Apotelesmata

Definition

Apotelesmata is the Greek plural for the predicted effects or outcomes brought about by particular combinations of stars in a chart — the consequents of the if-then propositions characteristic of Hellenistic astrological texts. The term doubles as a literary-technical heading attached to multiple ancient works: the manuscript heading under which the Pseudo-Manetho astrological poems are transmitted, the alternative title preserved in many manuscripts for Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, and the title of Hephaestion of Thebes's treatise.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic technical literature apotelesmata names both the doctrinal subject matter of natal astrology — the outcomes the stars bring about at birth — and the format in which that subject is delivered: an astrological configuration (the protasis) followed by its predicted effect on the person whose chart is being read (the apodosis, i.e. the apotelesma). The genre is distinct from katarchic astrology, which inspects the configurations of an inception or initiative rather than a birth.

In Practice

Reading a Hellenistic apotelesmatic text proceeds proposition by proposition: the practitioner matches a configuration in the chart under examination to a protasis in the source text, then receives the corresponding apotelesma as the predicted outcome. Pseudo-Manetho's hexameter poems, Dorotheus's Carmen Astrologicum, Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, and Hephaestion's Apotelesmatika all transmit material in this form. Lightfoot observes that the Manethoniana presuppose the chart has already been cast and addresses 'the previous stages in the process, the production of a chart from raw data' — the apotelesma is delivered to a reader who is assumed to know the configuration and is consulting the text for its consequent. Modern Hellenistic-revival astrologers consult the apotelesmata as the canonical doctrinal corpus from which traditional natal delineation is reconstructed.

Historical Origin

Apotelesmata is attested as a literary-technical heading from the 2nd century CE onward. Lightfoot's edition of Pseudo-Manetho (Oxford University Press, 2020) records the manuscript title ἀποτελέσματα attached to that collection, observes the parallel manuscript usage for Ptolemy and Hephaestion, and glosses the term as 'outcomes' or, more precisely, 'effects, brought about by certain combinations of stars.'

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: From ἀποτέλεσμα (apotelesma, 'outcome' or 'effect'), built on ἀποτελέω (apoteleō, 'to bring to completion, accomplish') — the noun denoting the completed effect brought about by a configuration..

Further Reading

• J. L. Lightfoot, The Apotelesmatika of Manetho
• Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
• Hephaistio of Thebes, Apotelesmatics