waybread
Well-known member
keep in mind that
Ptolemy did not observe Australian skies
and so
did not factor in
that Aries
for Southern Hemisphere
heralds Autumn
Nor did Ptolemy consider people living on the Equator.
The crux is, do signs to derive their meanings from the seasons or from the stars.
Both have their problems
and
Ptolemy has done nothing but confuse the issue
JA, you might enjoy reading more on the history with astrology, perhaps starting with Nicholas Campion's Dawn of Astrology (vol. 1 of his 2 vol. history of astrology,) or Francesca Rochberg's The Heavenly Writing, which a survey of Babylonian astronomy-astrology.
As you know, astrology diffused into the Greek- and Latin-speaking worlds from Mesopotamia. The Hellenists, including your favourite Vettius Valens, adopted the Babylonian system of signs and planets in signs. based upon seasons in the lands they knew about.
The Babylonians apparently believed in a flat earth, but the Greeks determined it to be round from an early date, based partly on philosophical grounds, but also on empirical evidence.
None of the Greeks, however, including your favourite Vettius Valens, knew anything about the southern hemisphere. European exploration and discovery of land south of the equator has been attributed to the Egyptian pharaoh Neko's sponsorship of an expedition, or to the Phoenicians, but serious European knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa awaited the 15th century CE. Australia wasn't discovered by Europeans until the 17th century.
The seasons and signs as understood by Vettius Valens were those of the northern hemisphere. We know this because of the star-calendar climatic account that he gives at the beginning of his Anthologies.
I've attached Ptolemy's map which shows the world as known to the Greeks and Romans.
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