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Hellenistic
Astrology
Marilynn Lawrence
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Hellenistic and Late Antiquity astrologers built their craft upon
Babylonian (and to a lesser extent Egyptian) astrological
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traditions, and developed their theoretical and technical
doctrines using a combination of Stoic, Middle Platonic and
Neopythagorean thought. Astrology offered fulfillment of a
desire to systematically know where an individual stands in
relation to the cosmos in a time of rapid political and social
changes. Various philosophers of the time took up polemics
against astrology while accepting some astral theories. The Stoic
philosopher Posidonius was alleged to embrace astrology and
write works on it (Augustine, De civitate dei, 5.2). Other Stoics
such as Panaetius and (late) Diogenes of Babylon were
primarily adverse to astrological determinism. For some
philosophers such as Plotinus, horoscopic astrology was absurd
for reasons such that the planets could never bear ill will toward
human beings whose souls were exalted above the cosmos. For
others, such as the early Church Fathers, ethical implications of
astrological fatalism were the main point of contention, as it was
contrary to the emerging Christian doctrine of free will. The
Gnostics, who for the most part believed the cosmos is the
product of an evil and enslaving creator, thought of the planets
as participants in this material entrapment. Prominent
Neoplatonists such as Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus found
some aspects of astrology compatible with their versions of
Neoplatonic philosophy. The cultural importance of astrology is
attested to by the strong reactions to and involvement with
astrology by various philosophers in late antiquity. The
adaptability of astrology to various philosophical schools as well
as the borrowing on the part of astrologers from diverse
philosophies provides dynamic examples of the rich 'electicism'
or 'syncretism' that characterized the Helle