Is There an Eclipse Dragon in Manichaeism? Some Problems Concerning the Origin and Function of āṯālyā in Manichaean Sources (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
The idea that eclipses of the Sun and the Moon were caused by the interference of an eclipse monster was widely held throughout the Eurasian continent and can be traced back to remote antiquity. The fearful monster, who quenched the light of the supreme luminaries by seizing them in its jaws, was generally conceived as a giant serpent or dragon, an iconography thought to be of oriental origin. Its function was thus seen to be that of threatening and “devouring,” as well as “delivering” and protecting the great luminaries at certain irregular intervals. The idea that these phenomena were caused by a body whose head and tail intercept the Sun’s and the Moon’s light was probably related to the emergence of definite ideas as to the nature of the orbits of the Sun and the Moon and their opposite points of intersection between the Moon’s orbit and the ecliptic. The classical theory of the dragon myth seems to have been modified in accordance with developments in astrological doctrine at least from late Arsacid and Sasanian times onwards. Sasanian astrologers received from India the notion of Rāhu, a celestial serpent whose head (siras) and tail (ketu) cause solar and lunar eclipses. In Pahlavī Rāhu was referred to as Gōchihr, his head sar, and his tail dumb; in Arabic, the latter were respectively called ra’s and dhanab. The great treatise on horoscopic astrology of the first-century Hellenistic astrologer Dorotheus of Sidon, which was first translated into Persian in the third century and into Arabic in the eighth century, contains a chapter (V, 43) entitled “on clarifying the phases of the moon and the head of the dragon and its tail ...” It states that “the head is called the “ascending” and its tail the “descending” and the signs which those learned in the stars call “obscured” are from Leo to Capricorn …”
From Celestial Omens to the Beginnings of Modern Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia
The Babylonian Sky, Vol. 1, 2024
This interdisciplinary study benefits Assyriologists as well as historians of astronomy and astrology. It analyses all the cuneiform sources that use the terms DUR, ṭurru (DUR) or GU to describe celestial phenomena, and it derives their specific meanings in their different contexts. In particular, the investigation of the logogram dur in astrological texts has consequences for the history of astrology. Now we see that this, as well as other elements of early horoscopic astrology described by Greek astrologers and hitherto thought to have been invented by them, had already been developed by the Babylonians. It used to be assumed that all three terms (DUR; ṭurru; GU) share the same basic idea, namely the description of a kind of “band” in the sky in which stars and planets can occasionally be seen. However, a closer look at the relevant text passages makes it clear that this cannot be the case. The terms refer to different types of astral units: planets including the Sun and the Moon (DUR; ṭurru; GU); constellations or parts of them (ṭurru; GU); individual stars (ṭurru). In addition, they appear in different text genres: in celestial omens (DUR; ṭurru; GU), in astronomical texts (DUR; ṭurru; GU and modifications such as GU-SI.SÁ-DÚB.BA and GU-TU.LU) and in astrological texts (DUR; GU). Each term, therefore, describes a different phenomenon. The Babylonian Sky This new series of ISLET, edited by Jeanette C. Fincke, explores cuneiform texts relating to the sky. According to the Mesopotamian understanding, this includes all celestial bodies as well as weather phenomena, but also all terms used in connection with their description. The textual sources in question span more than three millennia, with the bulk of them dating to the second and first millennium BCE. In this series, the text sources are prepared in such a way that not only Assyriologists, but also historians of astronomy and astrology can benefit from them.
The ancient practice of astrology, the interpretation of the movement of the stars in the sky as reflecting divine powers and enabling prognostication of the future, had a deep and pervasive influence on early and medieval Islamic thought and culture. The history of astrology, which had been introduced into the Iranianised world of Central Asia through Graeco-Babylonian influence, goes back to ancient times. Moreover, with the spread of Buddhism into Central Asia, Iran and China, Indian nakṣatra (lunar asterism) astrology was introduced. Later Parthian (250 BC-224 AD) and Sasanian (224-651 AD) kings are recorded to have maintained a "chief of the star-gazers" (axtarmārānsālār) at court where a regnal horoscope would be drawn up for each king.
From Earth to Heaven. The symbol of the scorpion and its astronomical association in Mesopotamia
E. Antonello (ed.) Atti del XVII Convegno SIA Ex Oriente: Mithra and the others. Astronomical contents in the cults of Eastern origin in ancient Italy and Western Mediterranean, Padova, pp. 311-328, 2021
Symbolic representations of the scorpion are attested in Mesopotamia since the Neolithic Period on several artifacts, such as pottery, cylinder seals and stele. From the 6 th to the 1 st millennium BC a constant connection of this symbol with the fertility and its related goddesses-such as Ishkhara and Ishtar-, all identified with Venus, is attested. Furthermore, in the first known religious cuneiform texts, e.g. the Poem of Gilgamesh, the scorpion presents celestial attributes as well as in the later astronomical compendia it is clearly associated with the actual Scorpio constellation. Thanks to the analysis of both iconographical and philological sources dated from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, this paper aims to analyse the persistence of the symbol of the scorpion and its meaning in the Mesopotamian culture and religion, identifying the particular characteristic inherited by the Classical Age.