Hephaestion, Hephaistion, or Hephaistio of Thebes (, ''Hēphaistíōn ho Thēbaĩos'') was a

Hellenized Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the te ...

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

astrologer Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

who wrote a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

treatise known as the ''Apotelesmatics'' or ''Apotelesmatika'' around AD 415. Much of the work appears to be an attempt to synthesize the earlier works of the 1st century astrologer

Dorotheus of Sidon Dorotheus of Sidon (, c. 75 CE - ?? CE) was a 1st-century Greek astrologer and astrological poet, who, during the Hellenistic Period, wrote a didactic poem on horoscopic astrology in Greek, known as the ''Pentateuch'' (Πεντάτευχος; lit. ...

and the 2nd century astrologer

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine, Islamic, and ...

. Hephaestion is seen mainly as one of the later compilers of the Hellenistic tradition of astrology since he mainly draws from earlier astrologers, including Antiochus of Athens, and he summarizes large portions of Ptolemy and Dorotheus, which is helpful to modern scholars since we have no other record of many of the authorities that he quotes. Hephaestion's intention appears to have been to reconcile the authoritative Ptolemaic tradition with the earlier practices represented by Dorotheus of Sidon. He wrote at a time and in a place (possibly

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

) when astrological ideas were being summarized and consolidated, after the removal of the capital of the

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. His contemporaries included

Paulus Alexandrinus Paulus Alexandrinus was an astrological author from the late Roman Empire. His extant work, ''Eisagogika'', or ''Introductory Matters'' (or ''Introduction''), which was written in 378 AD, is a treatment of major topics in astrology as practiced in ...

(378 AD) and the anonymous author of the well-known ''Treatise on Fixed Stars'' (379 AD). Although influential on later Byzantine astrologers, his work seems to have had little impact in the

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

tradition which followed. The first two volumes of the ''Apotelesmatics'' have been translated into English (by Robert Schmidt of Project Hindsight) and the third volume on

Katarchic astrology Katarchic astrology is the implementation of a type of horoscopic astrology in order to determine when would be most beneficial and rewarding moment in time to take a venture or undertaking, and is also known as electional astrology. Electional a ...

(e.g., electional) by Eduardo J. Gramaglia under Cazimi Press, Minneapolis.

References

*''Apotelesmatics, Hephaistio of Thebes, Book I,'' r. Robert H. Schmidt Project Hindsight, Greek Track Vol. XV., The Golden Hind Press (

Cumberland, MD Cumberland is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,075. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and comm ...

), 1994; and Book II ''ibid.'', 1998. *''Apotelesmatics Book III: On Inceptions,'' r. Eduardo J. Gramaglia editor and introduction Benjamin N. Dykes, Cazimi Press, (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 2013. *Robert Schmidt, Project Hindsigh

*''Late Classical Astrology: Paulus Alexandrinus and Olympiodorus (with the Scholia of later Latin Commentators)''. ranslated by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum.ARHAT, 2001. *From the periodical ''Culture and Cosmos''

*

David Pingree David Edwin Pingree (January 2, 1933 – November 11, 2005) was an American historian of mathematics in the ancient world. He was a University Professor and Professor of History of Mathematics and Classics at Brown University. Life Pingree gra ...

, ''Hephaestionis Thebani Apotelesmaticorum libri tres'', I–II. Leipzig: Teubner, 1973–1974

External links

Ἀποτελεσματικὰ Συντάγματα (Apotelesmatica), original text online
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of ''Apotelesmatics'' {{Authority control Year of birth missing 5th-century deaths Ancient Greek astrologers Ancient Greek writers Egyptian astrologers 5th-century Egyptian people 5th-century Byzantine writers Ancient Egyptian writers