Panáretos

pa-NA-re-tos

greek: Παναρέτος (Panáretos, 'All-Virtue')

Definition

Panáretos (Greek Παναρέτος, 'All-Virtue') is a lost Hermetic astrological treatise, attributed in antiquity to Hermes Trismegistus. It survives only through quotations and references in Paulus Alexandrinus, Olympiodorus's Commentary on Paulus, and Vettius Valens. Paulus's Chapter 23 carries the title 'On the Seven Lots from the Panaretus' and names the Panaretus as the source-text for the seven Hermetic Lots: Fortune (Moon), Daimon or Spirit (Sun), Eros (Venus), Necessity (Mercury), Courage (Mars), Victory (Jupiter), and Nemesis (Saturn).

In Tradition

For the Hellenistic-Hermetic tradition, the Panaretus is the source-text for the seven planetary Lots that anchor Hellenistic Lot-based reading. Greenbaum reconstructs it from the testimony of Paulus and Olympiodorus: each Lot is formed by measuring the arc between its planet and either the Lot of Fortune or the Lot of Spirit (Daimon), starting from the Ascendant. That neat, repeating pattern is itself evidence of a single author behind the seven-Lot system.

In Practice

Astrologers, ancient and modern, cite the Panaretus for the standard seven-Lot scheme. Olympiodorus (Commentary on Paulus, Ch. 21 = Boer 42.6-43.4) preserves the reasoning: "this divine man said there were 7 lots in relation to the number of the 7 stars," with each Lot's planet explained from that planet's distinctive quality — Jupiter as lord of Victory, Mercury as lord of reasoned speech and therefore of Necessity. Greenbaum's Appendix 8.B-D gathers the testimony of Antiochus, Paulus, and Olympiodorus to rebuild the Panaretus formula for each Lot. In natal work the seven Lots act as modifiers on what a planet already signifies: Fortune for the body and material circumstances, Spirit for the mind and deliberate action, and the remaining five — Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, Nemesis — for the themes their Greek names suggest. The reconstructed Panaretus framework is standard in modern revival practice (Brennan, George, Greenbaum, Schmidt).

Historical Origin

The Panaretus survives only in quotations and cross-references. Its primary witnesses are Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters Ch. 23 (4th c. CE), and Olympiodorus, Commentary on Paulus Ch. 21 (6th c. CE). Indirect witnesses include Vettius Valens, Anthologiae (c. 145-175 CE), and fragments of Antiochus of Athens preserved in Rhetorius. It is reconstructed in Greenbaum, The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology (2016), Chs. 8, 10-12, and 15, with Appendix 8.B-D.

Further Reading

  • Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology
  • Paulus Alexandrinus, Introductory Matters
  • Vettius Valens, Anthologiae