Hephaistio of Thebes

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Hephaistio of Thebes (c. 380 CE) was an Egyptian astrologer who wrote Apotelesmatics, a fourth-century Roman-era paraphrase, in Greek, of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos. Hephaistio draws in some ideas from earlier astrologers as he summarizes Ptolemy, which is helpful to modern scholars, since we have no other record of most of the authorities he quotes.

Hephaistio's intention may be to reconcile the authoritative Ptolemaic tradition with the earlier practices represented by sources in the tradition of Hellenistic astrology such as Dorotheus of Sidon, Vettius Valens, and Nechepso & Petosiris. He wrote at a time and in a place (likely Alexandria) when astrological ideas were being summarized and consolidated, after the removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople. His contemporaries included Paulus Alexandrinus (378 CE) and the anonymous author of the well-known Treatise on Fixed Stars (379 A.D.)

Although influential on later Byzantine astrologers, his work seems to have had little direct resonance in the Arab tradition which followed.

The first two volumes of Apotelesmatics have been translated into English (by Robert Schmidt, for Project Hindsight); the third volume on katarchic practices in astrology (e.g., Electional astrology) is in preparation.

References

• Apotelesmatics, Hephaistio of Thebes, Book I, [tr. Robert H.Schmidt], Project Hindsight, Greek Track Vol. XV., The Golden Hind Press (Cumberland, MD), 1994; and Book II ibid., 1998.
• Robert Schmidt, Project Hindsight [1]
• Late Classical Astrology: Paulus Alexandrinus and Olympiodorus (with the Scholia of later Latin Commentators). [Translated by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum.] ARHAT, 2001.
• From the periodical Culture and Cosmos, [2]
• Wikipedia's article on Hephaistio of Thebes - retrieved 1/28/2006 under the GNU Free Documentation License

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