Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World
Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near-Eastern Societies

This book explains the popular instruments and texts (parapegmata) used in antiquity for astronomical weather prediction.

Daryn Lehoux (Author)

9781107404779, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 July 2012

582 pages
24.4 x 17 x 3 cm, 0.92 kg

'… engagingly written, with occasional comparisons to varieties of popular weather forecasting in twentieth-century rural Canada … This book will deservedly become the fundamental source for its subject.' Metascience

The focus of this book is the interplay between ancient astronomy, meteorology, physics and calendrics. It looks at a set of popular instruments and texts (parapegmata) used in antiquity for astronomical weather prediction and the regulation of day-to-day life. Farmers, doctors, sailors and others needed to know when the heavens were conducive to various activities, and they developed a set of fairly sophisticated tools and texts for tracking temporal, astronomical and weather cycles. Sources are presented in full, with an accompanying translation. A comprehensive analysis explores questions such as: What methodologies were used in developing the science of astrometeorology? What kinds of instruments were employed and how did these change over time? How was the material collected and passed on? How did practices and theories differ in the different cultural contexts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome?

Part I. Parapegmata and Astrometeorology: 1. The rain in Attica falls mainly under Sagitta
2. Spelt and Spica
3. De signis
4. When is thirty days not a month?
5. Calendars, weather, and stars in Babylon
6. Egyptian astrometeorology
7. Conclusion
Part II. Sources: Catalogue of extant parapegmata
Extant parapegmata
Appendix 1. Authorities cited in parapegmata
Appendix 2. Tables of correspondence of parapegmata.

Subject Areas: Astronomy, space & time [PG], History of science [PDX], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]