As for the Greeks, they learned not a whit of
astrology either from the Aethiopians or from the
Aegyptians. It was Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and
Calliope, that first declared these matters unto them,
but not at all plainly, nor did he bring the science
forth unto illucidation but unto ingannation and pious
fraude, such being the humour of the man. It seems better established that Atlas was the first astronomer; cf. Cicero, 7’usc. Disp., V, 3, 8, and Vergil, Aen., I, 740. He taught the doctrine of the sphere to Heracles, and the fact that Heracles introduced it into Greece underlies the story of the golden apples of the Hesperides—so, at all events, says Diodorus. Orpheus, however, was no doubt a very active person in many ways; e.g. in connection with philosophy (Runaways, 8) and very likely dancing (Dance, 15), and the mathematician Nicomachus of Gerasa (pp. 241, 271, 274 Jan.), Lucian’s contemporary, agrees with him that the lyre of Orpheus had seven strings to match the number of the planets and played the harmony of the spheres. _ For he
made a harp and exposed his mystick rites in poesy
and his theology in song; and the harp, that had
seven chords, discoursed the harmony of the errant
spheres. It was by investigating and ventilating
these matters that he enchanted and enthralled all
creatures; for he regarded not that harp of his nor
yet concerned himselfe with other musick, but this
was the mightie harp of Orpheus, The thought is that the planets form the only musical instrument and render the only music in which Orpheus, as primarily an astronomer, had any real interest. and to honour
these things, the Greeks set apart a station in the
heavens and numerous stars are denominated
Orpheus his harp. 
If ever you see Orpheus pictured in mosaick stones
or in pigment, he sitteth in the centre, in the simili-





 

tude of one that sings, holding in his hands the harp,
and about him stand numberless creatures, among
which a bull, a man, a lion, and others after their
kind. When you see these, bethink you, pray, what
his song was, what his harp, and what the bull or
the lion that giveth ear to him. And if you would
know the originalls that I speak of, you may behold
each of them in the heavens.
 
They say, moreover, that Tiresias, a Boeotian
man, whose fame as touching prophecie is greatly
cried up, declared, unto the Greeks that of the errant
stars some are masle, some female, and that they
do not engender like effects; wherefore they fable
that Tiresias himself was bisexous and amphibious,
now masle, now female. Here again we have “indepeniiont thought.” A widely variant explanation of the myth had previously been offered by Cephalio (cf. J. Malalas, Chron., p. 40, 1, in the Bonn ition), according to which Tiresias was a student of medicine who concerned himself with the mysteries of parturition. 
 
When Atreus and Thyestes contended for the
throne of their fathers, even then, it is plain, the
Greeks set great store by astrologie and celestial
lore; and the commonwealth of Argos determined
that which ever of them was more excellent than the
other in this lore should bear rule. Thereupon
Thyestes indicated and made manifest unto them the
Ram in the heavens, in consequence whereof they
fable that Thyestes had a golden lamb. But Atreus
declared the doctrine of the sun and its risings, that
the sun and the First Movable The firmament, or orb, of the fixed stars. This was thought of as revolving from East to West. The sun particited, to be sure, in its motion, but had a contrary motion of is own, which was compared to that of an ant walking on the rim of a moving wheel in the direction contrary to the wheel’s motion. do not course in the
same direction, but rowle contrariwise to one another




 

and that which now seemeth his setting, being a
setting of the First Movable, is a rising of the sun.
At his saying this, the men of Argos made him their
king, and great renown for learning became his. Previous authors left this topic to Lucian “incomplete.” That Atreus owed his kingship to his discovery of the retrograde motion of the sun was known not only to Polybius (XXXIV, beginning) but even to Sophocles and Euripides, according es enter on arate (Achilleus: Maass, Comm. in Arat., p. 28). It remained for Lucian to point out that Thyestes was an astronomer also, the discoverer of the constellation Aries, and to add a touch of paradox to the other doctrine with his suggestion that inasmuch as the sun’s proper motion is from West to East, he is really going upward, and therefore rising, when he sets, and downward, or setting, when he rises. 
 
Concerning Bellerophon also I am of this opinion:
that he had a volatile as horse I do not at all believe,
but conceive that he pursued this wisdom and raised
his thoughts on high and held conversation with the
stars, and thus ascended unto heaven by means
not of his horse but of his wit.