Chapter VII. Male or Female

Arter the indications which regard brothers and sisters have been investigated by the foregoing rules, consonant with nature and reason; the actual native, or the person ta — whom the.scheme of nativity. is specially appropriated, de- . mands attention ;- and the first and most obvious inquiry 1s. whether the said native will be male or female.

Mars should both be in the ascendant, in order to produce the effect described ; nor whether the same effect would not follow, if one of. them should be in the ascendant, and the other i in the occidental angle, or even.in some other se

122 PTOLEMY’S TETRABIBLOS. —- (Book Lil.

The consideration. of this question rests not on a single basis, nor can it be pursued in one éole direction only: it depends, on the contrary, upon the several situations of the two luminaries and the ascendant, and upon such planets as possess any prefopgatives in the places of those situations ; and all these circumstances should be specially observed at the time of conception, and, in a general manner alvo, at that of birth.

Observation of the said three places, and of the mode in which the planets ruling them may be constituted, is wholly

indispensible: it must be seen whether all, or most of them,

_ may be constituted masculinely or fermininely; and prediction

thusty of course, be regulated in conformity with their disposition, so obsétved; as tending to produce a male or female birth.

The masculine or feminine nature of the stars is to be distinguished in the manner already pointed cut in the comrmencement of this treatise*. For instance, by the nature of the signs in which they are situated, by their relative position to each other, and also by their position towards

the earth; as, when in the east, they are masculinely disposed,

and, when in the west, femininely. Their relative position to the Sun also affords guidance in distinguishing them ; since, if they should be matutine, they are considered, to signify the male gender; and if vespertime, the female. Thus, from the sex chiefly prevalent, as observed by these rules, that of the native may be rationally inferred.

WiItu respect to the probability of the birth of twins, or a’

greater number at once, the same places must be observed,

Chap. VHI.] —- BYOLEMY’s: TRTBABIBLOS. 128

as those mentioned ia the preneding chapter; that is to gay, the places of both luminaries and the ascendant.

When tayo, ar all. three, of the said places may be sitpated. in bicorporeal signs, births of this kind will ocopr, in:sonsequence of the combination which then arises 3 especially, provided al] the planets, which controul those places, should also be similarly circumstanced: or although only some of them be pasited in bicerporeal signs, while the rest may be placed by two or more together, Begause even more than twins will -be bora, in a case wherein all the ruling places — may be in bicorporeal signs, most of the planets being, at the same time, posited in the same way, and configprated with them. ‘The number of children, however, to be pro» | duced at the birth, is ta be inferred from that planet which exercises the right of determining the number.*: and the: sex or sexes are to be predicted by means of the planets ip configuration with the Sun, Moon, and ascendant.

And, should the position of the heavens be arranged so that the angle of the mid-heaven, and not that of the ascendant, may be connected with the luminaries, there will, in that cage, be produced, almost always, tyins; and sometimes even more.

To speak, however, more particularly, three males will be born, as in the nativity of the Anactores ¢, when Saturn,

* The planet here alluded to, seems to be that which may be connected with most of the ruling places.

t [have looked in many other books for this word “ Anactores,” (plural of avaxrap), as designating three particular individuals born at the same birth; for which signification it is here used by Ptolemy ; but my search has been in vain. Cicero has, howevey, written a passage, in which a word, very nearly resembling it, occurs, and which would seem to relate to the yery persons alluded to by Ptolemy : viz. “The godship of the Dioscuri was established in various modes “among the Greeks, and applied to various persons. One set con-

“‘ sisted of three persons, who were styled at Athens the Anactes ’

Jupiter, and Mars may be configurated with the places before appointed, in bicorporeal signs ; and three females, as in thenativity of the Graces, when Venus and the Moon, with Mercury femininely constituted, may be configurated in like manner. When Saturn, Jupiter,.and Venus may be so: configurated, two males and one female will be born ; as in the nativity of the Dioscuri-* ; and, when Venus, the Moon and Mars may be so configurated, two females and one male ; as in the nativity of Ceres, Core and Liber f. -

In casés of this kind, however, it most usually. happens that the ‘conception has not been complete, and that the children are born with some remarkable imperfections -or deformities. -And,-in some instances, owing to a certain concurrence of events, these numerous productions are quite extraordinary and amazing.

“and were the sons of Jupiter, the most antient king, and Proser- “ pine; their several names were Tritopatreus, Eubuleus and Dio- “ nysius.” De Nat. Deor. lib. 3, cap.:21.

* This is the second set of the Dioscuri, as stated by Cicero: they

were the children of the third, or Cretan J upiter (the son of Saturn) and Leda; their names were Castor, Pollux and Helena.» Helena, however, is not mentioned by Cicero.

+ Core isa name of Proserpine ; Liber, of Bacchus. And, although the mention here made of Ceres, Proserpine and Bacchus, as being the offspring of one and the same birth, does not aceord with the usual notion of the genealogy of these divinitics, it seems that Ptolemy did not so represent them without some reason. For, in cap. 24, lib. 2, De Nat. Deor., Cicero speaks of Liber as having been deified conjointly with Ceres and Libera, (another name of Proserpine) ; and adds, that “it may be understood, from the rites and mysteries of the worship, how the deification took place.” It appears also, by Davies’s notes on Cicero, that Livy and Tacitus both speak of the co-partnership in divinity exercised by Liber, Libera and Ceres. There is not, however, any occasion at present to dive deeper into the question of the generation of these deities; for our author has adverted to them only to point out that so many males or females will be produced at one birth, under certain configurations of _ the stars.