The dawn of astrology : a cultural history of Western astrology. Volume 1, The ancient and classical worlds / Nicholas Campion.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campion, Nicholas.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astrology.

Physical Description:

xi, 388 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, 2008.

Summary:

This is the first comprehensive examination of astrology's origins and it examines the foundations of a major feature of popular culture in the contemporary west, one which has its origins in the ancient world. Campion explores the relationship between astrology and religion, magic and science, and explores its use in politics and the arts.

Beginning with theories of the origins of religion in sun-worship, it spans the period between the first Palaeolithic lunar counters around 30,000BC and the end of the classical world and rise of Christianity. Campion challenges the idea that astrology was invented by the Greeks, and asks whether its origins lie in Near-Eastern religion, or whether it can be considered a decadent Eastern import to the West. He considers the evidence for reverence for the stars in Neolithic culture, Mesopotamian astral divination, Egyptian stellar religion, and examines attitudes to astrology and celestial prophecy in the Bible. He considers such artefacts as the mysterious, fifteen-thousand year-old `Venus of Lauselle', the reasons for the orientation of the pyramids, the latest theories on Stonehenge as a sacred observatory, Greek theories of the ascent of the soul to the stars and the Roman emperor Nero's use of astrology to persecute his rivals.

Contents:

1 Distant Echoes: Origins of Astrology 1

2 Prehistory: Myths and Megaliths 15

3 The Mesopotamian Cosmos: The Marriage of Heaven and Earth 35

4 Mesopotamian Astrology: The Writing of Heaven 51

5 The Assyrians and Persians: Revolution and Reformation 69

6 Egypt: The Kingdom of the Sun 87

7 Egypt: The Stars and the Soul 99

8 The Hebrews: Prophets and Planets 109

9 Greece: Homer, Hesiod and the Heavens 127

10 Greece: The Platonic Revolution 149

11 The Hellenistic World: The Zodiac 173

12 The Hellenistic World: Scepticism and Salvation 185

13 Hellenistic Astrology: Signs and Influences 203

14 Rome: The State, the Stars and Subversion 225

15 Christianity: A Star out of Jacob 245

16 Rome: The Imperial Heaven 257

17 Christianity: The Triumph of the Sun 267

Afterword: Decline and Survival 291.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-377) and index.

ISBN:

9781441127372

1441127372

9781847252142

1847252141

OCLC:

277204399

Publisher Number:

99985449129