DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM

Author(s): John Z. Wee

Source: Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 67 (2015), pp. 217-233
Published by: American Schools of Oriental Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5615/jcunestud.67.2015.0217
Accessed: 04-11-2015 09:50 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of
Cuneiform Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN
IN CUNEIFORM

John Z. Wee (The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)

Abstract

Widely depicted in writings and drawings from ancient classical, medieval, and modern times, the Zodiac Man
(Homo signorum) represents a roughly consistent correlation of zodiacal names with (human) body parts. Here,
I announce the first discovery of the Zodiac Man in cuneiform writing and possibly its earliest attestation in the
history of ideas. This Zodiac Man belongs to a hitherto misunderstood astrological table on a British Museum tablet
(BM 56605), and its function in the table helps to clarify late Babylonian methods of medical astrology.

BELCH: I did think, by the excellent constitution of thy leg,

it was formed under the star of a galliard. … What
shall we do else? Were we not born under Taurus?
AGUECHEEK: Taurus! That’s sides and heart.
BELCH: No, sir; it is legs and thighs.
– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene 3

Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek were both wrong of course. As Shakespeare must have known,
Taurus was the sign of the neck. Perhaps more telling than the bard’s astrological wisdom, however, was the as-
sumption that Elizabethan audiences shared his familiarity with the Zodiac Man and could therefore laugh at the
joke. The Zodiac Man or Homo signorum (“Man of Signs”) represents a pairing of zodiacal names with regions of
the human body, images of which appeared ubiquitously in calendars, devotional Books of Hours, and treatises
on philosophy, astrology, and medicine during the Middle Ages (fig. 1). Medieval physicians, in particular, found
a pragmatic daily use for such connections between the heavens and human anatomy: Having observed that the
moon overhead attracted high tides, they theorized the dangers of letting blood from a body part whose zodiacal
sign was occupied by the moon, since this might cause the tide of blood to gush out in uncontrollable streams.1

These cited series are designated by the following abbreviations in square brackets: Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs [CAAG]; Cata-
logus codicum astrologorum graecorum [CCAG]. In addition, I refer to cuneiform entries in the Diagnostic Series S a - g i g by their tablet
numbers, instead of the page numbers in the following editions: René Labat, Traité akkadien de diagnostics et pronostics médicaux (Paris:
Academie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences, 1951) [TDP + S a - g i g tablet number as arabic numeral]; N. P. Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische
Diagnostik, AOAT 43 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2000) [DPS + Sa - g i g tablet number as arabic numeral]; JoAnn Scurlock and B. R. Andersen,
Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005) [DPS + S a -g i g tablet number as roman numeral].
1.  “Do not piece a member with iron, when the moon occupies a sign that governs that member” (Centiloquium, Aphorism 20) in A. Boer,
Claudii Ptolemaei Opera quae exstant omnia, III, 2: Karpos, Pseudo-Ptolemaei Fructus sive Centiloquium (Leipzig: Teubner, 1952), 41. For the

217 JCS 67 (2015)

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
218 JOHN Z. WEE

Fig. 1. Zodiac Man from Medical Miscellany

(Germany, fifteenth century CE), British Li-
brary MS Arundel 251, f. 46; Public domain
image available from British Library’s online
Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts: http://
www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanu-
scripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=3031.

Even the dawn of modernity and the decline of bloodletting could not efface the Zodiac Man with its deep cultural
roots. The figure continued to adorn Poor Richard almanacs by Benjamin Franklin, occult writings by Ebenezer
Sibly and others, and numerous publications of The Old Farmer’s Almanac and astrological paperbacks to the pres-
ent day.2

Arabic origins of this work, see R. Lemay, “Origin and Success of the Kitāb Thamara of Abū Ja‘far Ahmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm: From the
Tenth to the Seventeenth Century in the World of Islam and the Latin West,” Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of
Arabic Science 2 (1978) 2:91–107. Note also the instruction to “avoid the treatment, cutting with a knife or scalpel from the limb whose govern-
ment belongs to the sign in which the Moon or ascendent is at that hour” (V, 8) in D. Pingree, Dorothei Sidonii Carmen Astrologicum (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1976), 315. Roger Bacon gave an account of a patient who disobeyed the advice and therefore died: “And the physician Haly gives this
reason saying, because the moon is in the sign, humors flow to that body part…” J. H. Bridges, The ‘Opus Majus’ of Roger Bacon (Oxford: Wil-
liams & Norgate, 1900), 1:381–82. The volvelle (for determining the current moon-sign) and the Zodiac Man (for determining the body region
affected by that moon-sign) are closely associated in MS Ashmole 789, f. 363r, by Nicholas of Lynn (ca. 1387 CE) in the Bodleian Library (Ox-
ford); MS Egerton 2572, ff. 50v–51, from the Guild Book of the Barber Surgeons of York (ca. 1486 CE) in the British Library (London). In other
images, sharp blades connect each zodiacal sign to a body part, threatening to inflict a greater wound than that caused by the physician’s blood-
letting knife. See MS Canon Misc. 559, f. 2r, in the Bodleian Library (Oxford); the Michael of Rhodes manuscript (fifteenth century CE), f. 103b.
2.  To give but a few examples of the Zodiac Man in more modern times, see Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1753), 1;
Ebenezer Sibly, A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology; or, the Art of Foretelling Future Events and Contingencies, by
the Aspects, Positions, and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies. Founded on Natural Philosophy, Scripture, Reason, and the Mathematics (London:
1826), 1060 (fig. 4); R. B. Thomas, The Old Farmer’s 2013 Almanac (Dublin, NH: Yankee, 2012), 228.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 219

We are grateful to the medievalists for their wide-ranging historical surveys of the Zodiac Man in the history
of the western world.3 Though it was certainly possible for the human body to be divided up and assigned to the
twelve zodiacal names in a variety of ways, the pairing of body regions with zodiacal units remained, to a remark-
able degree, consistent over the centuries. In fact, deviations from the pattern could suggest how unsuitable the
status quo was as a reflection of the medical body. An unusual eleventh-century CE drawing (Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS
lat. 7028, f. 154v) and two Byzantine manuscripts devote five zodiacal signs (Aries–Leo) to the head, in acknowl-
edgement of the anatomical complexity of the head and its parts.4 By contrast, the stereotypical Zodiac Man seems
to be the product of purely metrical considerations that dissected the human frame into sections of roughly equal
height, so that only one zodiacal sign (Aries) deals with the head, while an extraordinary total of four zodiacal
signs (Sagittarius–Pisces) concern themselves with the legs! Scholars have recognized that the Zodiac Man grew
out of long ancient traditions in Near Eastern and Egyptian cultures that regarded the earth as a mirror of the
heavens, but many situate its final formulation in the Greco-Roman milieu.5 To the astrologer-poet Marcus Ma-
nilius (ca. 10–30 CE) is ascribed the earliest account of the Zodiac Man, described in the florescent language of
Roman imperium and jurisprudence:6

The Ram is allotted the head as Princeps of all, and the handsome neck is given by census to the Bull. To the Twins are
inscribed the arms joined to shoulders. The breast is allocated to the Crab. The reign over sides and shoulder blades
belongs to the Lion. As her individual lot, the lower abdomen falls to the Maiden. The Scales rule over the buttocks,
and the Scorpion delights in the groin. The thighs assent to the Centaur. Capricorn commands both knees. The
pouring Waterman arbitrates the lower legs, and the Fishes adjudicate the feet. Astronomica II, 453–65 // IV, 701–10.

Latin accounts by Manilius (§A) and later Julius Firmicus (§G) are actually in the minority, and most of the
preserved writings on the Zodiac Man are in the intellectual lingua of Greek. In table 1 (of three parts A–C), I
compare body vocabulary from a selection of ancient sources that connect the body to the zodiac, even when, in
some cases (§F1, §N), the subject considered is not a human body but a cosmic one. Though my English transla-
tions in table 1 are necessarily context dependent and can be interpretive, a cursory look at the Greek and Latin
terms will suffice to show that these authors envisioned the Zodiac Man in very similar ways. Also included (but
marked off with double lines) are records of Gnostic ideas (§Q, §R) that relate body sequences reminiscent of the
Zodiac Man, not to zodiacal names, but to letters of the Greek alphabet.7 For now, I have avoided proposals that
apportion the human body among nondozen quantities of planets or divine beings. Also omitted at this stage are
cases of decanic melothesia, which map the body onto the Egyptian system of thirty-six decans (each representing

3.  The major work on the subject is by C. W. Clark, “The Zodiac Man in Medieval Medical Astrology” (PhD diss., University of Colorado,
1979). For more cursory surveys, see H.Bober, “The Zodiacal Miniature of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry: Its Sources and Mean-
ing,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 (1948) 1–34; C. W. Clark, “The Zodiac Man in Medieval Medical Astrology,” Journal of
the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 3 (1982) 13–38; Monika Winiarczyk, “Homo Signorum: Looking to God or Looking
to the Stars? The Role of the Body in Medieval Christianity,” in Abraxas Special Issue 1. Charming Intentions: Occultism, Magic and the History
of Art, ed. D. Zamani (London: Fulgur, 2013), 42–52. For its medieval context, see Roger French, “Astrology in Medical Practice,” Practical
Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death, ed. L. García-Ballester, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 30–59.
4.  An image of the zodiacal relations in MS lat. 7028, f. 154v (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale) may be found in Clark, “The Zodiac Man”
(PhD diss.), 172; Bober, “The Zodiacal Miniature,” pl. 3b. For discussion of the Byzantine examples, see O. Schissel-Fleschenberg, “Eine kos-
mische Ausdeutung des menschlichen Korpers,” Wiener Studien 61–62 (1943–1947) 88–97. Interestingly, in an unusual Greek list (§O2), the
first five zodiacal signs (Aries–Leo) deal with parts of the head, i.e., the “forehead,” “top of head,” “eyes,” “nose,” and “mouth” respectively. See
CCAG V/4, 167 (ll. 6–10 = F. 235v).
5.  The oft-repeated principle in the Babylonian Diviner’s Manual is worth stating yet again: “Sky and earth both produce portents; (though
appearing) separately, they are not separate, (because) sky and earth are related” (ll. 39–40). L. A. Oppenheim, “A Babylonian Diviner’s Man-
ual,” JNES 33 (1974) 200, 204.
6.  A critical edition of this passage is available in Manilio, Il poema degli astri (Astronomica). Introduzione e traduzione di Riccardo Scarcia.
Testo critico a cura di Enrico Flores. Commento a cura di Simonetta Feraboli e Riccardo Scarcia, 2 vols. (Milano: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla,
1996), 1:140 (II, 453–465), 2:144 (IV, 701–710).
7.  For §Q and §R, however, body parts typically assigned to Scorpio–Capricorn (αἰδοῖον, μηρός, γόνυ, κνήμη) each occur one step earlier.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Table 1A. Body vocabulary in BM 56605 and ancient Greek and Roman sources.
220

§A1 + §A2 §B §C §D1 §D2 §E §F1

Marcus Sextus Vettius Dorotheus of Hephaestion
BM 56605 Pseudo-Galen Vettius Valens
Manilius Empiricus Valens Sidon of Thebes
⌈SAG⌉ caput κεφαλή κεφαλή κεφαλή κεφαλή, αἰσθητήριον, ὄψις κεφαλή
^ head
head head head head head head, sense organ, sight head
(§A1) collum/ πρόσωπον, τράχηλος, πρόσωπον, κατάποσις,
⌈x⌉ GU2 τράχηλος τράχηλος τράχηλος
_ (§A2) cervix τράχηλος ῥίς, etc. neck
… neck neck neck neck
neck face, neck neck, face, gullet, nose, etc.
bracchium, πῆχυς, ὦμος ὦμος, πῆχυς, χείρ, δάκτυλος,
A2 ⌈MAŠ.SIL3⌉ ὦμος ὦμος, χείρ ὦμος
` umerus forearm, ἄρθρον, etc. shoulder
arm, shoulder shoulder shoulder, hand shoulder
arm, shoulder shoulder shoulder, forearm, hand, finger, joint
στῆθος, στόμαχος, μαστός, σπλήν,
στόμαχος, στῆθος,
⌈GABA⌉ pectus στέρνον στῆθος στόμα, etc.
a στῆθος hand, chest πλευρόν
chest breast breast/chest breast breast, gullet, mamma, spleen,
gullet, breast breast, side
mouth, etc.
latus, scapula
⌈lib3⌉-bi πλευρόν πλευρόν πλευρόν πλευρόν, ὀσφύς, καρδία, etc. καρδία, etc.
b side, shoulder side, heart
belly/heart side side side side, loin, heart, etc. heart, etc.
blade
GU4.MURUB4 ilia γλουτός λαγών, etc. κοιλία κοιλία, ἔντερα, etc. γαστήρ
c belly, spine
JOHN Z. WEE

waist lower abdomen buttock flank, etc. belly belly, guts, etc. belly
Ḫ AR(?) clunis λαγών γλουτός ἰσχίον ἰσχίον, γλουτός, κόλον, μόριον, etc. ἰσχίον
d bladder
insides(?) buttock flank buttock hip hip, buttock, colon, “member,” etc. hip
PEŠ4 αἰδοῖον, μήτρα
inguine αἰδοῖον, μήτρα μόριον μόριον, ἕδρα penis, testicle, αἰδοῖον
e female genitalia,

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

groin genitalia, womb “member” “member,” seat buttock genitalia
genitalia womb
TUGUL
femur μηρός μηρός μηρός μηρός, βουβών μηρός
f hip/upper thigh
thigh thigh thigh thigh thigh, groin thigh
thigh

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
kim-sa genu γόνυ γόνυ γόνυ γόνυ, νεῦρον γόνυ
g knee
knees/shins knee knee knee knee knee, sinew/nerve knee
UR2 crus κνήμη κνήμη κνήμη σκέλος, κνήμη, νεῦρον, ἄρθρον κνήμη
h lower leg
leg lower leg/shin lower leg lower leg lower leg leg, lower leg, sinew/nerve, joint lower leg
(§A1) pes/
⌈GIR3⌉.2 πούς πούς πούς πούς, νεῦρον, ἄκρον πούς, βάσις
i (§A2) vestigium foot
feet foot foot foot foot, sinew/nerve, tip foot, step
foot/sole


Table 1B. Body Vocabulary in BM 56605 and Ancient Greek and Roman Sources.
§F2 §F3 §G §H §I §J
Hephaestion of Hephaestion of
Julius Firmicus Porphyry of Tyre Paul of Alexandria Teukros-Rhetorius
Thebes Thebes
κεφαλή κεφαλή caput κεφαλή κεφαλή, πρόσωπον κεφαλή, πρόσωπον, etc.
^
head head head head head, face head, face, etc.
αὐχήν αὐχήν cervix τένων, τράχηλος τράχηλος, τένων τένων, τράχηλος
_
neck neck neck sinew, neck neck, sinew sinew, neck
ὦμος, βραχίων ὦμος, βραχίων umerus ὦμος, βραχίων ὦμος, χείρ, δάκτυλος ὦμος, χείρ
`
shoulder, arm shoulder, arm shoulder shoulder, arm shoulder, hand, finger shoulder, hand
στῆθος, στόμαχος, μαστός,
στέρνον, πλευρόν πλευρόν, στέρνον cor στῆθος, πλευρόν στῆθος, στόμαχος καρδία, σπλήν, etc.
a
breast/chest, side side, breast/chest heart breast, side breast, gullet breast, gullet, mamma, heart,
spleen, etc.
νεῦρον, ὀστέον, ὀσφύς, καρδία,
καρδία, στῆθος θώραξ pectus, stomachus δίαφραγμα, στόμαχος, γαστήρ πλευρόν
b etc.
heart, breast thorax breast, stomach diaphragm, gullet, belly side
sinew/nerve, bone, loin, heart, etc.
γαστήρ κοιλία, σπλάγχνα venter ὑποχόνδριος, λαγών λαγών, etc. κοιλία, etc.
c
belly belly, innards belly abdomen, flank flank, etc. belly, etc.
ἰσχίον, γλουτός, βουβών, κόλον,
γλουτός, ἰσχίον γλουτός ren, vertebra νεφρός, γλουτός ἰσχίον, γλουτός κύστις, etc.
d
buttock, hip buttock kidney, vertebra kidney, buttock hip, buttock hip, buttock, groin, colon,
bladder, etc.
αἰδοῖον, etc. αἰδοῖον, ἕδρα natura αἰδοῖον, γονίμους τόπους, etc. αἰδοῖον, κύστις, βουβών αἰδοῖον, κύστις, βουβών, ἕδρα

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

e
genitalia, etc. genitalia, seat generative organs genitalia, fertile places, etc. genitalia, bladder, groin genitalia, bladder, groin, seat
μηρός μηρός femur γόνυ, βουβών, ἀγκώνων καμπάς μηρός μηρός, βουβών
f
thigh thigh thigh knee, groin, bendings of elbows thigh thigh, groin
DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM

γόνυ γόνυ genuculum ὀσφύς, ἰσχίον γόνυ γόνυ, νεῦρον

g

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
knee knee knee loin, hip knee knee, sinew/nerve
κνήμη κνήμη tibia κνήμη, σφυρόν κνήμη κνήμη, σκέλος, νεῦρον
h
lower leg lower leg tibia lower leg, ankle lower leg lower leg, leg, sinew/nerve
πέλμα, ἀκροπόδιον, ποδαγρός,
πούς ἄκρον, πούς pes πούς πέλμα, ἀκροπόδιον νεῦρον ποδῶν, ἀστράγαλος
i
foot tip, foot foot foot sole, base sole, base, (part of foot), sinew/
nerve of feet, ball of ankle
221
 Table 1C. Body Vocabulary in BM 56605 and Ancient Greek and Roman Sources.
222

§K §L §M §N §O1 §O2 §P §Q + §R
Olympiodorus- Dialogue of
Scholiast on CCAG IV, 83, CCAG V/4, CCAG V/4, Hippolytus +
CCAG V/3, 128–129 pseudo- Plato and
Aratus ll. 4–8 167 167 Epiphanius
Democritus Petosiris
κεφαλή, πρόσωπον, κόρη
κεφαλή κεφαλή κεφαλή κεφαλή μέτωπον κεφαλή κεφαλή
^ ὀφθαλμοῦ, etc.
head head head head forehead head head
head, face, pupil of eye, etc.
τράχηλος, κυρτότης, etc. αὐχην τράχηλος τράχηλος κορυφή τράχηλος
_ -- --
neck, hunched shoulder, etc. throat neck neck top of head neck
χείρ, βραχίων, ὦμος ὦμος ὦμος ὀφθαλμός ὦμος, χείρ
` -- -- --
hand, arm, shoulder shoulder shoulder eye shoulder, hand
στῆθος, μαστός, καρδία, στόμαχος,
πλευρόν, νεῦρον θώραξ στῆθος ῥώθων τράχηλος στῆθος
a -- --
breast, mamma, heart, gullet, side, thorax breast nose neck breast
sinew/nerve
μετάφρενον,
καρδία,
κοιλία στόμα κοιλία δίαφραγμα
b […] -- -- πλευρόν
belly mouth belly diaphragm
back, heart,
JOHN Z. WEE

side
κοιλία, δίαφραγμα, etc. κοιλία νεφρός μαστός σιαγών, ὀσφύς κοιλία
c -- --
belly, diaphragm, etc. belly kidney mamma jaw, loin belly
ὀμφαλός, ἰσχίον, etc. γλουτός κοτύλη τράχηλος γλουτός αἰδοῖον
d -- --
navel, hip, etc buttock (hip) socket neck buttock genitalia

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

φύσις
ὄρχις, κύστις, αἰδοῖον, etc. μόριον ὀμφαλός καθέδρα μηρός
e -- -- generative
testicle, bladder, genitalia, etc. “member” navel seat thigh
organs
ὕπὸ τὸν
μηρός, σκέλος μηρός μηρός γόνυ
f -- -- ὀμφαλός […]

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
thigh, leg thigh thigh knee
below navel
γόνυ, νεῦρον γόνυ γόνυ γόνυ ὄνυξ κνήμη
g -- --
knee, sinew/nerve knee knee knee nail lower leg
τὰ κάτωθεν … ποδῶν, νεῦρον κνήμη ἀγκύλη σφιγκτήρ γαστροκνημία σφυρόν
h -- --
lower parts of feet, sinew/nerve lower leg bend of knee sphincter calf ankle
πούς, νεῦρον πούς πούς πούς πέλμα πούς ἀκραῖος πούς
i
foot, sinew/nerve (of feet) foot foot foot sole foot extremity foot
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 223

10° of the zodiac circle), even though astrological schemes detailed in the Letter from Hermes to Asklepios, scholia
related to Heliodorus (CCAG VIII/4, 239–40), and other writings promise fruitful avenues for future comparative
work.8 Listed below is the specific bibliographic information that is key to table 1. The order and groups by which
I present these authors do not constitute any decision about the transmission of the Zodiac Man in antiquity, but
may roughly reflect affinities in choices of body vocabulary.9

(§A) Marcus Manilius (ca. 10–30 CE)

(§A1) Astronomica II, 456–65 (before 14 CE).10
(§A2) Astronomica IV, 704–9 (after 14 CE).11
(§B) Sextus Empiricus (ca. 100–200 CE), Adversus Mathematicos V, 21–22.12
(§C) Pseudo-Galen [= ? Imbrasius of Ephesus, 300 BCE–650 CE ?], Prognostica de decubitu ex
mathematica scientia.13
(§D) Vettius Valens of Antioch (ca. 150–180 CE)
(§D1) Anthologiae II, 37.3 [= 36.3 in Pingree ed.].14
(§D2) Anthologiae II, 37.7–19 [= 36.7–19 in Pingree ed.].15
(§E) Dorotheus of Sidon (ca. 50–100 CE), Carmen Astrologicum IV, 1.76.16
(§F) Hephaestion of Thebes (ca. 420–450 CE)
(§F1) Apotelesmatica I, 1.3, 23, 42, 61, 81, 100, 119, 138, 158, 178, 197, 216.17
(§F2) Apotelesmatica II, 13.5.18
(§F3) Apotelesmatica III, 31.11.19
(§G) Julius Firmicus Maternus (334–ca. 357 CE), Mathesis II, 24.20
(§H) Porphyry of Tyre (ca. 260–305 CE), Introduction to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in CCAG V/4, 216–17
(no. 44).
(§I) Paul of Alexandria (ca. 350–400 CE), Eisagogica, A3–B1.21
(§J) Excerpt from Teukros of (Egyptian) “Babylon” (ca. 30–100 CE) by Rhetorius (ca. 600–700 CE ?)

8.  J. B. Pitra, ed., Analecta sacra et classica spicilegio solesmensi parata, vol. 5.2 (Paris and Rome: 1888), 285–90. In recurring cycles, decans
are assigned to κεφαλή (“head”), τράχηλος (“neck”), ὦμος (“shoulder”), χείρ (“hand”), στῆθος + καρδία, etc. (“breast + heart, etc.”), πλευρόν
+ νῶτων (“side + back”), σπλάγχνα + γαστήρ (“innards + belly”), γλουτός + μόριον (“buttock + ‘member’”), μηρός + γόνυ (“thigh + knee”),
πούς (“foot”) in CCAG VIII/4, 239 (ll. 24–27). More references to decanic melothesia may be found in H. Gundel, “Zodiakos,” in Paulys Re-
alencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band XA, Halbband 19 (München: Druckenmüller, 1972), 581–82. Note also the polemic
in M. Marcovich, Origenes Contra Celsum Libri VIII (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 574–77 (VIII, 58–60).
9.  I have followed the dates ascribed to these authors in The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and Its Many
Heirs, ed. P. T. Keyser and G. L. Irby-Massie (London: Routledge, 2008).
10.  Manilio, Il poema degli astri, 1:140.
11.  Manilio, Il poema degli astri, 2:144.
12.  R. G. Bury, trans., Sextus Empiricus. IV. Against the Professors, LCL 382 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949), 330–33.
13.  F. Cumont, “Les ‘Prognostica de decubitu’ attribués à Galien,” Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome 15 (1935) 126. An edition
without the Zodiac Man passage may be found in C. G. Kühn, ed., “Galeni prognostica de decubitu ex mathematica scientia,” in Claudii Galeni
opera omnia (1821; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 2001), 529–73. For the proposed authorship by “Imbrasius” of Ephesus and the name’s possible
reference to the legendary Egyptian priest-magician “Iambres,” see S. Weinstock, “The Author of Ps.-Galen’s Prognostica de Decubitu,” CQ 42
(1948) 41–43.
14.  D. Pingree, Vettii Valentis Antiocheni Anthologiarum Libri Novem (Leipzig: Teubner, 1986), 104 (ll. 3–5).
15. Pingree, Vettii Valentis, 104 (l. 14)–105 (l. 34).
16.  In table 1, I have relied on the English translation of the Arabic by Pingree, Dorothei Sidonii, 95, 251.
17.  David Pingree, Hephaestio Thebanus Apotelematica (Leipzig: Teubner, 1973), 1:3 (ll. 28–29), 6 (ll. 14–15), 8 (ll. 17–18), 10 (ll. 14–15),
12 (ll. 29–30), 14 (ll. 25–26), 16 (ll. 28–29), 19 (ll. 4–5), 21 (ll. 17–18), 24 (ll. 13–14), 26 (ll. 20–21), 28 (ll. 20–21).
18. Pingree, Hephaestio Thebanus, 1:141 (ll. 5–12).
19.  Ibid., 1:291 (ll. 9–17).
20.  W. Kroll and F. Skvtsch, Firmicus Maternus Mathesis I (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1968), 73 (ll. 2–7).
21.  Body regions are named at Ae. Boer, Pauli Alexandrini elementa apotelesmatica (Leipzig: Teubner, 1958), 3 (ll. 3–4), 4 (ll. 3–4, 11–12),
5 (ll. 1–2), 10, 17–18), 6 (ll. 6, 14–15, 22), 7 (ll. 7–8, 15, 23–24).

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
224 JOHN Z. WEE

[hence, Teukros-Rhetorius] in CCAG VII, 195–211.22

(§K) CCAG V/3, 128–29 [F. 206].
(§L) Scholiast on Aratus, no. 545.23
(§M) Excerpt from Olympiodorus by pseudo-Democritus (ca. 200 BCE–250 CE ?) [hence,
Olympiodorus-pseudo-Democritus] in CAAG II, 101 (ll. 7–8).
(§N) CCAG VI, 83 [F. 31v], ll. 4–8.
(§O) Excerpts from Codex 65 in CCAG V/4, 167
(§O1) ll. 1–4.
(§O2) ll. 6–10 [F. 235v].
(§P) Dialogue of Plato and Petosiris (MS from third century CE) = Greek Papyrus No. 63 in the John
Rylands Library, ll. 7–12.24
(§Q) Hippolytus of Rome (ca. 200–236 CE), Philosophumena VI, 44.25
(§R) Epiphanius of Salamis (ca. 365–403 CE), Panarion XXXIV, 5.5.26

The debt that Hellenistic astrology owes to zodiacal (and microzodiacal) schemes in Late Babylonian scholar-
ship is well documented.27 Empiricus’s (§B) mention of “some Chaldeans who attributed each part of the human
body to one of the signs as sympathizing therewith” (Adversus Mathematicos V, 21.1–4), however, has been under-
stood as a generic reference to astrologers, rather than an affirmation of Babylonian origins.28 In fact, Ptolemy as-
serted that “those who most advanced this faculty of the art, the Egyptians, combined medicine with astronomical
prediction in every way” (Tetrabiblos I, 3.18), while a scholiast on Aratus (§L) likewise credited the “Egyptians” (ll.
18, 20) for the rationale of associating zodiacal signs with body parts.29 It is true that several authors who wrote
about the Zodiac Man, such as Vettius Valens (§D), Dorotheus of Sidon (§E), Hephaestion of Thebes (§F), and
Paul of Alexandria (§I), were connected to centers of scholarship at ancient Alexandria and other parts of Egypt.
However, already in the first couple of centuries (ca. 1–200 CE) when our classical sources begin, descriptions by
Manilius (§A), Empiricus (§B), Vettius Valens (§D), Dorotheus (§E), and perhaps pseudo-Galen (§C) are strik-
ingly consistent in their outlines of the Zodiac Man and its body vocabulary (see table 1A), leaving us largely in
the dark about the manner in which precursors of the idea (if any) might have come together. The circulation of
knowledge in Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds during the final centuries BCE has long been an exciting
area of scholarly research. On the part of Assyriologists, important recent contributions by Mark Geller, Erica
Reiner, Nils Heeßel, and John Steele, among others, have attempted to clarify what the ancient Mesopotamians
thought about celestial influence on the human body and the Near Eastern roots of iatromathematics (medical
astrology).30 So far, however, proposals concerning melothesia in cuneiform contexts have not turned up evidence

22.  Body regions are named in the following lines: CCAG VII, 195 (ll. 19–20), 197 (l. 21), 199 (l. 6), 200 (ll. 15–16), 201 (ll. 28–29), 203 (ll.
13–14), 204 (l. 29) – 205 (l. 1), 206 (ll. 6–7), 207 (ll. 21–22), 209 (ll. 6–7), 210 (ll. 18–19), 211 (ll. 25–26).
23.  Ernst Maass, Commentariorum in Aratum Reliquiae (Berlin: Weidmann, 1898; repr. 1958), 446.
24.  J. de M. Johnson, Victor Martin, and Arthur S. Hunt, Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester. Vol. 2: Docu-
ments of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods (Nos. 62–456) (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1915), 2–3 (no. 63).
25.  L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium, librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: sumptibus Dieterichi-
anis, 1859), 310 (ll. 86–89).
26.  Epifanio di Salamina, Panarion, Libro primo, a cura di Giovanni Pini. Con un saggio di Gabriella Aragione. Revisione delle note e della
bibliografia di Barbara Cangemi Trolla (Brescia: Morcelliana, 2010), 656.
27.  See, e.g., F. Rochberg, In the Path of the Moon: Babylonian Celestial Divination and Its Legacy (Leiden: Brill, 2010), esp. 143–65; J.M.
Steele, “Visual Aspects of the Transmission of Babylonian Astronomy and Its Reception into Greek Astronomy,” Annals of Science 68 (2011)
453–65.
28.  Bury, trans., Sextus Empiricus, 330–33; Clark, “The Zodiac Man” (PhD diss.), 56 n. 109, see also discussion in 6 n. 12.
29.  W. Hübner, Claudii Ptolemaei Opera quae exstant omnia. III, 1. Apotelesmatika (Leipzig: Teubner, 1998), 21. Maass, Commentariorum
in Aratum Reliquiae, 446 (no. 545).
30.  M. J. Geller, Look to the Stars: Babylonian Medicine, Magic, Astrology and Melothesia, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Preprint 401 (2010); ibid., Melothesia in Babylonia: Medicine, Magic, and Astrology in the Ancient Near East, STMAC 2 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014);

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 225

quite close enough to Greco-Roman forms of the Zodiac Man, so that we may, with greater confidence, begin to
speak of its origins.
In this article, I wish to announce the discovery of the Zodiac Man in a rather large (~ 20×15 cm) cuneiform
tablet from the British Museum (BM 56605), which ranks among the earliest attestations of this figure in antiquity.
By “Zodiac Man,” I refer not merely to any association of zodiacal units with human body parts, but to a more or
less precise zodiacal scheme widely attested in classical and medieval writings. A full treatment of the Zodiac Man’s
function in tablet BM 56605 is beyond the scope of this preliminary article. In another forthcoming publication,
I suggest how variables of sick human body parts in the Zodiac Man could have played a role alongside Calendar
Text prescriptions relating micro-zodiacal and zodiacal signs to therapeutic ingredients.31 For now, however, I wish
to highlight my use of the expression “zodiacal name” (instead of “zodiacal sign”) when describing Zodiac Man
relations in tablet BM 56605, since it is possible that these names designate micro-zodiacal rather than zodiacal
signs.
The obverse of tablet BM 56605 consists of at least thirty-one registers of text divided into two columns in
portrait orientation. Each register encases a medical entry that describes the malady afflicting the sick man or his
body parts, instructions and ingredients for therapy, and a prognosis that is uniformly optimistic: “He will live.”
The final twelve registers form a distinct group with parallels in another cuneiform tablet (BM 47755), and their
medical entries are concerned with star constellations (each from roughly a different zodiacal sign) that “touch”
(lapātu) the sick man and the body parts that “hurt” (akālu) him.32 The pairing of body parts and constellations
here does not reveal a Zodiac Man, and I would question even the assumption that these medical entries express
cause-and-effect (“If constellation X touches him and body part Y therefore hurts him,…”) rather than a sample
permutation (“If it so happens that constellation X touches him and body part Y hurts him,…”).33 In any case,
although the Zodiac Man appears somewhere else in the tablet, there is little doubt of its medical context and its
probable function in therapy.
The reverse of tablet BM 56605 consists of an astrological table in landscape orientation with thirteen columns
and thirteen rows (fig. 2). The rightmost column contains thirteen rectangular rows (not grid squares), each of
which lists a zodiacal name or the name of a star constellation, a stone, a kind of wood, a plant, a calendar date,
as well as hemerological advice on foods or activities to avoid. With the exception of rows 1 and 2, grid squares in

Erica Reiner, Astral Magic in Babylonia, TAPS 85.4 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995); Reiner, “Early Zodiology and Related
Matters,” in Wisdom, Gods and Literature: Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W. G. Lambert, ed. A. R. George and I. L. Finkel (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 2000), 421–27; N. P. Heeßel, “Stein, Pflanze und Holz: Ein neuer Text zur ‘medizinischen Astrologie,” OrNs 74 (2005) 1–22; Heeßel,
“Astrological Medicine in Babylonia,” in Astro-Medicine: Astrology and Medicine, East and West, ed. A. Akasoy, C. Burnett, and R. Yoeli-Tlalim
(Florence: Galluzzo, 2008), 1–16; JoAnn Scurlock, “Sorcery in the Stars: STT 300, BRM 4.19–20 and the Mandaic Book of the Zodiac,” AfO 51
(2005/2006) 125–46; L. Brack-Bernsen and J. M. Steele, “Babylonian Mathemagics: Two Mathematical Astronomical-Astrological Texts,” in Stud-
ies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree, ed. C. Burnett, J. P. Hogendijk, K. Plofker, and M. Yano (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 95–125;
J. M. Steele, “Astronomy and Culture in Late Babylonian Uruk,” in Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building Bridges between Cultures,
ed. C. L. N. Ruggles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 331–41; Steele, “Real and Constructed Time in Babylonian Astral Medi-
cine,” in Constructions of Time in Antiquity, ed. J. Ben-Dov and L. Doering (forthcoming); Hermann Hunger, “How to Make the Gods Speak: A
Late Babylonian Tablet Related to the MicroZodiac,” in Studies Presented to Robert D. Biggs, ed. M. T. Roth, W. Farber, M. W. Stolper, and P. von
Bechtolsheim (Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2007), 141–51; J. Z. Wee, “Lugalbanda Under the Night Sky: Scenes of
Celestial Healing in Ancient Mesopotamia,” JNES 73 (2014) 23–43. Several older works, moreover, explore texts and issues relevant to melo-
thesia and astral medicine: M. Leibovici, “Sur l’astrologie médicale Néo-Babylonienne,” JA 244 (1956) 275–80; O. Neugebauer, “Melothesia and
Dodecatemoria,” OrAnt 3 (1959) 270–75; E. Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln (Wien: Böhlaus, 1967).
31.  I explore the relationship between the astrological table and Zodiac Man (BM 56605) and prescriptions in Calendar Texts (esp. BM
33535) in the appendix of a forthcoming paper entitled “Virtual Moons over Babylonia: The Calendar Text System, Its Micro-Zodiac of 13, and
the Making of Medical Zodiology,” an earlier version of which was presented at a conference on The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge
in the Ancient World (Brown University, 12–13 April 2014).
32.  BM 55605, obv. 48–74 // BM 47755, rev. 5–16. Also relevant is tablet YBC 9833, which lists almost exactly the same wood/plant and
animal-skin ingredients, but relates them to Babylonian month names instead of star constellations and body parts.
33.  I hesitate to agree with the view that tablets BM 56605 and BM 47755 “include a passage intended for a patient who has been affected by
a star, and specific parts of his body hurt as a consequence [italics mine], which is typical of the genre of melothesia.” Geller, Look to the Stars, 74.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
226 JOHN Z. WEE

^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5
7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6
8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fig. 2. Diagram of astrological table on reverse of tablet BM 56605.

Fig. 3. Astrological table (BM 56605 rev.), rows 1–2.

the remainder of the table each contain a cuneiform number from 1 to 12. The numbers are staggered, so that the
same number is repeated in squares that line up diagonally, as a bishop would move across a chessboard. Above
each number is the name of an animal or object, and most of these typically designate star constellations in other
astrological texts. The identities of some, however, remain uncertain, because they do not seem to be attested else-
where as constellations. Row 1 is very badly damaged, but the preserved portions leave little doubt that the row
lists the twelve Babylonian zodiacal names in their usual sequence (one name per column). Row 2 (shaded in fig.
2) matches up each of these zodiacal names with a region of the human body. When read from left to right, body
terms in the twelve grid squares of row 2 display a head-to-foot arrangement that, taken as a whole, constitutes our
Zodiac Man. In fig. 3, I provide a photograph of this row.
Already in the footnote of a 1988 article, British Museum curator Irving Finkel made tantalizing reference to
tablet BM 56605 and its “mysterious table of astrological significance.”34 The entire tablet was edited, translated,
and published by Nils Heeßel in his book on Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik (2000), and subsequent articles by

34.  Irving L. Finkel, “Adad-apla-iddina, Esagil-kīn-apli, and the Series SA.GIG,” in A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham
Sachs, ed. Erle Leichty, Maria de J. Ellis, and Pamela Gerardi, Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 9 (Philadelphia:
Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 1988), 147 n. 29.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 227

Table 2. Reinterpreting the cuneiform of BM 56605 reverse, row 2.

Heeßel’s Reading of My Reading of the
Zodiacal Name Constellations, etc. Zodiac Man My Translation
Column [Row 1] [Row 2] [Row 2] [Row 2]
1 Aries ⌈KA⌉ ⌈SAG⌉ Head
2 Taurus ⌈x⌉.GÚ ⌈x⌉ GÚ … Neck
3 Gemini TI8.⌈MUŠEN⌉ Á ⌈MAŠ.SÌL⌉ Arm, Shoulder
4 Cancer ⌈x⌉ ⌈GABA⌉ Chest
5 Leo ŠÀ⌉.BI ⌈lìb⌉-bi Belly/Heart
6 Virgo GU4.MURUB4 GU4.MURUB4 Waist
7 Libra GU Ḫ AR(?) Insides(?)
8 Scorpio ŠÀ.A PEŠ4 Female Genitalia
9 Sagittarius ALLA.BI TUGUL Hip/Upper thigh
10 Capricorn xx kim-sa Knees/Shins
11 Aquarius ÚR? ÚR Leg
12 Pisces ⌈x”⌉ ⌈GÌR⌉.2 Feet

Heeßel in 2005 and 2008 did not alter or improve his initial assessment of the astrological table.35 Heeßel’s interpre-
tation is a complicated one, but may be summarized as follows:36 #1) Row 1 contains the twelve zodiacal signs. #2)
The remaining grid squares in fig. 2 each contains a term, which may or may not designate a star constellation, and
which may prescribe ingredients to be used for the construction of prophylactic or therapeutic amulets. Except for
the first two rows, a cuneiform number is written immediately beneath each term within its grid square. #3) In any
given column, each of the numbers represents a micro-zodiacal division, which results from dividing a zodiacal
sign into twelve equal parts. #4) It is therefore problematic that only eleven rows are numbered. Row 2 (unnum-
bered and shaded in fig. 2) was initially omitted by mistake and, since there was no more room at the bottom of
the tablet, it was inserted in its present location. According to Heeßel’s understanding, therefore, the astrological
table does not have a specific section reserved for the listing of human body parts. In what now appears to be a
rather prescient comment, however, Geller mused that “theoretically, one should eventually be able to reconstruct
a complete table or grid showing a schedule of zodiacal influences, when all relevant texts become known. The
grid would include names of all stones, plants, wood, parts of the body [italics mine] and diseases influenced by
particular zodiac signs,” and that “this grid would look quite similar to that on the tablet BM 56605.”37
As I affirmed earlier, tablet BM 56605 does indeed enumerate parts of the body in the twelve grid squares of
row 2 (shaded in fig. 2). My interpretation of row 2 obviously differs from Heeßel’s, and I have supplied close-up
images and drawings (figs. 4–8) where differences in our readings are most stark. This occurs for the body regions
associated with the zodiacal names Gemini, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn. Although Heeßel did not
provide German or English translations of row 2, several of his cuneiform readings such as TI8.⌈MUŠEN⌉ (“Eagle,”
i.e., Aquila), ALLA.BI (“Crab,” i.e., Cancer), and perhaps GU (“Great One,” i.e., Aquarius) suggest that he related
at least some of these terms to star constellations. To be sure, it must have been difficult to interpret writings like
ŠÀ⌉.BI in the same way. The astrological table, however, includes also expressions such as SAG.DU UR.A, “head of

35. Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik, 112–30, 468–69, pls. 1–2; Heeßel, “Stein, Pflanze und Holz,” 8; “Astrological Medicine in Babylo-
nia,” 11–15.
36. Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik, 114–16.
37. Geller, Look to the Stars, 86 and n. 173.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
228 JOHN Z. WEE

Fig. 4. Signs Á ⌈MAŠ.SÌL⌉ (BM

56605 rev., col. 3 row 2) under
Gemini.

Fig. 5. Sign Ḫ AR(?) (BM 56605 rev., col. 7 row 2)

under Libra.

lion (i.e., Leo)” (col. 5 row 3), which may have cast doubt whether the “belly” (ŠÀ⌉.BI, better read ⌈lìb⌉-bi) or other
body parts mentioned belong to a human or to a zodiacal animal. In table 2 and the following notes, I propose my
readings and explain my rationale for reinterpreting the signs in row 2.

Notes

Aries: Undamaged wedges here may belong to either of the similar cuneiform signs ⌈KA⌉ or ⌈SAG⌉. Our as-
trological table may share the same column headings as the incomplete table on the obverse of the Uruk
tablet SpTU 1: 97 (= W 22285), whose grid squares are empty except for the top row and leftmost column.
In both tables, row 1 lists the twelve zodiacal names (BM 56605) or the twelve Babylonian months that
correspond to these names (SpTU 1: 97). In the Uruk tablet SpTU 1: 97, the term BAR (denoting the first
Babylonian month “Nisannu” corresponding to Aries) in row 1 is written immediately above the term
SAG (possibly meaning “head”) in row 2, without any intervening horizontal lines that mark off the other
rows. While one might interpret BAR and SAG together as an abbreviation of BAR.SAG.SAG (logogram
for “Nisannu”), the use of only a single sign as the logographic abbreviation for each of the other months
argues against this interpretation.38 It is also possible (but not entirely explicable) that SAG indicates some
kind of “beginning,” similar to the expression SAG.BI at the left edge of tablet VAT 7851 (obverse) im-
mediately under its drawing of the moon’s hypsoma (“exaltation”) position.39 On the other hand, the Uruk
tablet’s format could mirror that of tablet BM 56605, whose row 1 (zodiacal names) and row 2 (Zodiac

38.  Note also how BAR (without SAG) functions as abbreviation for the month name “Nisannu,” which stands for the zodiacal sign Ar-
ies in Calendar Texts SpTU 3: 104 (ll. 1, 14, 27) and 105 (ll. 11, 24). In his cuneiform transcription, von Weiher understood the sign as MAŠ.
39. Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen, 13, Tafeln 1–2. In a forthcoming publication, I discuss how such drawings of planetary hypsomata

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 229

Fig. 6. Sign PEŠ4 (BM 56605

rev., col. 8 row 2) under Scor-
pio.

Fig. 7. Sign TUGUL (BM 56605 rev., col. 9

row 2) under Sagittarius.

Fig. 8. Signs kim-sa (BM 56605 rev.,

col. 10 row 2) under Capricorn.

Man) are also visually detached from the remaining rows by their lack of cuneiform numbers. If SAG in
the Uruk tablet indeed refers to the Zodiac Man’s “head,” it provides additional support for my reading
⌈SAG⌉ in tablet BM 56605 (rev., col. 1 row 2) under Aries, and has implications for the attestation of the
Zodiac Man at Uruk (see below).
Taurus: The “neck vertebra” is occasionally mentioned in medical texts, but sign traces do not support the restora-
tion ⌈(na4)KIŠIB⌉.GÚ.40 What we have here may be the asyndetic writing of two separate body parts ⌈x⌉ GÚ
(similar to the case of Gemini), perhaps ⌈ZI(?)⌉ GÚ (“throat(?), neck”). Another possible reading is ⌈IGI.
MEŠ(?)⌉ GÚ (“face(?), neck”), which would correspond precisely to the pair of body parts πρόσωπον,
τράχηλος (§D1–2) that Vettius Valens ascribed to Taurus.
Gemini: Repeatedly, we find the same concern to specify both “arm” (Á) and “shoulder” (⌈MAŠ.SÌL⌉) in descrip-
tions of the Zodiac Man by Manilius (§A), Vettius Valens (§D), Hephaestion (§F2–3), Porphyry (§H),
Teukros-Rhetorius (§J), among others. Asyndetic writing in Á ⌈MAŠ.SÌL⌉ (“arm, shoulder”) is also used
in the table for juxtaposing different animal names: MUŠ GÍR (“snake, scorpion”) at col. 8 row 3; KU6

(“exaltations”) were constructed and their relationship to ways of reckoning the zodiac and micro-zodiac based on the risings of celestial bodies
at the eastern horizon.
40.  The “neck vertebra” occurs as na4KIŠIB in the Diagnostic Series entries TDP 4 obv. 20; 10: obv. 22, 23, 24, 25; DPS 21: 16′; SpTU 1: 55
11′; and as KIŠIB in the therapeutic texts BAM 212 20; 213 13′.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
230 JOHN Z. WEE

GU4 (“fish, bull”) at col. 1 row 8; and perhaps SA RI (“cat, RI”) at col. 7 row 5. These pairs of names are
not readily recognizable due to the abbreviated nature of the writing, but each of these also appears singly
elsewhere in the table.41
Cancer: The visible tail-ends of several diagonal wedges in the preserved lower half of the grid square are con-
sistent with my restoration ⌈GABA⌉.
Leo: Medical texts define ŠÀ (libbu, “belly”) as a discrete anatomical region, that is at times distinguished
from ŠÀ.MEŠ (qerbū, “innards”) and errū (“bowels”).42 However, we cannot dismiss the possibility
that ⌈lìb⌉-bi (“belly”) here was understood also as the “heart,” i.e., the seat of emotion, which seems to
be what Vettius Valens (§D2) and Teukros-Rhetorius (§J) intended by making Leo govern both καρδία
(“heart”) and ἀνδρεία (“manly (courage)”).43
Virgo: In medical texts, the logogram for qablu (“waist, hips, loins”) is almost always written MURUB4, not
GU4.MURUB4. However, the latter writing appears in a medical entry on the front of the same tablet:
GU4.MURUB4-šú GU[7]-š[ú] (BM 56605 obv. 63), where it probably means “his waist hurts him.”44 This
entry, in turn, has a parallel in another tablet with the writing MURUB4-šú GU7-šú (BM 47755, rev. 19).
Libra: Heeßel’s hand copy omits a vertical wedge immediately to the right of the other cuneiform wedges,
perhaps because this vertical wedge is scarcely visible in his photo of the tablet (see my close-up at fig.
5 instead).45 The reading GU is therefore unlikely, even if one is tempted to understand it as an abbrevia-
tion for “buttock” (qinnatu, logogram GU.DU), which was ascribed to Libra by many authors including
Manilius (§A), Pseudo-Galen (§C), Vettius Valens (§D2), Hephaestion (§F2–3), Porphyry (§H), Paul
of Alexandria (§I), and Teukros-Rhetorius (§J). An obvious motivation here was the appropriateness of
connecting the two weighing-pans of the Scales (i.e., Libra) with body parts that come in pairs. However,
whereas zodiacal names and star constellations are frequently abbreviated on this table and in other
astronomical texts (e.g., GU in place of GU.LA “Great One,” i.e., Aquarius), there is little indication that
names of body parts may be similarly abbreviated. The said vertical wedge also discourages the reading
ELLAG2 for “kidney” (kalītu), which Firmicus (§G) and Porphyry (§H) assigned to Libra, again, probably
because kidneys come in pairs. I have tentatively read the cuneiform sign here as Ḫ AR(?), especially con-
sidering how horizontal wedges are slanted at an angle in the late cursive of this tablet.46 In the Diagnostic
Series Sa-g ig and in therapeutic texts, Ḫ AR.(MEŠ) inevitably functions as the logogram for “lungs”
(ḫašû).47 In the head-to-foot arrangement here, however, Ḫ AR(?) seems to designate the less precise, non-

41.  Note the writing of MUŠ (“snake”) at col. 6 row 8; GÍR.(TAB) (“scorpion”) at col. 7 row 8, col. 8 row 1, and perhaps col. 9 row 10;
KU6 (“fish”) at col. 2 row 7, col. 10 row 4, col. 11 row 12, col. 12 row 5; GU4 (“bull”) at col. 1 row 5, col. 10 rows 8–9, and perhaps col. 11 row
8 (Heeßel: NUNUZ); SA.A (“cat”) at col. 2 row 9, col. 3 row 9, col. 4 row 8, col. 6 row 6, col. 7 row 4, and perhaps col. 8 row 4 (Heeßel: ⌈x⌉A);
RI at col. 7 row 3.
42.  For example, in the head-to-foot arrangement of S a - g i g Subseries II (tablets 3–14), the sick man’s expression of pain in colloquial
terms—“My inside (ŠÀ)! My inside (ŠÀ)!” (TDP 13 iii 21–28, 34–35)—is interpreted according to technical definitions of anatomical terms
and assigned to the section on ŠÀ.MEŠ “innards” (TDP 13 ii 35–iii 46 = DPS XIII B ii 35–J 15′), instead of ŠÀ “belly” (TDP 13 i 48′–ii 34 = DPS
XIII B i 44–B ii 34).
43.  Anthologiae II, 37.11 = 36.11 in Pingree, Vettii Valentis, 105 (ll. 4–5); CCAG VII, 201 (l. 29).
44.  The writing GU4.MURUB4-šú GU[7]-š[ú] (BM 56605, obv. 63) instead of *GU4-šú MURUB4-šú GU7-šú indicates that the signs GU4.
MURUB4 together constitute the logogram for a single term (probably qablu, “waist”), and that the two signs do not depict separate terms like
Á ⌈MAŠ.SÌL⌉ (“arm, shoulder”; in the case of Gemini). Heeßel misunderstands this, as is evident from his transcription MIN MIN UGA!(Text:
Ú.SUM.GA) TAG-šú GU4 MURUB4-šú GU[7]-š[ú] (obv. 63) and translation “Dito, dito, der Raben-Stern ihn berührt (und) …, seine Hüfte [ihn
schm]erzt.” Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik, 120, 122.
45. Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik, 469 (col. 7 row 2), pl. 2.
46.  Note the Late Babylonian versions of this sign in René Labat, Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1948), no.
401.
47.  The commentator’s need to explain [HAR GIG]/ḫa-šu-u ma-ru-us (“[Ḫ AR GIG (means)] ‘the lung is sick’”) at Comm. S a- g i g 14 =
SpTU 1: 36 obv. 18–19, however, suggests that Ḫ AR GIG was considered an unlikely diagnostic verdict at TDP 14 ii 22 (= BAM VII/49 ii 4′),
where the context would indicate a rectal sickness. See discussion in John Z. Wee, “The Practice of Diagnosis in Mesopotamian Medicine: With
Editions of Commentaries on the Diagnostic Series S a -g i g” (PhD diss., Yale University, 2012), 234–35, 315, 633, 637, 646.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 231

technical term kabattu (“insides”), which may serve as a catch-all expression for the complex internal
anatomy located below the “waist” ascribed to Virgo.48
Scorpio: The vertical wedges that Heeßel understood as ŠÀ.A are clustered very closely together, leaving quite a lot
of empty space to their right. This would contradict the practice in other grid squares of the table, where
separate signs are distributed more evenly over the available space (see, by comparison, the writing of
signs kim-sa under Capricorn in fig. 8). Here, the sign A is likely embedded within the sign ŠÀ to yield
the compound sign PEŠ4(ŠÀ×A) (“female genitalia”). In Babylonian medicine, the male body is typically
used as shorthand for the generic human body, so the mention of female genitalia for the Zodiac Man
is surprising. The attribution of “genitalia and womb” to Scorpio by Empiricus (§B) and Pseudo-Galen
(§C) may suggest the possible motive to include conditions of pregnancy and the unborn child in this
astrological scheme.49
Sagittarius: The sign that I have read TUGUL closely resembles its drawing in Borger’s MZL (no. 894), but differs
a little from the exemplars in Labat’s Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne (no. 561).
Capricorn: The sa sign here seems to consist of only three (rather than the usual four) vertical wedges, two of
which overlap to a large degree.50 Whereas most terms in this astrological table appear as (abbreviated)
logographic forms, the body region here is indicated by the syllable signs kim-sa instead of DU10.GAM,
perhaps because the syllabic writing of kimsu (“knee/shin”) was the convention adopted in medical texts.51
Aquarius: In medical contexts, the logogram ÚR typically denotes pēmu (translated “thigh” in CAD P, 321; “Ober-
schenkel” in AHw, 854) or sūnu (translated “lap, crotch” in CAD S, 386; “Schoß, Schenkelbeuge” in AHw,
1059), either of which appear to involve the upper part of the leg. In the head-to-foot arrangement here,
however, we would expect the body part for Aquarius to lie below the “knees/shins” denoted by Cap-
ricorn.52 Furthermore, though each of the terms (GU4.)MURUB4 (qablu), TUGUL (gilšu), and ÚR can
include the “hip” or “thigh” depending on the context, they are seldom set in contrast with each other as
they are here. We may therefore suspect these terms to take on slightly different nuances when used as
labels for mutually exclusive bodily regions. As a matter of fact, the term ÚR can sometimes designate the
“leg” as a whole, especially as the counterpart to Á (“arm”) in combinations like Á.ÚR (mešrêtu, “limbs”).
This is the meaning I would assign to ÚR here, which includes the lower leg region below the knees. One
wonders whether a contrast was intended between kimsā (“knees/shins”; attributed to Capricorn) as the
bony portion of the leg versus ÚR (“leg”; attributed to Aquarius) as the fleshy portion of the leg. We might
also find an analogy in the way the Greek term σκέλος (“leg”) was used as a label for the Zodiac Man,
sometimes indicating the lower leg region ascribed to Aquarius (§D2, §J), while at other times signifying
the thigh area governed by Sagittarius (§K).
Pisces: Although the sign ⌈GÌR⌉ is almost entirely eroded away, there were certainly cuneiform wedges to the
left of the number 2, since the scribe wrote in such a way that the wedges always begin from the left edge
of their grid squares. It is admittedly tempting to posit a correlation between Pisces (Babylonian name:
KUN.MEŠ, “Tails”) and the human “coccyx/tail-bone” (GIŠ.KUN or ÚR.KUN). However, existing traces

48.  Note the argument that kabattu (“insides”) does not primarily mean “liver” or represents a byform of gabīdu/kabīdu (“liver”). CAD K,
13–14, contra CAD G, 6.
49.  Other authors also connect Scorpio to γονίμους τόπους, “fertile places” (§H), as well as natura (§G) or φύσις (§O1), “generative or-
gans.”
50.  The three-wedge sa sign is recognized in Labat, Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne, no. 586.
51.  For the syllabic writing of kimsu, see TDP 3: 11, 14, 25, 40; 10: rev. 16; 13 i 15′; 14 i 62; DPS XIV C2 iii 18–27; DPS 17: 38 (incl. AMT
50/4: 13′); BAM 89: 8; 95: 16, 19; 97: 7′; 106: obv. 2; 108 :[obv. 16]; rev. 4′; 122: obv. 1; 124 ii 11; 152 iv 16; 158 iii 27′; 168: 70; 212: 34; 213: 27′;
405: 12′, 14′; 438: obv. 8; 578 i 28, 46; AMT 21/2: 7; 22.2: obv. 5; 31.1: 1; 43.1 i 1; 85.1 vi 17′. The writing DU10.GAM is attested in medical texts
only at DPS 15: 59′, 60′.
52.  In the head-to-foot sequence of S a - g ig Subseries II, the segment on ÚR (DPS XIV A2 ii 22–A iii 7 = TDP 14 ii 72–iii 41′) precedes the
segment on kimsu (DPS XIV C2 iii 18–27; only parts of DPS XIV C2 iii 18–19 are transcribed as TDP 14 iii 63′–64′ in Labat’s 1951 edition). See
chart in Scurlock and Andersen, Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine, 626, 628.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
232 JOHN Z. WEE

do not resemble the KUN sign, and all other indications point to a Zodiac Man sequence that invariably
concludes with the “feet.”

It is fitting to revisit table 1 at this point, to marvel at how favorably the Zodiac Man in tablet BM 56605 com-
pares with the figure in ancient Greek and Roman writings. The sources largely concur in relating the head–chest
to Aries–Cancer, the sex organs to Scorpio, and the different parts of the leg to Sagittarius–Pisces. Where the
cuneiform becomes less predictable (Leo–Libra) is also where Greco-Roman authors disagree among themselves,
presumably because it was difficult to distill into individual lexical terms the complex anatomy of the middle and
lower torso ascribed to Leo–Libra. As I remarked earlier, the Zodiac Man is a poor reflection of the medical body,
and the attention it gives to body components or regions is often disproportional to their significance in illness and
therapy.53 My observation holds true for the case of Mesopotamian medicine: Head-to-foot sequences in the Diag-
nostic Series Sa -g ig (more specifically, Subseries II), organizational themes of therapeutic text series, and surveys
of the female body (BAM 212 & 213) all devote the bulk of description to parts of the face and the torso, with
relatively less focus on the legs and feet.54 By contrast, symmetry between cosmos and body in the Zodiac Man was
achieved by projecting the spatial and temporal dimensions of the zodiac onto the merely external human form,
with apparently little regard for the biological functions of its parts. The prominence given to the physical propor-
tions of the human figure is therefore noteworthy, whether such emphases were indigenous to Late Babylonian
thought or reveal influences from Hellenistic or Roman cultures of the body.
The question about the Zodiac Man’s terminus a quo inevitably arises. Tablet BM 56605 includes no explicit date
and names no datable person, but it has been vaguely described as Late Babylonian (Finkel, Geller) or Hellenistic/
early Parthian (Heeßel).55 The tablet begins with an invocation common in late Achaemenid and Hellenistic schol-
arly tablets from Babylon: “May it be well by command of the gods Bēl and Bēltīya.”56 If the incomplete table in
SpTU 1: 97 really mentions the “head” (SAG) of the Zodiac Man, it implies that the Zodiac Man was known also in
the city of Uruk, in an archive that dates to the third or second century BCE. Still, one would be correct to question
the value of tablet SpTU 1: 97 as evidence, since the weight of proof rests on a single cuneiform sign (SAG) that
could also be interpreted in other ways (see my notes on Aries).
Historians have frequently noted that the latest datable cuneiform tablet is an almanac from Babylon that re-
cords astronomical events of 74/75 CE.57 From his study of the Graeco-Babyloniaca and various classical sources,
Geller suggested that cuneiform could have survived up to the second or even third century CE, but this proposal
has been received with skepticism.58 David Brown, in particular, made a good case linking the demise of tradi-
tional cuneiform education in the mid-first century BCE to the decline in quality and sophistication of cunei-

53.  One can imagine how the negative formulation of the Zodiac Man in medieval medical practice (i.e., as a key to times and places where
bloodletting is to be avoided) would have worked better than alternative schemes that affirm where illness could occur.
54.  An impression of the emphases in S a -g i g Subseries II (= tablets 3–14) may be obtained by glancing at the chart in Scurlock and An-
dersen, Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine, 577–630. Attested therapeutic text series DIŠ NA UGU-šú KÚM ukâl, “If a person’s
crown holds fever” (five or six tablets), DIŠ NA IGI.2-šú GIG, “If a person’s eyes are sick” (four tablets), DIŠ NA KA/KIR4-šú DUGUD, “If a
person’s mouth/nose is difficult” (six tablets), DIŠ NA SA GÚ-šú GU7-šú ŠU.GIDIM.MA, “If the strands of a person’s neck hurt him; Hand-of-
ghost” (six tablets), and DIŠ NA suālam GIG ana kīs ŠÀ GUR, “If a person is sick with suālu-cough, and it turns into belly cramp” (five tablets)
survey the sick man’s body from “crown” to “belly.” Pascal Attinger, “La médicine mésopotamienne,” JMC 11–12 (2008) 25–27.
55.  Finkel, “Adad-apla-iddina,” 147 n. 29; Geller, Look to the Stars, 74; Heeßel, Babylonisch-assyrische Diagnostik, 112; Heeßel, “Astrological
Medicine,” 11.
56.  Analogous invocations in Uruk tablets substitute the gods “Bēl and Bēltīya” with “Anu and Antu.” Martha T. Roth, “ina amat DN1 u
DN2 lišlim,” JSS 33 (1988) 1–2, esp. bibliography in n. 1.
57.  A. Sachs, “The Latest Datable Cuneiform Tablets,” in Kramer Anniversary Volume: Cuneiform Studies in Honor of Samuel Noah Kramer,
ed. B.L. Eichler, et al., AOAT 25 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker, 1976), 393–95, 398.
58.  M. J. Geller, “The Last Wedge,” ZA 87 (1997) 43–95, esp. 60–64; A. Westenholz, “The Graeco-Babyloniaca Once Again,” ZA 97 (2007)
262–313, esp. 294–309; D. Brown, “Increasingly Redundant: The Growing Obsolescence of the Cuneiform Script in Babylonia from 539 BC,” in
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication, ed. J. Baines, J. Bennet, and S. Houston (London: Equinox,
2008), 73–101, esp. 87.

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 DISCOVERY OF THE ZODIAC MAN IN CUNEIFORM 233

form astronomical-astrological texts (mainly simple almanacs and Goal Year texts), with competent professionals
increasingly articulating their craft in Greek or Aramaic in order to reach a wider audience.59 Certainly, in the
cuneiform terms that constitute our Zodiac Man (BM 56605), we encountered unconventional features such as
the unusual orthography GU4.MURUB4 for the “waist,” the use of ÚR particularly for the lower “leg,” and perhaps
the choice of the term Ḫ AR(?) (kabattu, “insides”) that was atypical for Babylonian medical texts. In any case, we
simply do not know enough at this stage to rule out the possibility that tablet BM 56605 postdated or even relied
on accounts of the Zodiac Man by Manilius (ca. 10–30 CE) or his contemporaries. While acknowledging the great
achievements of Babylonian astronomy and astrology, it should not be taken for granted that the transmission of
ideas was always one-way, or that less tangible influences in the vibrant and often cosmopolitan final centuries
BCE could not have shaped the schemes and practices of Babylonian astrologers. None of the above uncertainties,
of course, detract from the importance of tablet BM 56605 as an artifact of intellectual history, being possibly the
earliest attestation of the Zodiac Man and definitely a testimony to the flow of astrological ideas between cunei-
form and later cultures.
Indeed, abiding similarities in forms of the Zodiac Man in table 1 should not blind us to the variety of functions
they could have performed. Empiricus’ description of how positions of beneficent or malevolent planets “at the
time of birth” were interpreted by the Zodiac Man (Adversus Mathematicos V, 22), for example, provides an ancient
pedigree to horoscopic implications in the jest that Sir Aguecheek’s dancing leg owed its liveliness to its formation
“under the star of a galliard.” On the other hand, both uses of the Zodiac Man served quite different purposes from
the medieval practice of consulting the moon’s zodiacal position prior to bloodletting, even if figures of the Zodiac
Man in antiquity and in the Middle Ages bear obvious resemblances and share genealogical connections. Similarly,
the significance of the Zodiac Man in the medical context of tablet BM 56605 promises to shed light on the internal
logic of Babylonian iatromathematics, revealing meanings that could have proved surprising even to Greek and
Roman authors.60 In pursuing the birthplace of an idea, we may end up discovering instead the wonderful ways
different cultures adopted it, internalized it, and made it their very own.

59.  Brown, “Increasingly Redundant,” 73–101; J. Cooper, “Postscript: Redundancy Reconsidered: Reflection on David Brown’s Thesis,” in
Baines, Bennet, and Houston, The Disappearance of Writing Systems, 103–8.
60.  See my forthcoming “Virtual Moons over Babylonia.”

This content downloaded from 146.201.208.22 on Wed, 04 Nov 2015 09:50:41 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions