Book Review: Astrology in Antiquity: Origins of Astrology
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Abstract
This is a book of considerable 'learning', but also of abysmal ignorance. The 'learning' is evident in Lindsay's managing to touch upon virtually every superficial aspect of the history of astral omens and of astrology in Antiquity, the ignorance in his failure to understand much of anything of a technical nature. The familiar names, anecdotes, fables are all to be found dumped in chronological order into his pages; the meaning of it all is missing. Lindsay's extensive, though far from thorough, knowledge of the existence of relevant literature is demonstrated by his compactly (one could say opaquely) presented bibliography (pp. 463-71), but his obscurely abbreviated scholarly notes (pp. 428-62) frequently fail to support the statements in his text and raise the question of whether he has neglected to consult the books and articles he cites or (as seems more likely) simply has no comprehension of their contents. In these general characteristics and in other failings (such as his lack of familiarity with the numerous oriental sources for the history of early Greek astrology) Lindsay's work resembles its German predecessor, W. and H. G. Gundel, Astrologumena (Wiesbaden, 1966), though it is written with even less of a command of the field than they display. Most of the criticisms brought against the Astrologumena by D. Pingree (Gnomon, xl (1968), 276-80), by E. Boer (Deutsche Literaturzeitung; xc (1969), 604-7), and by M. Plessner (Isis, lxii (1971), 397-401) apply afortiore to the Origins and need not be repeated here.