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Introduction Astrological beliefs and practices are found in many religious traditions, ancient and modern. In classical Greco-Roman religion and culture, astrology was arguably the most popular form of divination; one recent scholar has described astrology as “the most important and widespread Hellenistic system of piety” (Martin 1991, 59). Many astrological texts have come down to us from the Greco-Roman period from writers such as Manilius, Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, and Firmicus Maternus, writings that display great diversity, complexity, and sophistication. Of course, the modern distinction between astrology and astronomy did not hold in antiquity. While some scholars understand Greco-Roman astrology within the context of the history of science, in this paper I approach it as a religious phenomenon, following the lead of the great nineteenth-century historian of religions Franz Cumont.1 The first part of the paper presents a summary of some basic elements of Greco-Roman astrology: the doctrine of cosmic sympathy, the view of the planets and the stars as divine, and the practice of delineating relationships between the planets and the signs of the zodiac, which allowed astrology to function as a form of divination . The second section of the paper underscores these religious attributes of Greco-Roman astrology by focusing on one of the most significant astrological treatises from the ancient world, Firmicus Maternus’s Mathesis . In the third section, I point out the religious rivalry that leaders and writers in the early church saw between astrology and emerging Christianity. The fourth section then looks at a remarkably nuanced expression of this religious rivalry between astrology and early Christianity found in sections of a late first-century text from western Asia Minor, the Revelation to John. Notes to chapter 6 start on page 262 67 6 Some Astrological Motifs in the Book of Revelation Tim Hegedus Basic Elements of Greco-Roman Astrology “L ’astrologie hellénistique est l’amalgame d’une doctrine philosophique séduisante, d’une mythologie absurde et de méthodes savantes employées à contre-temps.” His value judgments aside, in these words A. J. Festugi ère summarized the basic components of Greco-Roman astrology (Festugière 1950, 89). The philosophical aspect of astrology to which Festugi ère refers is the doctrine of cosmic sympathy, according to which everything in the cosmos is interconnected and interdependent (Beck 1991; Boyce and Grenet 1991, 497; Barton 1994, 103–104). The second, mythological component of astrology is the identification of the planets and the stars as animate, divine beings. In this way, astrology construed the relationship between the heavens and the earth as personal. As well, the identification of the planets with Olympian gods entailed their association with the characteristic mythological traits of the gods (Cumont 1929, 161).2 Thus, for example, in keeping with the traditional view of Jupiter as the “father of the gods,” the planet that bore his name was regarded as benevolent and beneficial in astrology. Other considerations also affected the traits that astrologers attributed to the planets. For example, the association of Kronos/Saturn with old age was influenced by the planet’s pale colour and slow movement, as well as by the mythological account of Kronos (the father of the Olympian gods) and word play of Kronos with Chronos, “time”; such notions, as well as Saturn’s location as the farthest planet from the earth, led astrologers to ascribe to it primacy among the planets (Bouché-Leclercq 1899, 94–95; Festugière 1950, 96–97).3 The signs of the zodiac—the twelve figures applied to twelve constellations that were allotted twelve equal portions (each thirty degrees) of the ecliptic circle—were similarly regarded as animate beings endowed with particular characteristics that were derived from mythology as well as other sources.4 For example, the following influences were rather ingenuously ascribed to Aries the Ram: since it is the first in the usual order of the signs, Aries corresponds to the head in the system of zodiacal melothesia ; since the ram produces wool, those born under the sign of the Ram are destined to work with wool; since the ram is shorn of its wool and then grows it back, those born under Aries will experience sudden losses and recoveries of fortune (see the perilous adventures recounted in the myth of the Golden Fleece) and live in hope (note that the sign of Aries ascends rapidly ; Bouché-Leclercq 1899, 131–32). The third component of Festugière’s description—astrology’s méthodes savantes—refers to the relationships...

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