Editing Astrology (section)

=== Hellenistic Egypt ===

{{Main|Hellenistic astrology}}

[[File:Quadritpartitum.jpg|thumb|upright|1484 copy of first page of [[Ptolemy|Ptolemy's]] ''Tetrabiblos'', translated into Latin by [[Plato of Tivoli]]|alt=Ptolemy's ''Tetrabiblos'', the Hellenistic text that founded Western astrology]]
In 525 BCE, [[Egypt]] was conquered by the Persians. The 1st century BCE Egyptian [[Dendera Zodiac]] shares two signs – the Balance and the Scorpion – with Mesopotamian astrology.<ref>{{cite book | last=Barton | first= Tamsyn | title=Ancient Astrology | year=1994 | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-11029-7 |page=24}}</ref>

With the occupation by [[Alexander the Great]] in 332 BCE, Egypt became [[Hellenistic]]. The city of [[Alexandria]] was founded by Alexander after the conquest, becoming the place where [[Babylonian astrology]] was mixed with Egyptian [[Decans|Decanic astrology]] to create [[Horoscopic astrology]]. This contained the Babylonian zodiac with its system of planetary [[exaltation (astrology)|exaltation]]s, the triplicities of the signs and the importance of eclipses. It used the Egyptian concept of dividing the zodiac into thirty-six decans of ten degrees each, with an emphasis on the rising decan, and the Greek system of planetary Gods, sign rulership and [[four elements]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Holden | first= James Herschel | title=A History of Horoscopic Astrology | publisher=AFA | year=2006 | edition=2nd | isbn=978-0-86690-463-6 |pages=11–13}}</ref> 2nd century BCE texts predict positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.{{sfn|Barton|1994|page=20}} The [[astrologer]] and astronomer [[Ptolemy#Astrology|Ptolemy]] lived in Alexandria. Ptolemy's work the ''[[Tetrabiblos]]'' formed the basis of Western astrology, and, "...enjoyed almost the authority of a Bible among the astrological writers of a thousand years or more."<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Robbins | editor-first=Frank E. | title=Ptolemy Tetrabiblos | year=1940 | publisher=Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library) | isbn=978-0-674-99479-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/tetrabiblos0000ptol |page=xii "Introduction"}}</ref>