been very extensive indeed. Some remnants of this literature we find in the Book of Enoch and in the treatise we have published. The parallels we could cite from the so-called Slavonic Enoch (trans. by W. P. Morfill and ed. by R. H. Charles, Oxford, 1896) are only scanty and rather remote, if we except the calendar.
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Sources: M. A. Kugener, “Un traité astronomique et météorologique syriaque attribué a Denys l’Aréopagite,” Actes du XIVe Congrès International des Orientalistes, Algiers 1905, deuxième parte (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1907), 137-194; Giuseppe Furlani, “A Cosmological Tract by Pseudo-Dionysius,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1917 (London: 1917), 245-272.
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