A Guide to the
Hellenistic Lots Page
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
This page came about because Dorian Greenbaum is primarily interested in the Lots (or Parts) of Fortune,
Daimon (a.k.a. Spirit), Eros and Necessity. These Lots were connected mathematically in antiquity (in the
formulae of Valens and Firmicus, they form a double mirror image to one another). Dorian is also
interested in the so-called ‘planetary’ lots, in which one of the points in the formula for the lot is a planet,
and the other point is either the Lot of Fortune or the Lot of Daimon. Therefore she has also included two
lots from the Anthology of Vettius Valens, the Lot of Exaltation and the Lot of Basis, as well as a lot from
Rhetorius’ Compendium of astrology, the Lot of the Destroyer.
When you open the page on the screen, you will see a chart wheel on the left, and the list of lots and
their calculations on the right. Below the chart wheel is a sect table for the chart, and below the list of
lots is a dignity table using Dorothean triplicity rulers and Egyptian terms (bounds).
You will also notice that the chart wheel contains glyphs and positions for the Lot of Fortune, Lot of
Daimon, Lot of Eros and Lot of Necessity.
A Guide to the
Hellenistic Lots Page
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
The glyphs are:
Lot of Fortune: Ï
Lot of Daimon: £.
The presently earliest extant depiction of a glyph for the Lot of Daimon is found in a ca. 10 th
century manuscript in the Laurentian library, Florence, Laurentianus Pluteus 28, 34 ( ). The
drawing of the glyph used on this page is similar in style to the Florence glyph but is found in a
sixteenth century manuscript of Valens’ Anthology that belonged to John Dee, Oxoniensis
Seldenianus 22 (Seld. Arch B19), e.g. on f. 154r, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Lot of Eros: ¡
No manuscript glyph is extant for this lot.
Lot of Necessity: ¢
No manuscript glyph is extant for this lot.
The Lots of Fortune and Daimon use day/night criteria in their formation. The formulae used for the lots
in the chart wheel are given in Vettius Valens, Anthology, II, 3.1, p. 58 in Pingree’s edition (Lot of
Fortune); and II, 23.7, pp. 83-84 in Pingree’s edition (Lot of Daimon).
The formulae for the Lots of Eros and Necessity used in the chart wheel correspond to those given in
Vettius Valens, Anthology, IV, 25.13 and IV, 25.16, p. 192 in Pingree’s edition, p. 26 in the Riley translation.
They differentiate between day and night charts. You will see the lots listed in the table on the right as Lot
of Eros [N or D] Val, and Lot of Necessity [N or D] Val. This is to differentiate them from the version of
Julius Firmicus Maternus in his Mathesis, VI, 32.45 and 46. The Firmicus versions reverse the positions of
the lots of Fortune and Daimon in the formulae for what he calls the Locus cupidinis and the Locus
necessitatis. They are listed in the table of lots as Lot of Eros [D or N] Firm, and Lot of Necessity [D or N]
Firm.
A Guide to the
Hellenistic Lots Page
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
The other lots designated Lot of Eros and Lot of Necessity in the table use the formulae of Paulus
Alexandrinus in his Introduction, ch. 23 Boer. The Paulus Lot of Eros uses the arc between Venus and the
Lot of Daimon (using day/night criteria), and the Paulus Lot of Necessity uses the arc between Mercury
and the Lot of Fortune (using day/night criteria.
The Lots of Courage, Victory and Nemesis are presently earliest found in a papyrus now in Berlin, P.Berol.
9825, with a nativity dating to 319 CE. They also appear in Paulus Alexandrinus, Introduction, 378 CE.
The Lots of Basis and Exaltation also come from Vettius Valens’ Anthology. The Lot of Basis is found in II,
23.7, p. 84 in Pingree’s edition (interpreting the formula as R. Hand, in Vettius Valens, Anthology Book II,
Part 1, (trans. R. Schmidt), Berkeley Springs, WV: Golden Hind Press, 1994, p. 43 n. 1). The Lot of
Exaltation is found in II, 19.1, p. 77 in Pingree’s edition.
Finally, the Lot of the Destroyer uses the arc between the Moon and dispositor (oikodespotēs ,
‘housemaster’ in Rhetorius) of the Ascendant. This lot is described in Rhetorius, Compendium, Ch. 54,
‘Investigation of Chart Factors’, Fifth Consideration, in preparation by Stephan Heilen (from Pingree’s
manuscript).
PAGE DESIGNED BY: Zane B. Stein and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
