I908.1 IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 671 



We thus find the source of all astrology in the ancient world 

 in the system that arose in the Euphrates-Valley ; and in view 

 of this it will be admitted that the thorough study of Babylonian- 

 Assyrian astrology is a factor of considerable importance in 

 tracing the intellectual development of mankind. Coming back, 

 therefore, to our immediate subject we have the curious phe- 

 nomenon that about coincident with the period when a genuine 

 science of astronomy takes a firm footing in Babylonia, astrol- 

 ogy begins its triumphant march throughout the world. It is 

 tempting to suppose that we have in this phenomenon the symp- 

 tom of an " exchange " of influences that, while on the one hand 

 Babylonia gave astrology to Greece, the contact with the scien- 

 tific spirit of Greece resulted in giving an impetus to astronom- 

 ical investigations in Babylonia. The possibility, indeed, of Greek 

 influence on Babylonian astronomy was suggested by Bouche- 

 Leclercq and is favored by Kugler.®^ Since, as now appears, the 

 credit for the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes rests with 

 the Greek astronomer, Hipparch, who announced it c. 130 B. C., and 

 since it would indeed appear that in the second century B. C. the 

 Babylonians, according to Kugler, were still ignorant of this prin- 

 ciple, there is certainly every reason to suppose that the Babylonians 

 were in this instance the pupils, and the Greeks the teachers. On the 

 other hand, the Greek astronomers seem to have obtained from the 

 Babylonians the names for the constellations of the ecliptic which we 

 still use at the present time. Certainly, for the beginnings of their 

 astronomy the Babylonians are not indebted to the Greeks since 

 those beginnings reach back beyond the contact of Orient with 



in his great work on Greek astrology the worthlessness of the traditions 

 which ascribe Greek astronomy and astrology to an Egyptian origin. See 

 especially the important note (" L'Astrologie Grecque,"' pp. 51-52) from which 

 it appears that " Chaldean " and " Egyptian " are used almost interchangeably 

 by uncritical Greek and Roman writers who hand down more or less fanciful 

 traditions. Since Boll (" Sphaera," p. 159 seq.) and others have demon- 

 strated the late origin of the zodiac of Denderah, the chief evidence for the 

 early introduction of astronomy in Egypt has fallen away; and there is no 

 reason for assuming that astrology flourished in Eg\'pt before the Ptolemaic 

 period. 



^ Bouche-Leclercq, 0. c, p. 50 and Kugler, " Kulturhistorische Bedeutung 

 der babylonischen Astronomic," p. 48. 



