The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence (Ancient Magic and Divination)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 900430620X ISBN 13: 9789004306202

Publisher: Brill, 2015

In The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum investigates for the first time the concept of the daimon (daemon, demon), normally confined to religion and philosophy, within the theory and practice of ancient western astrology (2nd century BCE - 7th century CE). This multi-disciplinary study covers the daimon within astrology proper as well as the daimon and astrology in wider cultural practices including divination, Gnosticism, Mithraism and Neo-Platonism. It explores relationships between the daimon and fate and Daimon and Tyche (fortune or chance), and the doctrine of lots as exemplified in Plato's Myth of Er. In finding the impact of Egyptian and Mesopotamian ideas of fate on Hellenistic astrology, it critically examines astrology's perception as propounding an unalterable destiny.

About the Author:

Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Ph.D. (2009), Warburg Institute, London, translates astrological texts and writes on the history, philosophy and practice of astrology from antiquity to the early modern period. She is a tutor at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Review:

"...Greenbaum's The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology will indubitably enthrall those interested in the difference between fatalism and determinism and the solutions provided by astrologers of the past." -Levente László, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Aestimatio, vol. 13 (2016-2018)

"...the book has achieved a new level of excellence in the subject area." -Nicolas Campion, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2017)