equating

Egyptian months with the sun's position in the zodiacal signs for one
year, the Egyptian dates of voupnviai for four months of one year and
nine months of another, and some mention of what may be religious
festivals.
It is interesting to note that this text seems to have been used
only to fix the motions of the sun and moon in terms of Egyptian
calendar dates in a 25-year cycle. It is unclear from the text if this
would have primarily had astrological or calendrical significance.
Another possibility is that the cycle was used to correlate
parapegmata (which we know were being indexed to zodiacal signs in
Greece by the late second-century B.C.)78 with the Egyptian calendar.
77 Turner and Neugebauer, 1949.
78 See my comments on the Gemlnus parapegma and Miletus I in chapter 4, below.
Lehoux, What Are die Extant Parapegmata? -56-
The voupqvi'ai dates may have been used to count lunar days, as in
the astrological parapegmata, above, or may have reflected a local or
cult calendar.
C.iiJ Miletus I is a fragmentary inscriptional Greek parapegma
published by Diels and Rehm in 1904.70 There is an introduction on
a separate fragment, linked to the parapegma by Rehm79 80 based on
epigraphic similarity, which dates it to the year 110/109 B.C. The
parapegma itself has stellar phases listed, and holes for moveable
pegs around them. The phases are organized by the sun's position in
the zodiac.81 There is almost no weather information in the
preserved fragment. The only meteorological entry Is: "Cygnus sets,
the season of the west wind (Zephyrus) accompanying." I interpret
this as a seasonal marker rather than a strictly meteorological
prediction. Since it is the only such entry surviving in what appears
to be an otherwise strictly astronomical parapegma, I choose not to
class this parapegma as astrometeorological. It should serve,
however, to remind us just how artificial these modem classes are
when it comes to grouping and sorting such a diverse set of texts.
An excerpt from the sign of Aquarius can be seen in chapter 2,
fig. 1, above.
79 Diels and Rehm, 1904; Dessau, 1904.
80 Rehm, 'Parapegma', RE, col. 1299-1230. He had originally linked a different
introduction to it See Diels and Rehm. 1904, p. 102.
81 On this, see chapter 4, below.
Lehoux. What Are the Extant Pampegmala? -57-
Rehm's theory that Miletus I was meant to be used alongside
something like Miletus II82 83 assumes that a strictly astronomical
parapegma would have been unthinkable. I do not agree. Ifwe
assume that the people using the parapegmata know certain rules of
thumb, then the correlations of phases and weather do not need to be
explicitly stated in the calendar: to take a modem example, I do not
need to buy a special calendar that tells me to plant my annuals (in
Southern Ontario! on the weekend of the 24th of May. I only need to
know which weekend is the 24th and I trust my memory for the rest.
C.HiJ The Antikythera Mechanism33 is a remarkable geared
astronomical computer pulled from a first-century B.C. shipwreck by
sponge divers. It seems to have been used to show the relative
motions of the sun and the moon according to the Metonic cycle and
the Egyptian calendar. It includes an astronomical parapegma. One
of the geared dials on the front of this unique
calendrical/astronomical instrument is divided into graduated
zodiacal signs. Part of Virgo, all of Libra, and the very beginning of
Scorpio are preserved. There are 30 graduated divisions in Libra,
which Price reasonably interprets as degrees. Above the first degree of
Libra the letter A is clearly marked. Price also thinks (but is not
certain) that he can see a B above Libra 11, a f above Libra 14, a A
above Libra 16, a E above Scorpio 1, and (most of the way around the
82 Rehm, 'Parapegma1, PE, col. 1300.
83 Published by Price, 1974: compare also the sixth-century A.D. device published by
Field and Wright, f985.
Lehoux, What Are the Extant Pnrapegmnta? -58-
dial, an CO above Virgo 18. Price proposes (I think correctly! that
these letters are keyed to the "parapegma inscription" just below the
dial. The largest preserved fragment of this inscription reads:
ZI[...
H OP[...
©[...
i[...
[K elvenilng.
[A) The Hyaldes selt in the ejv[elni[ng.
M Taurus [belgins to rjisle.
[NI Vega rises in the e[v]ening.
[1 The Pleilades ri(sle in the morning.
O The Hyades rise in the morning.
FT Gemini begins to ri(se.
P Aquila rises in the evenfing.
Z Arcturus sets in the mloming.
It appears that the Greek letters [in the left column of the inscription)
were meant to correspond to the letters inscribed over particular
degrees of the zodiac on the parapegma dial itself, and the stellar
phase corresponding to each letter on the dial could thus be read off
from the inscription.
Much of the inscription following the letters A through N has
now been unfortunately destroyed by efforts to study and preserve the
instrument, but notes taken by Rehm have allowed Price to
reconstruct it with some certainty. Price tentatively reconstructs the
remainder of the inscription by comparing it with Geminus, but this
is misguided, since even the preserved fragment cannot be made to fit
well with Geminus.84 By counting day-differences from the autumnal
equinox [A on the Antikythera dial) to the other letters (if indeed they
are secure) and comparing this to the day-differences in other
84 See Price's table 4, p. 46, and his comments on the problems with It on p. 49.
Lehoux, W/hal Are the Extant Pampvymala? -59-
parapegmata, I have found closer correspondence to stellar phases In
the following parapegmata (the equinox is italicized):
(a) Columella: Sept. II, 24, Oct. 4, 8 (one day late), 10,
13 (one day late], and 28;
(b) Ptolemy, for the clima where the day is 14 hours
long: (no entry), Thoth 28, Phaophi 7 (one day early),
11, 12 (one day early), and 26 (two days early);
(c) Ptolemy, for the clima where the day is 14 1/2 hours
long: Thoth 17 (two-days late), 28, Phaophi 8, 10
(one day early), (no entry), (no entry), 27 (one day
early);
(d)Parisinus gr. 2419: Sept. 6,19, 29, Oct. 3 (one day
late], 5 (one day late), 20 (one day late).
Since so many different possibilities are attested, and since most of
the letters on the dial are insecure, I think any reconstruction of the
entries for A through E. and U). would be doubtful! Moreover, there is
no guarantee that all of the letters on the dial represented purely
astronomical phenomena. They may have included important
seasonal markers such as winds (compare Miletus I, above).
C. iv) The Venusia Fasti?5 is a fragmentary Latin calendar dating
from the first century B.C. It is complete from the Kalends ofMay
through to XII K. July. Apart from listing the nundinal letters and
the diesfasti, nefasti and comitales, it has four astronomical entries:
Ga6 NONfAEJfsc. maiae) FfASTUS). VERGUJfAE)
EXORtfVNTUR)
B XV(sc. K limine) CfOMTTALISf SOL IN GEMINOS)
B XIII (sc. K. Inline) C(OMTTALIS). SOL IN CANCRO
A VI{sc. K. Inline) CfOMITAUS). SOLSTITIVM
CONFECTfVM) 85 86
85 Degrassi, 1963, vol. Xm.2, p. 55-62.
86 The leftmost column is for the nundinal letters, A through G.
Lehoux, What Are the Extant Pnmpesmntn? 60
Unlike the Menologia Rustica8] which I do not include as
parapegmata, the Venusia Fasti contains the date of a stellar phase,
and the dates of the sun's entry into the signs of Gemini and Cancer
are given precisely. In the Menologia, the sun's position in the zodiac
is listed only roughly, such that each sign is equated with a
particular month.
C.vJ The Geoponica Phase List,88 * attributed to Quintilius, simply
lists the rising and setting dates of certain prominent fixed stars and
constellations (Arcturus, the Pleiades, Orion, etc.), but does include a
mention of the Etesian winds. Dates are given in the modified
Roman calendar. Most of it seems to have been excerpted from the
Quintilius parapegma, although there is one entry missing from
Quintilius: Tfj iy't o o 'lo uAi'o u. irpoicudbv ecpos ft t it (AAei which occurs in
the Geoponica phase list at a point corresponding with a corruption
in Quintilius.80 Dates in this phase list can be displaced by one or
more days from those in Quintilius, although sometimes they do not
differ.
87 See DegrassI, 1963. vol. XIII.2, p. 286 L; Broughton, 1936.
88 Geoponica, 1.9.
80 See from IV Nones July to IX Kal. August In Boll, 1910b, p. 7.