NA TURE 



481 



THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1903. 



ANCIENT ASTRONOMY. 



Sphaera; neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen 

 zur Geschichte der Sternbilder. Yon Franz Boll. Pp. 

 xii + 564 ; with illustrations and 6 plates. (Leipzig : 

 Teubner, 1903.) Price 24 marks. 



THIS is undoubtedly one of the most important works 

 on the history of astronomy that has appeared for 

 many years. The author here publishes and annotates 

 the text of several newly discovered manuscripts of 

 astronomical-astrological authors of the Classical and 

 Byzantine periods. The names of Teukros the Babyl- 

 onian, Antiochos, Yalens, and the poet Johannes 

 Kamateros were known to us before, but Herr Boll has 

 considerably increased our knowledge of them and their 

 work, and he has, indeed, almost added a new chapter 

 to the history of astronomy. 



The first part of Herr Boll's work deals with the critical 

 discussion of the new texts, the second with the description 

 of the constellations mentioned in them, the third with 

 the history of the "Sphaera Barbarica " in reference to 

 the work of Nigidius and others. The third part closes 

 with a sketch of the history of medieval and modern 

 astronomy. To the appendix Herr Karl Dyroff has 

 contributed a most useful edition and translation of part 

 of the" Book of the Great Introduction" {Kit&b al-mudhal 

 al-kabtr) of the Arab astronomer of Irak, Abu Ma'sar 

 Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Balhi. 



Naturally the greater part of the book is taken up with a 

 description of the constellations of the Greek and Egyptian 

 Heavens as given by Teukros and the rest. This leads 

 Herr Boll to deal with many extremely interesting 

 questions in the course of his annotations on the words 

 of his authorities. The section on the Egyptian 

 " Sphaera" is extremely good, and we must congratulate 

 a "nichtagyptolog " upon the general accuracy of his 

 critiques of Egyptological and other theories of Egyptian 

 astronomy. Nevertheless, a few references ought to have 

 been made by the author to other authorities besides 

 those who have written in German and French. He 

 seems unacquainted, as far as we can see, with works in 

 English which deal with the subject. Yet there are 

 several of weight and authority, notably Sir Norman 

 Lockyer's " Dawn of Astronomy." 



New light is thrown by this author on the question of 

 the origin of the representations on the Graeco-Egyptian 

 zodiacs at Dendera and Esna. He shows that the 

 Egyptian element in them is really greater than has often 

 been supposed, and at the same time notes the probable 

 origin of the non-Egyptian constellation-figures, &c, of 

 which the majority are, as in the case with the Greek 

 " Sphaera," of Babylonian origin, such as the Goat-Fish, 

 the Scorpion, the Centaur, &c. The signs of the zodiac 

 are all of Babylonian origin, as Jensen showed several 

 years ago in his useful book, " Die Kosmologie der 

 Babylonier." 



Herr Boll further shows that the purely Egyptian 

 figures in these zodiacs and in more ancient astronomical 

 representations in the tombs of the Biban al-Muluk and 

 NO. 1743, VOL. 67] 



elsewhere are really intended to represent constellations, 

 and not single stars, as Letronne and Ideler thought. 

 He gives interesting parallel plates of the Zodiac of 

 Dendera from a photograph of a cast and from the old 

 picture in the "Expedition de l'Egypte," which is by no 

 means incorrect, as may be seen on comparison with the 

 photograph. Further, on p. 201, he gives an illustration 

 of a circular zodiac or planisphere from a Babylonian 

 boundary-stone of about 1100 B.C. ; an important monu- 

 ment in the history of astronomy. 



How the Egyptians regarded the stars is shown by the 

 author with the aid of a quotation from Prof. Maspero's 

 " Revue de l'Histoire des Religions " : — 



"Die agyptische Anschauung sah uberhaupt in den 

 Sternen Leuchten. ' Les astres ne son; pas pour les 

 Egyptiens des corps celestes ; ce sont des lampes 

 (khabisou) allumes au firmament. Les Egyptiens 

 cqnqevaient les dieux-etoiles comme certains peres de 

 1'Eglise consideraient les anges charges d'entretenir les 

 astres : e'etaient des dieux lampadophores. Au Tom- 

 beau de Seti I" Isis-Sothis porte sa Iampe sous forme 

 d'etoile a cinq branches au-dessus de sa coiffure et 

 Osiris-Orion la sienne au-dessus de son sceptre.' Ganz 

 besonders aber war nach Brugsch der Name Lampe 

 oder Leuchten (^ebs, lucerna) den Dekansternen eigen. 

 Auf den beiden Tierkreisen von Esne sind tiensch- 

 menschliche Gestalten mit Sperber- oder Hunds- oder 

 Widder-kopfen zu sehen, die auf vorgestreckten 

 Hlinden kleine Lampen tragen : ' dieux lampado- 

 phores ' oder h(K.avo\ ptra \afimibwv, ganz wie sie 

 Teukros beschreibt." 



In dealing with the text of the newly discovered 

 authorities and collating them with one another, Herr 

 Boll has often been led to make interesting comparisons 

 and connections. In describing the Ram and the Bull, 

 Antiochos speaks of a constellation called "The Syrian 

 Horse," o 2i!ptos "irnros. Valens, in describing the Bull, 

 puts in place of this "the heavenly Osiris," "Ocripis vtttios. 

 It is evident, as Herr Boll points out, that 6 Siipios mnos 

 is a corruption of "0<npis vnrios, the real name of the 

 constellation. As a corruption it is rather a curiosity. 



Herr Boll has omitted to note, in speaking of the con- 

 stellation Typhon (the Great Bear), that this name is 

 purely Greek, and would have been unintelligible to an 

 Egyptian ; he uses it as if he thought it were the 

 Egyptian name. The Egyptologists are to blame for 

 this, and we wish they would banish this " Typhon, : ' 

 identifications of Hathor with " Venus," and talk about 

 "Jupiter" Ammon from their works. The Egyptian 

 name for the Great Bear or Plough is the " Thigh of Set," 

 the Ahriman of Egyptian religion, who was identified by 

 the Greeks with their giant Typhaon or Typhon, son 

 of Typhoeus and grandson of Tartaros. Ordinarily the 

 constellation was called " the Thigh," and a very good 

 name it is too, almost as good as our " Plough," and 

 much better than " Charles's Wain " or the " Great 

 Bear." The form is just that of the thigh of an animal. 



Altogether this book will be found very interesting by all 

 astronomers who are interested in the past history of their 

 science, and very useful to the Hellenist, the Egyptologist 

 and cuneiform scholar, who will find (with the English 

 exceptions already noted) the latest results of both astro- 

 nomical and archaeological researches bearing upon the 

 subject of the astronomy of the ancients. 



Y 



