Hellenistic Decans

[Therese_Hamilton]

Joseph Ledzion wrote:
Pardon me for not being entirely lucid on the point. I am also familiar with this adopted system of decans "from the Hindus." Let me just be clear in establishing that the system of decans I described above, which can be found in the settings of the astrological software ZET 8 labelled as those of "Manilius" are in fact not the same as the one's described in this passage by James Holden...

Again, it is unclear to me whether this system supposedly linked with Manilius is in fact his, and it is this I seek clarification for. So far, all the preliminary research I have done into the matter shows that Manilius' system of decans is related to Images, and not Stars...

Oh, sorry, Joseph. I must have read too quickly. I checked Manilius, and it does seem that he only mentions the decans as related to zodiac images beginning with Aries and continuing around the circle in order of the zodiac. I remember that Rob Hand mentioned a while ago that Manilius in many ways seems to have his own brand of astrology that often differs from much of Hellenistic astrology. Manilius seems to be something of a mystery when compared to other authors.

Therese Hamilton

[Abd-Allah Meyers]

Good day,

Hopefully no one will mind if I try to rekindle this interesting thread after about 1 3/4 years.

In his book "Astrological Origins" published in 1971, the 20th century Irish astrologer Cyril Fagan wrote Chapter Seven, "Decans or Pentades", 12 pages, on the question of decans and their origins. He included two pictures of wall paintings from ancient Egyptian sites. If I understand him correctly, his opinion was that these paitings depict only the upper half of the zodiac and, therefore, the 36 subdivisions were not decans but pentades. He also explained e. g. several fixed star positions in the paintings to document his view.

Have Cyril Fagan's findings be refuted or modified by subsequent research? Would it perhaps be appropriate to envisage systems of both decans and pentades, the latter possibly with some connexion to confines (terms)?