Vettius Valens, Anthologies

Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book I
front parts, Syria; to the middle, the Euphrates and Tigris, Egypt, Libya, the interconnected Egyptian
rivers, and the Indus. Under the middle of the Water Jug are the Tanais and the rest of the rivers which
flow from the Hyperboreans to the north and west. /13K/
Pisces is the celestial sign which is feminine, moist, quite wet, bicorporeal, with many offspring,
mossy, scaley, sinewy, humpbacked, leprous, two-formed, mute, motile, with rough skin, in conflict with
itself because one Fish is northern, the other southern. It is moist, downward-trending, servile, changeable,
with many offspring, bicorporeal, sociable/lewd, with some limbs missing, the cause of wandering, varied.
Men born under this sign are unsteady, unreliable, changing from bad fortune to good, sexy, theivish,
shameless, prolific, popular.
As a whole, Pisces is cool and breezy. By parts it is as follows: the first parts are temperate, the
middle moist, the last destructive and worthless. It has…stars. In the north the rest of Andromeda rises
with Pisces, as well as the rest of Perseus—the parts on the right—and Triangulum in Aries. In the south
the head of the Southern Fish rises. Neptune, /13P/ Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter. In the south Ara and
the rest of Hydra set ; in the north, nothing.
Pisces lies toward the north wind. It also lies toward the zone of the Red Sea, having not a few
islands under its control, above which lie India and the so-called Indian Ocean. In its eastern parts Pisces
touches Parthia, the land of the Indies, and the Eastern Ocean; in its northern parts, Scythia. In its western
parts it washes with its waves Myosormos, Orthosormos, and the surrounding cities.
According to the Sphaerica, Aquila, cut off by the north pole, and part of Sagitta lie to the north of
Pisces, not far away from the north pole. The so-called Pegasus is within the Arctic pole. (The Arctic
Circle, lying in the middle of the universe, stands apart from the other divisions . It has in it
the Great Bear (called Cynosura) stretching from the north toward the east, and from the south the other
Bear, called the Lesser, /14K/ which rises at midnight, and which the so–called Bearguard
controls, having a rein on both Bears. He is invisible depending on the elevation of the two Bears. One
looks north, the other south.)
The following zones are subject to Pisces: to the front, the Euphrates and the Tigris; to the middle,
Syria and the Red Sea, India, mid-Persis and the neighboring lands; to the tail, the Arabian Sea, the Red
Sea, and the Borysthenes river; to the tie of the Northern Fish, Thrace; to that of the Southern Fish, Asia,
Sardinia.
3. The 50 Terms
The first 6° of Aries belong to Jupiter: temperate, robust, prolific, beneficent. The next 6° belong to
Venus: cheerful, clever, radiant, even, /14P/ pure, handsome. The following 8° fall under the ambiguous
influence of Mercury: changeable, clever, idle, windy, stormy, full of thunder and lightning. The next 5°
belong to Mars: baneful, fiery, unsteady, characteristic of rash, wicked men. The next 5° belong to Saturn:
cold, barren, malicious, injured.
The first 8° of Taurus belong to Venus: prolific, with many children, moist, downward-trending,
convicted, hating their children . The next 6° belong to Mercury: intelligent, sensible, criminal, with
few offspring, sinister, fatal. The next 8° belong to Jupiter: great-hearted, bold, lucky, ruling and
beneficent, magnanimous, temperate, loving modesty. The fourth term, the next 5°, belong to Saturn:
sterile, barren, a eunuch, a vagabond, censorious, theatrical, gloomy, toilsome. The final 3° belong to
Mars: masculine, tyrannical, fiery, harsh, murderous, a looter of temples and a criminal—not an unknown
one, rather destructive and short-lived.
/15K/ The first 6° of Gemini belong to Mercury: temperate, with fine weather, intelligent, versatile,
skilled, active, poetic, prolific. The next 6° belong to Jupiter: competitive, temperate, with fine weather,
prolific, luxuriant, beneficent. The third term, 5°, belongs to Venus: blossoming, artistic, addicted to
plays and mimes, poetic, a contest winner, popular, cheerful, prolific. The fourth term, 7° belong to Mars:
much-burdened, with no brothers, having few children, a wanderer, with a good income, destructive,
bloody, inquisitive. The last 6° belong to Saturn: temperate, a procurator, having possessions,
intellectual, with a wide knowledge, distinguished, noted for intelligence, an arranger of great matters, most
famous.
The first 7° of Cancer belong to Mars: hurling thunderbolts, moved in different directions, uneven,
contradictory in his wishes, manic, prolific, poor, destructive, and in the end, base. The next 6° belong to
Venus: prolific, censorius, moist, changeable, skilled, popular, promiscuous,. The following 6° belong to
Mercury: precise, a robber, a leader in public matters, a tax gatherer, in the public eye, rich, wealthproducing.
The fourth term, 7°, belongs to Jupiter: kingly, imperious, glorious, judging, great-hearted,
temperate, ruling, entirely noble. The final 4° belong to Saturn. In this term everything is water, moist,
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