Astronomicon, Book I

ever it may be; the δίσωμα [bicorporeal] on the contrary, as Manilius explains in verses 176–96, embrace the junction of two seasons and combine the characters of both.

Sext. emp. Against the Astrologers 10: "They call Gemini and the sign diametrically opposite to them, Sagittarius, as well as Virgo and Pisces, bicorporeal; but the rest they do not call bicorporeal." comm. Ptol. Tetrabiblos p. 29: "It (is called) bicorporeal not because it consists of two bodies, but because they are between two seasons." Maneth. IV 452–5: "In two-formed signs..., they are yoked together in the sky in Pisces or Gemini, or in the circle of the Archer, or in the holy ear-bearing Virgin." Ludw. Maxim. p. 105 16–8: "Tropical: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. Solid: Taurus, Leo, Scorpius, Aquarius. Bicorporeal: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces." Heph. Theb. I 1, Vett. Val. I 2, Paul. Alex. A–A 4, C.C.A.G. VII pp. 194–213. Paul. Alex. B: "Tropical are ♈︎ ♋︎ ♎︎ ♑︎... equal in number to these are the solid [signs], namely ♉︎ ♌︎ ♏︎ ♒︎, with the bicorporeal [signs] being equal in number to them, which are ♊︎ ♍︎ ♐︎ ♓︎." schol. German. Breys. p. 107 (Jahn Censor. p. 78): "Every fourth of them is either tropical or solid or biform... next to the tropical are the solid, placed before these are the biform." Heph. Theb. p. 62 26: "Capricorn... two-natured," Vett. Val. p. 11 12, Ludw. Maxim. p. 108 5, C.C.A.G. I p. 166 10 sq., VII p. 208 16. Ludw. Maxim. p. 109 26: "Two-formed: Capricorn, Pisces," C.C.A.G. V iii p. 97 4. Vett. Val. p. 11 5: "Sagittarius... half-finished," 13 "Capricorn... half-finished," Ludw. Maxim. p. 109 2.

In citing the prose Greek astrologers, who are edited as ill as they deserve, I shall often make tacit corrections. Thus in Paul. Alex. B above I have substituted ♍︎ for ♑︎.

Jacob p. XXII invents a distinction, unknown to any Roman writer, between gemina, biformia, and duplicia; and Mr Bouché-Leclercq, l’astrologie Grecque p. 150, quotes Jacob in the belief that he is quoting Manilius.

197–202 The three contiguous signs of Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer differ from all the rest in that they rise and set hindforemost. Because in Gemini the sun is in apogee, his motion is slowest in this and in the two adjacent signs; and this retardation is fancifully derived by Manilius from the reverse position of the signs themselves.

Scaliger calls these three ἀποστρεφόμενα [turned away] and the other nine ὀρθοστάδια [standing upright], but I have not found those terms in the astrologers or astronomers; the former would be misleading (since ἀπόστροφα has a very different sense), and the latter inappropriate. Taurus is described in Vett. Val. p. 6 21 as rising from the hindparts, and the Latins perpetually call him auersus [turned away]. Jacob p. XXII confounds these three signs with the πλάγια [oblique] or obliquely rising signs, six in number and contrasted with six ὀρθά [upright], on which Manilius touches in III 275 sqq.; and this term he translates into Christian Latin as transuorsim orientia [rising transversely]. Mr Bouché-Leclercq on p. 150 again copies him, and on p. 151 taxes Manilius with Jacob’s blunder.

203–222 The signs are divided into diurnal and nocturnal on three different plans. By the first (211–217), which Manilius prefers, they lie in pairs, and the pairs lie alternately: Pisces Aries, Cancer Leo, Scorpius Sagittarius, are diurnal; Taurus