Pseudo-Manetho, Apotelesmatica: Books Four, One, and Five

The corpus of astrological material ascribed to the Egyptian priest Manetho consists of six books of poetry. This book serves as the companion to the one published by OUP in 2020, which was the first commentary in any language on the earliest three books of Manetho's poetry. This volume supplies the remainder (books four, one, and five). Manetho was credited with a series of didactic poems that list outcomes for planetary set-ups in a birth chart. The books covered in this volume are not as easily dated as those in the first volume, but the most recent is probably no later than the fourth century and they are still Egyptian. As in the first volume, their descriptions of the kinds of people who are born under happy and unhappy configurations of stars speak to the lived realities, aspirations, and fears of the astrologer's clientele. Unlike in the first volume, the individual books treated here have different authors, and there is more emphasis on profiling individual poets in terms of style, metre, and mannerisms. There is a Greek text with English translation and an apparatus with parallel material to enable comparison with related works, but this volume pays more attention to the transmission of traditional material from one author to another and to the special approach required of an editor of material which, being in practical use, circulated in unstable and minutely-varying textual forms.

Format: Hardback
Length: 1168 pages
Publication date: 27 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The corpus of astrological material attributed to the Egyptian priest Manetho consists of six books of poetry, serving as a companion to the one published by OUP in 2020. This volume provides the remainder of Manetho's poetry, including books four, one, and five. While the dating of these books is not as precise as in the first volume, they are believed to be from the fourth century and still Egyptian in nature. The descriptions of individuals born under different planetary configurations in these books reflect the lived realities, aspirations, and fears of the astrologer's clientele. Unlike the first volume, which focused on the transmission of traditional material, this volume emphasizes the transmission of traditional material from one author to another and the unique challenges faced by an editor of material that circulated in unstable and minutely-varying textual forms.

Additionally, this volume includes a Greek text with English translation and an apparatus with parallel material to facilitate comparison with related works. However, it pays more attention to the transmission of traditional material and the special approach required of an editor of such material.

Weight: 1646g
Dimension: 240 x 160 x 60 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192868473