Pseudo-Manetho, Apotelesmatica, Books Two, Three, and Six Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

This is the first commentary in any language on three of the books of ancient Greek astrological poetry ascribed to the Egyptian priest Manetho. Manetho, who became a figure for recondite wisdom, came to be credited with a series of didactic poems which list outcomes for planetary set-ups in a horoscope or birth chart. This book contends that we can learn a great deal from this material about the intellectual, cultural, social, and literary history of the world in which it was written--Hadrianic Egypt, and the second-century Roman Empire at large. Its descriptions of the kinds of person who are born under happy and unhappy configurations of stars speak to the lived realities, aspirations, and fears of the astrologer's clientele. Given astrology's enormous contemporary prestige, this means we are offered insights into the mental universe and values of the common man, l'homme moyen sensuel, that élite literature largely bypasses.

The volume addresses current work on the emotions and popular ethics. It also brings to the fore a neglected witness to a type of imperial didactic poetry--functional, technical in content, and yet sharing a degree of artistry
with better-known poets such as Dionysius the Periegete. The Manethonian poems are placed in the context of other ancient astrological literature--much of it very different in idiom, complexity, and method--but also in the wider one of other divinatory texts, philosophical writing, and the novel. There is a Greek text with English translation and an apparatus with parallel material to enable comparison with related works.

J. L. Lightfoot, Professor of Greek Literature, University of Oxford

J. L. Lightfoot is Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Oxford and Charlton Fellow and Tutor in Classic at New College, Oxford. Her publications include Dionysius Periegetes: Description of the Known World (2014), The Sibylline Oracles (2007), Lucian: 'On the Syrian Goddess' (2003), and Parthenius of Nicaea: The Extant Works (1999).

Conventions; Citations; Jargon
Abbreviations
Editions
Part One: Astrology
1. Introduction: All the World's a Stage
2. Ars Divina
3. Human Science
4. The Manethoniana
5. Ps.-Manetho books 2, 3, 6, and the Comparanda
Part Two: Poetics
1. Orthographica, Phonologica, Morphologica
2. Syntax
3. Poetic Diction
4. Techniques of Adaptation
5. Information
6. Style
7. Metre
Part Three: The World of Astrology
1. Introduction
2. The Self
3. Class and Status
4. Social Groups
5. The Family
6. Ethics
7. Money
8. Professions, Professionals
9. Private Life
10. Conclusions: The Stars and the Emotions
Part Four: Text
1. The Manuscript (Laur. Plut. 28,27)
2. The Edition
3. Sigla
4. Text and Translation
Part Five: Commentary
2.1 140 Circles
2.141 9 Transition
2.150 398 Topikai Diakriseis
2.399 409 Transition
2.410 35 Planets with the Sun
2.436 40 Transition
2.441 502 Synaphai and Aporrhoiai of the Moon
3.1 7 Proem
3.8 131 Planets in the Cardines
3.132 226 Planets in Opposition across the Cardines
3.227 33 Transition
3.234 362 Aspects
3.363 98 Luminaries and Gender
3.399 428 On the Length of Life
Book 6: Sample Charts & Table of Likenesses
6.1 18 Introduction
6.19 112 Nurture
6.113 23 Marriage
6.224 306 Children
6.307 39 Siblings
6.339 543 Technai
6.544 631 Harms
6.632 84 Loss of wealth
6.684 731 Birth of slaves
6.732 7 Recusatio
6.738 50 Sphragis: Horoscope
Appendices
Appendix 1: Technical vocabulary
Appendix 2: Planetary Names and Epithets