Galen and Astrology: A Match Made in the Heavens?

Glen M. Cooper
(Submitted to journal: Early Science and Medicine)

The author examines the question of Galen’s affinity with astrology, in view of Galen’s extended
astrological discussion in the De diebus decretoriis (Critical Days). The critical passages from
Galen are examined, and shown to be superficial in understanding. He performs a lexical
sounding of Galen’s corpus, using key terms with astrological valences drawn from the Critical
Days, and assesses their absence in Galen’s other works. He compares Galen’s astrology with the
astrology of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, and evaluates their respective strategies of scientific
reasoning. Three types of inference are introduced and applied to Galen’s astrology. Finally, he
concludes that the empirical side of Galen’s science does not depend upon astrological methods
or concepts, but that these were introduced for their rhetorical power in presenting his new
medical methodology. It is suggested that continued attention to Galen’s astrology has obscured
the truly important empirical scientific method that Galen developed.

Introduction
Galen’s use of astrology in the De diebus decretoriis1 (hereafter Critical Days) has
provoked both admiration and revulsion since his death 1900 years ago. For many of his
followers and imitators, Galen’s astrology represented the epitome of empiricism in medicine.
For his critics, however, beginning with Nicole Oresme (d. 1382) and culminating in the 16th
debates over the validity of the critical days in medicine, Galen completely misunderstood the
ancient Art. Some critics, such as Oresme, urged that astrology be eliminated from his medicine,
since the critical days could be used as a prognostic tool in medical practice without astrology,
and others, such as Girolamo Cardano (d. 1576), wanted to reject Galenic medicine entirely,
replacing it with an amalgam of Hippocratic medicine, which he considered superior, and the
more successful Ptolemaic astrology.2 Clearly, the status of Galen’s astrology is problematic.
What neither the admirers nor the critics have realized, however, is that by focusing on
astrology, they missed the real point of Galen’s empirically based theory of crises and critical
days. Indeed, as I shall try to show, Galen’s use of astrology is superficial, and does not cohere

1
Galen, De diebus decretoriis libri iii. C. G. Kühn (Ed.) 1825. Claudii Galeni opera omnia. vol. 9. Leipzig:
Knobloch (reprint: Hildesheim: G. Olms 1964-1965), 769-941.
2
Grafton, Anthony. Cardano’s Cosmos: The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1999, 127-155; and N. Siraisi 1997. Siraisi, Nancy. The Clock and the Mirror: Girolamo Cardano and
Renaissance Medicine. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1997, 140-41. See also Grafton, Anthony, and Nancy Siraisi.
“Between the Election and My Hopes: Girolamo Cardano and Medical Astrology.” In Secrets of Nature: Astrology and
Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, edited by William R. Newman and Anthony Grafton, 69-131. Cambridge: MIT Press,
2001, 86 seq.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 1

with the rest of his medical science, except in an almost meaninglessly general way—especially
with his theory of the crises. It is this theory that is most interesting, in my view, from the
perspective of the development of scientific thinking. Once the astrology has been removed, we
can begin to see clearly, perhaps for the first time, the true ingenuity of Galen’s approach to data
and natural phenomena.
Yet, if astrology is so foreign to Galen’s scientific method, then why did he include such a
detailed discussion of it in the Critical Days at all? The answer, I think, is for its persuasive
value: the Critical Days was one of several treatises written at about the same time (c. 175 A.D.),
among which also was the De crisibus (hereafter, Crises). These treatises were intended to
advance Galen’s new theories or his versions of ideas and methods found originally in the
Hippocratic writings. His point was not to present a fully usable astrological method, but to show
how the critical days could fit within the commonly accepted astrological cosmology. He no
doubt hoped thereby to increase his clientele, especially among the wealthier and more powerful
Romans. One clue to this motivation is that the only astrological authority that Galen cites in the
Critical Days is the popular author, Aratus (discussed below), whose poetic rendering of
Eudoxan astronomy can hardly be considered scientific, but whose writings were a staple of an
aristocratic Roman education.
To my knowledge, Galen’s astrology has not been scrutinized this carefully since the late
Middle Ages and Renaissance, although recently there have been a few insightful studies of
Galen’s thought and practice.3 (See below.) These observations of the present article are based
on the author’s intense study of the Critical Days and the Crises, as I have prepared editions and
studies of these texts for publication, in both Greek and Arabic.4 As I compiled the commentary
to my edition of the Critical Days, I initially tried to explain Galen’s astrology as an integral part
of his scientific worldview. Yet, when considering the empirical methods of the Crises and the
Critical Days taken as a whole, I was forced to conclude that the astrology is not organic to
Galen’s scientific method at all, but has been tacked on for rather different purposes, mainly
rhetorical.

3
Among the best of these is: Barton, Tamsyn S. Power and Knowledge: Astrology, Physiognomics, and Medicine under the
Roman Empire. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1994.
4
The Critical Days will appear in two volumes, one Arabic, one Greek, from Ashgate; the Crises will appear from
Brill.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 2

 Important Conceptual Distinctions
One of the difficulties in understanding Galen’s text is created by the fact that he employs,
indiscriminately, arguments and techniques from at least two disparate astrological disciplines,
i.e. natural and judicial astrology. So, our first task is to sort them out. It is useful, therefore, to
draw some distinctions. Although the astrological worldview was pervasive in Galen’s day, not
all astrological practices would have counted as scientific for Galen. Galen would have excluded
all magical and divinatory practices. Galen emphasizes repeatedly that his ability to predict the
future is based on rational procedures, not prophecy.5 Most pre-Modern thinkers seem to have
admitted the idea of celestial influences of a general nature, such as would affect the weather or
the environment of a patient, and thus his chances of healing. This kind of astrology might be
termed natural astrology.6 Part of the Hippocratic worldview, via the influence of stars on
atmospheric conditions, and thought to be significant in the patient’s recovery, natural astrology
was accepted by most thinkers until modern times. On the other hand, the practices of casting
star charts, determining horoscopes and reading the future therefrom belong to the general
category of judicial astrology, and aim to determine the particular effects of the stellar influences
on a specific person, with a view toward forecasting the future. It was possible for a person to
subscribe to the first view, and not the second.
A. A. Long makes another useful distinction, between “hard” and “soft” astrology.7 Hard
astrology is tied to a kind of determinism; soft astrology admits the operability of human agency,
and the idea that the stars indicate probable futures that can be altered by human action. Judicial
astrology tends to be hard, and natural astrology tends to be soft.
Ancient astrology was not monolithic—under its rubric were numerous and varied
practices, not all of which were mutually consistent, nor would all have been recognized as
authentic by all practitioners—ranging from using the stars or zodiac signs as talismans, to a full
blown natural philosophy requiring years of university education to understand.

5
See De diebus decretoriis K 833.6-12 for a sarcastic comparison of the diviners with the rational physician. And
yet the people demand more of Galen than they do of prophets!
6
Campion, Nicholas. The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural History of Western Astrology. Volume 1: The Ancient and Classical
Worlds. London: Continuum, 2008, 278; 284. This distinction was clarified during the Middle Ages: Campion, Nicholas. A
History of Western Astrology. Volume 2: The Medieval and Modern Worlds. London: Continuum, 2009, 13-14; 33-34.
7
Long, A. A. “Astrology : Arguments Pro and Contra.” In Science and Speculation : Studies in Hellenistic Theory and
Practice, edited by J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat and M. Schofield, 165-92. Cambridge: CUP, 1982, esp. 170, n.19.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 3

 The present article advances a two-fold thesis. I maintain that 1) while Galen’s medicine is
consistent with natural astrology, it is not so with judicial astrology, and his attempt to present
his theory of the critical days in terms of judicial astrology is a practical failure, if a rhetorical
success. And, 2) Again, while Galen’s medicine is consistent with natural astrology, that is truly
secondary in his thought. Galen’s rhetorical emphasis is on the order and design of the cosmos,
which he claims can be observed at the lowest level. When in Book III of the Critical Days he
introduced the heavenly bodies, I shall argue that this was an afterthought with mainly rhetorical
value. To conclude, I shall sketch Galen’s mundane approach to science—i.e. what remains
when the astrology has been removed—in terms that I believe others have not addressed.
Galen was certainly a product of his time, yet I believe that some aspects of his scientific
method have either been misunderstood or ignored. In the case of astrology, he has been
exploited or condemned, while his followers and detractors both have generally missed the real
point of his scientific approach. The present study focuses on his actual empirical approach. As
will become clear, Galen’s thought was at home in a natural astrological world, and he invokes
the celestial bodies as causes, but only after all of the essential empirical reasoning has been
accomplished.

Astrology and Medicine

Astrology and medicine have been closely associated for most of the history of medicine,
since both were closely tied to a cosmology within which prognoses were thought to be possible.
For astrology and other more overt forms of divination a cosmic sympathy between disparate
elements, such as that taught by the Stoics, were believed to make predictions (and magic)
possible. Even for a more natural scientific medicine, Aristotle’s notions of causation and the
regularity of nature suggested that knowledge of present causes and factors could produce
reasonable predictions about future states.

Recent Scholarship
There has not been much scholarship that addresses Galen’s astrology, yet the more recent
work is quite excellent. At the beginning of the last century, Karl Sudhoff, one of the founders of
the discipline of medical history, published an historical survey of the critical days concept in

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 4

medicine.8 Although excellent in all other ways, since it is a survey, the analysis of specific
points is not sufficiently deep for my purposes. Another article, from a generation ago, presents a
general survey of basic conceptual distinctions and a discussion of important passages from
Galen and other authors. In spite of its promising title,9 however, this article turns out to be
something of a disappointment, for reasons that call for brief discussion. The author makes a
similar basic distinction as I do between Galen’s use of a Hippocratic (natural) astrology, and the
divinatory astrology of many of his contemporaries.10 However, his analysis is not penetrating
enough for my purpose, and the discussion is marred by racist remarks, attributing the irrational
elements of astrology and numerology (which Galen sought to refute in the Critical Days) to the
Egyptians, as well as to the Semitic tendency (!) to exaggerate the significance of numerical
symbolism.11 The pseudo-Galenic treatise De decubitu12 he calls a product of the irrational
Egyptian-Mesopotamian strand in astrology, which blatantly opposes the higher Hippocratic
rational astrology. Nevertheless, even the great Galen could not escape this pernicious
influence—hence the absurd astrology in an otherwise intelligent scientist—since, Puma
observes, he was born in Asia!13
An article by the historian of astronomy, G. J. Toomer, is more responsible.14 The title is
somewhat misleading, however, leading us to expect an unambiguous statement from Galen
about astronomers and astrologers. Instead, in the chapter presented, extracted from a much
longer work that survives only in Arabic, Galen condemns “horoscope-casters” (the Arabic
ḥukkāmu
‘l-mawālīd “judges of nativities”15 refers to practitioners of judicial astrology) for their
ignorance of astronomy and geometry. We conclude then (though not with Toomer) that Galen
disparages an astrology that lacks solid grounding in the natural and mathematical sciences. This
stance is similar to his condemnation of contemporary physicians for their lack of knowledge of

8
Sudhoff, Karl. “Zur Geschichte der Lehre von den kritischen Tagen im Krankheitsverlaufe.” Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte
der Medizin 21, no. 1-4 (1929): 1-22.
9
Puma, Alfredo. “Galeno y la Astrologia.” Revista de la sociedad venezolana de Historia de la Medicina 12/13, (1964-5):
21-34.
10
Ibid., 27.
11
Ibid., 33.
12
Prognostica de decubitu ex mathematica scientia. Kühn, vol.19, 529-73.
13
Puma, 31.
14
Toomer, G. J. “Galen on the astronomers and astrologers.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 32, no. 3-4 (1985): 193-
206.
15
Ibid., 196.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 5

the same in the Quod optimus medicus sit quoque philosophus (“That the Best Physician is also a
Philosopher”)16 Therefore, Galen’s astrology—whatever it may be—is of the very learned kind,
as I have stated, that overlaps with meteorology and natural science. His disparaging attitude
toward the judicial astrologers here makes his use of some of their technical apparatus in Book
III of the Critical Days all the more curious.
Most recently there have appeared articles by I. Garofalo17 and C. Pennuto18 on the critical
days that are more useful for my purposes. The excellent article by I. Garofalo is the only one
I’ve found that engages in any depth with Galen’s text of the Critical Days, including
consideration of the Arabic tradition. He discusses several issues of an astronomical interest that
I also cover in my commentary, such as Galen’s derivation of the “medical month”. C. Pennuto
presents an insightful summary of the critical days doctrine, as it was mediated via the Latin
tradition, as well as a penetrating discussion of the critical days in the medical debates of the 16th
C. It was while reading her survey of Galen’s doctrine of the critical days that the possibility that
Galen’s astrology could be conceptually removed from his science occurred to me, leaving the
empirical science more clearly to be observed.

Crises and Critical Days: Basic Concepts

To appreciate the subtle conceptual distinctions that I shall make later, I must first set the
groundwork of Galen’s critical theory. One of the foundations of Galen’s therapeutic approach
was the concept of crisis. Greek physicians had noticed that some febrile illnesses show periodic
patterns of intense symptoms (crises), whether copious sweating and shivering, increased
vomiting, or diarrhea.19 These crises marked significant turning points in the illness, after which
the patient recovered or died. The crisis was connected with a process of expelling disease-
causing substances, usually putrefied humors, from the body. The evidence of successful

16
Quod optimus medicus sit quoque philosophus, Kühn vol.1, 53-63. Translation in: Brain, P. “Galen on the Ideal of the
Physician.” South African Medical Journal 51, (1977): 936-38. See also Galien: Que l’excellent médecin est aussi
philosophe, ed. V. Boudon-Millot, in: Galen. “Galien: Introduction Générale; Sur l’ordre de ses propres Livres; Sur ses
propres Livres; Que l’excellent Médecin est aussi Philosophe.” edited by V Boudon-Millot. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2007.
17
Garofalo, Ivan. “Note sui giorni critici in Galeno.” Paper presented at the Rationnel et irrationnel dans la me´decine
ancienne et me´die´vale : aspects historiques, scientifiques et culturels : [actes du colloque international organise´ par le
centre Jean Palerne a` l’Universite´ Jean Monnet de Saint-Étienne les 14 et 15 novemb, 2003.
18
Pennuto, Concetta. “The Debate on Critical Days in Renaissance Italy.” In Astro-Medicine: Astrology and Medicine, East
and West, edited by Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim. Florence: Sismel - Edizione del Galluzzo, 2008.
19
(Some of these symptoms are observed in connection with malaria, which has led some modern scholars to posit
that at least some of these illnesses were malarial in origin.)

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 6

expulsion was sought in the body’s major secreta and excreta: coalescence of nasal mucosal
discharges; sediment in the urine; or excess biles in the stools. The periodicity of these illnesses,
namely, peaks of intensity in the febrile symptoms called paroxysms, led to the identification of
specific days, counted from the onset of the illness, on which one could expect to observe a
crisis, which usually occurred in conjunction with a paroxysm. Most prominent were days: 7, 14,
and 20, with secondary days on 4, 11, and 17. The latter were “indicator” days, on which one
could find clues from the patient’s condition as to the character of the crisis expected to occur on
the next major critical day.
The crises and critical days are the subjects of the two Galenic treatises, Crises and Critical
Days, already mentioned. Galen’s model was a development of the ancient humoral theory of
illness, according to which perspective illness is the result of humoral imbalance, and the
physician’s task is to restore the balance, through therapy. The expulsion of the putrefied humor
was absolutely necessary for a restored balance. The planets, however, have little directly to do
with the situation, which requires much careful observation over time, and subtle adjustments in
regimen. The critical day concept also influenced therapy: Through the physician’s skilled
intervention, via diet and regimen, the patient’s body could be manipulated to produce a better
crisis, which both expels as much of the diseased humors as possible, while minimizing damage
to the patient (through its traumatic symptoms).

The Structure of Galen’s Theory of Crises and Critical Days

Next, for my argument it is crucial to understand the structure of Galen’s treatises about the
crises and critical days. The Crises discusses crises: how to identify their symptoms, how to use
their features to infer the interior states of the patients’ bodies, how to classify them, etc. The
first two books of the Critical Days concern the identification of critical days and their use in
treatment, as Galen sifts through data to derive a scientifically sound list of critical days with
their principal properties.20 Thus, five of the six books of these two treatises concern mundane
issues. Book III of the Critical Days, however, is altogether different. There, Galen presents a
causal astrological explanation for the critical days, based on a roughly Aristotelian cosmology,
one that we would classify as a natural astrological outlook.

20
This procedure was analyzed in detail in: Cooper, Glen M. “Numbers, Prognosis, and Healing: Galen on Medical Theory.”
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 90, no. 2 (2004): 45-60.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 7

 Cosmology and Astrology in the Critical Days
Galen opens Book III with a cosmological description of the physician-patient scenario,
with distinctly Aristotelian elements, especially the superlunary / sublunary realms. The
sublunary realm is the world of change and has an inherent tendency to disorder. The
superlunary realm, however, is the unchanging, stabilizing power in the cosmos, and it is through
its influence that there is any rational order at all to anything in the sublunary world.
Galen’s mention of the imperfection due to the material element of the sublunary world (K
9.901.8-13) is also a superficial nod to cosmology, since he already explained in Book II in detail
the types of factors that knock the crisis off the ideal pattern, and most, if not all, of these factors
derive either from human agency or from environmental circumstances. In fact, it seems that,
according to Galen’s cosmology, part of the imperfection and uncertainty of the sublunary realm
of our world is due to the existence of agency here, and, furthermore, the perfection of the upper
realms derive from their invariability and lack of agency. Whatever Galen’s true attitude toward
astrology, it is definitely not hard astrology in Long’s sense,21 since his whole medical
philosophy is that the patient and physician can alter probable outcomes through choices,
whether via a change of lifestyle before illness strikes, or via choosing to follow Galen’s
therapeutic directions.
As Galen acknowledges at the start of Book III (K 9.900.1-3), a physician could use the
critical days successfully in treatment without understanding their underlying causes. For that
purpose the first two books are sufficient. But in Book III, through artful calculations, Galen
connects the periodicity of the critical days with the lunar phases, and derives a “medical month”
that combines the effects of the two lunar periods, and which is supposed to be responsible for
the periodicity of the critical days. This is an average of the sidereal month (27 1/3 days) and the
(adjusted) synodic month (26 ½ days). The result is a “medical week” of 6 35/48 days (K
9.932.5-933.7).22 He offers a superficial but explicit connection between medical prognosis and
the traditions of judicial astrology, which, however, provides too little information to be useful
for applied medical astrology.

21
Long 1982, 172.
22
See also Garofalo 2003, 52-53.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 8

 When discussing Galen’s astrology, it is useful to compare it with that of his near
contemporary, the Alexandrian Ptolemy, who is famed as the ancient master of the mathematical
sciences, as they were then understood, including harmonics, optics, and astrology. Two of his
most famous works were the Almagest,23 his magisterial treatise on mathematical astronomy, and
the Tetrabiblos,24 his influential manual on astrological interpretation. His mathematical
astronomy and astrology form an organic whole, as he explains in the Introduction to the
Tetrabiblos. Ptolemy’s astrology thus was so systematic and detailed, that, whenever Galen’s
and Ptolemy’s astrology have been available, it is not surprising that most have favored
Ptolemy’s version.

Analysis of Galen’s Astrology in Book III

At the beginning of the overtly astrological passage of Book III (K 9.910.7-13), Galen
observes that, whereas the sun is the cause of changes that occur in the scale of the year, an idea
that is expressed in Aristotle’s “On Generation and Corruption”25, the moon is the cause of
changes that occur within the scale of the month. The moon is most powerful when it is halved
or full, i.e. when it is approximately seven or fourteen days into its cycle.
He then introduces a sketchy birth chart, or hints at one (K 9.911.18-912.3), since the
example he gives is not a complete chart. He doesn’t even take a stand on the ancient issue of
whether the stellar influences are imprinted on the child at conception or at birth, leaving the
option open. This non-committal attitude is further support that he’s not serious about judicial
astrology.
Galen states in a general way, that if something—a life or a process, he is not specific—
begins when the moon is in Taurus, then we can expect a major change in it when the moon has
traversed three or six signs, which are a quarter and a half of the cycle. He gives the three signs
in quartile with Taurus: Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. In discussing these four signs, he seems
oblivious to the significance placed by astrologers on the quartile configuration, namely, that it
intensifies the influence of the planets in it, whether good or ill.26 The result is not even a real

23
Ptolemy. Ptolemy’s Almagest. Translated by G. J. Toomer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
24
Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos. Translated by F. E. Robbins. Edited by G. P. Goold. Vol. 435, Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1940. Reprint, 1980.
25
De generatione et corruptione 336b17ff (= On Generation and Corruption. transl. H. H. Joachim: 1984: 551-552). See
commentary in his edition of this text, by Williams 1982: 190-196.
26
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, I.13, 75; 82.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 9

birth chart, but the Signs are used merely as a coordinate system to mark the progress of the
moon through its course.
In another attempt at a birth chart at K 9.912.3-16, Galen takes his cue from the Egyptian
astrologers, who taught that the moon could be used to infer the patient’s condition (K 9.911.14-
18). This statement accords with Ptolemy’s statement that the Egyptians had united medicine
with astronomical prediction, which he calls iatromathematics (“the healing mathematical
science”).27
Galen mentions temperate and intemperate planets, and beneficent and maleficent planets,
concepts that all appear in Ptolemy28, except that, curiously, Ptolemy omits dyskratos, expressing
the notion as the negation of eukratos. When Galen discusses the second birth chart (K 9.912.3-
16), this time he chooses to discuss the moment of birth as significant rather than the moment of
conception. The hypothetical patient is assumed to have been born when the beneficent planets
were in Aries and the maleficent in Taurus. Then, when the moon is in Aries or any of the signs
in quartile with it, he will experience good fortune. But, when the moon is in Taurus or the signs
in quartile with it, he will fare badly. Galen then specifically observes that, if an illness begins
when the moon is in Taurus, his illness will be very difficult, but the opposite will happen if the
illness begins when the moon is in a favorable sign. What this means in terms of the crisis theory
is this: the character of the crisis that occurs when the moon is in a specific sign can be, at least
partly, inferred from whether that sign is favorable or unfavorable, based on where the moon was
when the illness began. Of course, that would be only one clue for the physician; far more
important are the empirical considerations discussed at length in the empirical portions of the
Crises and the Critical Days.
After this rudimentary example, Galen swiftly moves away from judicial astrology, back
into the realm of natural astrology, as he discusses seasonal and weather variations and their
influence on the course of illnesses (K 9.913.7 seq.).
There are significant features missing from Galen’s astrology, which one would expect of
an ancient astrologer, that should be noted. First, of all the planets only the moon is specifically
mentioned. The others are grouped together as either well- or poorly-tempered, or either
beneficent or maleficent. The sun and moon, of course, are the primary factors in natural

27
Tetrabiblos, I.3, 31-33. Also, Bouché-Leclercq, A. L’astrologie Grecque. Paris: 1899, 517-520.
28
In the Tetrabiblos, temperate: I.4, 37; intemperate: I.11, 67; beneficent: I.17, 81; maleficent: I.21, 103.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 10

astrology and meteorology, which seems to be Galen’s chief concern. Second, of all the possible
aspects of planetary configurations—trine, quartile, sextile, etc.—only conjunction and
opposition seem to matter to Galen here. Furthermore, there is no mention of the Ascendant
(horoskopos), namely, the Sign rising over the eastern horizon at the moment of the patient’s
birth, a highly significant parameter for the ancient astrologer.29 This Ascendant changes swiftly
for any given location, and varies with one’s position on the earth. It seems odd that Galen, who
has been minutely concerned with the temporal details of the patient’s unfolding critical illness,
and has even expressed in this passage his confidence in the powers of the Signs to transmit
positive or negative influences to the patient, ignores the Ascendant. There are several other
features missing from Galen’s account, about which one can read in any good history of
astrology. All of this suggests that Galen was not really concerned with astrology, except in the
most general terms, and for its persuasive value.

The Phaenomena of Aratus of Soli

In support of my contention that Galen is merely trying to appeal to his educated audience
is the fact that he quotes lines from one of the most popular poems of antiquity, the Phaenomena
of Aratus of Soli (c.315-240/239 B.C.).30 A versification of two scientific treatises, one on
astronomy by Eudoxus of Cnidus (d. c.347 B.C.), and the second on weather signs, by the great
Theophrastus (d. c.287 B.C.), the poem skips over technical astronomy, especially the part
describing the wandering planets, and contains many parts that show the poet’s fuzzy grasp of
his subject. Nevertheless, this poem represented the limits of astronomical knowledge for most
educated Romans in Galen’s day.31 The poet’s purpose—a rather Stoic one—was to demonstrate
how the cosmos is governed by a divine monarch, Zeus, who maintains universal harmony and
justice.32 This cosmology fit well with the then current imperial ideology, especially under that
most Stoic of emperors, Marcus Aurelius (r.161-180 AD)

29
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, I.12, 69-71. Also, Barton, Tamsyn. Ancient Astrology. Edited by Roger French, Sciences of
Antiquity. London / New York: Routledge, 1994, 46-7; 122-23; 129-30.
30
Aratus of Soli. Phaenomena. Edited by G. R. Mair, Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus, Loeb Classical
Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921.
31
Barton 1994, 37. The poem was translated into Latin several times, by Cicero, Germanicus, and others.
32
Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1990, 183-6.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 11

 Galen quotes the poem at K 909.3-6 and 909.8-13, passages that illustrate how the moon
may be used for weather forecasting.33 He does this to support his argument that the moon has a
powerful influence over conditions on the earth, and, moreover, that lunar cause and effect are
connected in such as way that reason can be used to infer the latter from the former. Galen’s
citation (K 911.14-18) of the Egyptian astronomers’ doctrine that the moon can be used to infer
the patient’s condition makes the connection to medicine explicit. But these passages are
meteorological, and thus belong to the tradition of natural astrology.
Given that Galen was such a prolific writer, it would be surprising if astrology were absent
from his works. It does appear, but only in specific and narrow contexts. A better question might
be: why isn’t there more of it? If Galen were a true advocate of astrology in medicine, then we
should expect to find astrological methods referred to in his therapeutic works, especially in the
De methodo medendi, his lengthy treatise on therapy. However, this is not the case.

Astrological Contexts in Galen

Several representative words were chosen that could provide unambiguously astrological
contexts, and then the whole of Galen’s corpus was search on the TLG.34 The results support my
position, that astrology is of very little scientific importance in Galen’s writings.
The word forms searched were: ἀστρολογ-, ζωδιακ-, ὡροσκοπ-, ἀστρονομ-, and
πλανητ-. These are the results, with commentary:

ἀστρολογ-
Only two contexts, both of which cite the astrologers for their astronomical knowledge.
The more interesting, from De naturalibus facultatibus K 2.29, l.9, occurs within a passage
where Galen refutes the views of the Atomists, who not only deny that there is innate knowledge
and that we have natures, but also despise the activities of the diviners, oracles, and the whole of
astrology. I assume that what the Atomists don’t like is the belief that anything in nature is
connected at all, in order to make such activities possible. Although Galen seems sympathetic to
these practices in this passage, it is impossible to infer anything unambiguously about his attitude
here.

33
Aratus, Phaenomena I.794-797 (= transl. Mair 1921): 442-443, and I.805-810 (= transl. Mair 1921): 442-443,
respectively.
34
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, Irvine: University of California (http://www.tlg.uci.edu/).

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 12

ζωδιακ-
Most references (10 out of 11), as expected, are from the Critical Days. The outlier, from
In Hippocratis prognosticum commentaria iii, K 18b.247, l.13, in discussing the sequence of the
critical days, describes a cosmology, and notes that the planets always keep to the region of the
Zodiac (i.e. near the ecliptic).

ὡροσκοπ-
There are only two contexts, neither of which seems to refer to the astrological
Ascendant. The closer of the two, at Institutio Logica, Ch.12, sect. 4, l.2, (ἡλιακῶν
ὡροσκοπίων) seems to be some form of solar clock used to measure the length of the year.

ἀστρονομ-
Most contexts (of 39) refer to the discipline or the practitioners of astronomy, grouped
with other disciplines—arithmetic, architecture, geometry, etc., to make some point about them
collectively, usually how they are essential to the practice of medicine. At K 5.69, l.3 (De animi
cuiuslibet peccatorum dignotione et curatione), however, Galen describes astronomy as a
discipline in which its data is obvious to everyone, and can be cross-checked simply by looking.
At K 17a. 20, l.19, 17a 21, l.1, and 17a.23, l.13, all from In Hippocratis librum primum
epidemiarum commentarii iii, it is mentioned in the context of a discussion about how astronomy
is necessary to be able to determine the lengths of months and how the general atmospheric
conditions affect the patient: Hipparchus is mentioned in the last one. In the same work, at
17a.90, l.12, Galen notes that astronomers demarcate the heavens as a region beginning with the
lunar sphere. Finally, in the De septimestri partu, a working discussing the relationship between
the moon and human gestation, at l.36 the specific findings of the astronomers about the lengths
of the months are mentioned.

πλανητ-
Most of the 19 contexts refer to fevers, which are described as “chaotic” i.e. wandering
(like the planets), they have irregular paroxysms. One context actually makes the chaotic fever-
planet simile explicit (K 9.445, l.11 of Synopsis librorum suorum de pulsibus). At K 5.69, l.6 (De

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 13

animi cuiuslibet peccatorum dignotione et curatione), however, the same context as above,
discussing the planets as something that everyone can observe.

Searching on these terms suggests that, apart from the De diebus decretoriis Book III,
Galen never refers to astrology in any more than a superficial way, especially not in the De
methodo medendi, where any use of these words is strictly metaphorical. It is possible here only
to do a representative search, a sounding of possible words from the Galenic corpus. But the
evidence strongly indicates that Galen has more mundane concerns in medicine than astrology.

The Harmonic Structure of Galen’s Cosmos

Nevertheless, the Critical Days does suggest a serious interest in natural astrology. So,
consistent with Galen’s interest in that is his use of harmonic symbolism in the theory of the
crises. The presence of music theory in Galen may seem surprising. But Galen was unusually
well-educated, and a good education in his day touched upon all the sciences, however
superficially. Ptolemy was also interested in cosmic harmony, for in his influential Harmonics,
he refers to planetary connections with the various harmonic modes, comparing the musical
system he had just derived to the harmony and influences from the Zodiac.35
Galen’s musical allusions are subtle, mainly at the level of terminology and word-image;
yet, their presence reveals, I believe, intrinsic features of Galen’s medical cosmology that have
gone unnoticed. Galen repeatedly uses πλημμελέω (“to make a mistake”) in referring to errors in
treatment, a word with distinct musical associations, meaning literally “to play a wrong note in
music.”36 However, it is generally used metaphorically by other Greek authors to mean an “error
in taste or judgment.” Galen’s medical contexts, however, revive the musical sense of what was a
dead metaphor in the Greek of Galen’s time. Galen uses a related word, ἡ πλημμέλεια
(“mistake, error”), in a manner similar to Plato at Apology 22d when he criticizes the skilled
craftsmen (τοὺς χειροτέχνας) for claiming knowledge outside their area of expertise. The
context of the complete treatise Critical Days, and Galen’s theory of medicine as a whole, i.e. the
relationship between physician, patient, and nature, is one of cosmic harmony, and this suggests

35
Harmonics, III.8-end, translation: Solomon, Jon. Ptolemy Harmonics: Translation and Commentary. Leiden, Boston, Köln:
Brill, 2000, 152-66.
36
LSJ, 1418-9.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 14

that when a physician makes a mistake in treating a patient, he does more than merely err: he
upsets this harmony, frustrating nature’s efforts on behalf of the patient.
The word πλημμελέω and its cognates appear in eight other contexts in the Critical Days,
all in passages that describe how the physician’s error upsets the patient’s delicate harmonic
relationship with nature, and causes the crisis either to be delayed, or to come prematurely.37 In
either case, the result is to harm the patient and to corrupt the critical cycles, thus frustrating
prognosis. The very possibility of prognosis depends on the properly functioning harmonic
relationship between physician, nature, and patient. Of all the authors in the Greek corpus known
to have used some form of the word πλημμελέω, Galen was the most prolific.38 It is noteworthy
that this word does not appear in Ptolemy, nor in any other true ancient harmonicist.
Thus, according to Galen, proper and successful treatment requires the intervention of a
physician, such as Galen, who understands the subtle connections between natural and external
factors and the healing program, who can discern the destabilizing effects of certain factors and
compensate for them. To be this sort of physician, he must also become a natural philosopher,
and grasp the interconnectedness of all natural factors.

Comparison of Galen and Ptolemy

Galen’s use of astrology in the Critical Days, in spite of his great medical authority, was
clearly inadequate. But Ptolemy’s treatment of astronomy in the Almagest as a demonstrative
science set an example that all other sciences, including medicine, could aspire to or
approximate. It would be helpful to compare their respective scientific methodologies.
Ptolemy tidily divided his astronomical project into two parts, which roughly parallels the
modern distinction between astronomy and astrology.39 The first was treated in the Almagest,
which dealt with planetary positions, developing functional mathematical models for generating
ephemeris tables. As Ptolemy argues in the Tetrabiblos, the second part of this astrology system,
the heavenly influences come from above, and change the material dispositions of things in the

37
K 789.10; 822.17; 825.9; 826.9; 827.7; 827.13; 828.5; 829.12; 869.4; 916.7.
38
133 citations for Galen, as compared with 87 in the Septuagint, 66 in Plutarch, 33 in Plato, and 6 in Aristotle.
These figures derive from a search of the TLG Corpus.
39
Of course, that distinction did not exist until relatively recent times, and the terms astronomia and astrologia were
used interchangeably.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 15

sublunary realm. This provides a much more organic conception of astrology than is found in
Galen. One first calculates the positions of the planets, then determines their probable influences.

The basic inferential direction is opposite in the two cases, Ptolemy reasons from the
heavens above, to infer influences on earth; but Galen other starts on earth, develops the science
from the data, and only then tacks on superlunary factors.

In Galen, on the other hand, all of the empirical data and arguments are in place before the
planets or heavens are referred to in any detail. The most we hear about them before Book III of
the Critical Days is that they are the model of perfection in the cosmos, and the underlying
pattern of the critical days depends on their order and influence (in a vague, general sort of
way).40 This use of the heavens is in line with a general, cosmological sense of heavenly
influence (i.e. natural astrology), which one can accept without accepting all the details of full-
blown astrology. It thus corresponds to Long’s “soft astrology”.41 From this analysis, it seems
that the astrology is tacked on after all the theoretical details of the critical days have been
worked out.
When we consider their respective views on error, or variability in a natural system, their
differences appear even more stark. For Ptolemy, the error lies in the uncertainty of
interpretation, after the planetary positions have been determined with mathematical certainty.
For Galen, however, errors are what knock the (mundane) system off its ideal pattern. For
Ptolemy, the pattern of the heavens is determined via mathematical demonstration, and is there
for all to see and agree upon. The interpretation, however, introduces variation, since we don’t
have all the facts, i.e. not enough empirical data has been gathered yet, on the basis of which to
make a completely sound inference. But, in principle, as time goes on and more astrologers pool
their (correct) inferences, we approach a more perfect knowledge of the connections between
heavenly patterns and earthly outcomes, minimizing error.
There is nothing like this in Galen: error is not a matter of interpretation, but of introducing
factors that perturb the ideal natural situation. That ideal is what the physician ought to strive
after. Therefore, the way to minimize error or variability is for the physician to have a knowledge

40
K 9.844.12-15.
41
Long 1982, 170, n.19.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 16

of medicine equal to Galen’s, and to restrict the factors “from outside” the system that ruin the
ideal natural pattern.

Galen’s Handling of Data and His Empirical Reasoning

In the Critical Days, Galen employs two kinds of scientific reasoning that must be
carefully distinguished, and must be grasped in order to appreciate where Galen’s empirical
reasoning ends and his metaphysical theorizing begins. Once this is understood, then it should
become clearer how Galen’s use of astrology is distinct from his scientific method.
In scientific method, there are three kinds of inferences commonly employed: induction,
deduction, and abduction. The first two are, perhaps, the more familiar, and the third really
wasn’t clarified until the work of C. S. Peirce (1839-1914), the American pragmatic philosopher,
although there are hints of it in Aristotle.42 Each involves a direction of inference and a stance
toward the data.
To briefly summarize, induction is analyzing data to infer a pattern or general rule for
practice (I.e. All human beings of whom we have any record in the past have died; therefore, All
human beings are mortal); deduction is applying a general rule to infer characteristics of
particular entities (I.e. All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Therefore, Socrates is a mortal).
These two inferential methods differ in their direction of reasoning: the first is from particular to
general, and the second, from general to particular. Both require an empirical stance. In Galen’s
case, he has sifted through the crisis data from the Epidemics and his own experience in Book II,
and derived, through induction, what he takes to be a canonical series of critical days, which
requires the assumption of secondary factors that perturb the natural system. Deduction is then
used to decide whether a given day counts as a critical day for the purposes of therapy.
Abduction (which Peirce sometimes called “retroduction”, a better term in my view),
however, takes a metaphysical stance, in the sense that it tries to arrive at the background theory
that must be assumed in order for the data and the general rules about the data to be such as they
are. This inference is by nature more speculative, since there could be multiple theories that
explain the data (i.e. “Save the appearances”) equally well. For example, within the limits of
observational error, both the Ptolemaic and Copernican planetary models explained the apparent

42
Barton, Power and Knowledge, 1994, 134-37; and Fann, K. T. Peirce’s Theory of Abduction. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff,
1970.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 17

motions of the planets equally well. Deciding between them required other metaphysical
considerations.
Galen employs a form of abductive reasoning in Book III of the Critical Days, as he
outlines a basically Aristotelian cosmology, including natural astrology, within which the crisis
theory could securely fit—although he probably would not have described it that way. However,
it is important to realize that the crises and critical days could be equally well at home within a
paradigm that ignores celestial influences or metaphysical speculation completely, and focuses
instead on a disease pathology such as of malarial parasites that cause periodic fevers with
occasional critical symptoms, interior to the patient’s body. This is another way of saying that
the crisis theory can be used without reference to astrology at all, a perspective similar to that of
Nicole Oresme.
Since abductive reasoning is metaphysical, it can often serve a persuasive purpose, as it
does here, by placing a theoretical or practical procedure within a wider, generally accepted
perspective. A modern example might be: such is the dominant cosmology in the United States
that, if a physicians’ lobby is trying to get a new medical approach approved for government
funding, say, it would be prudent not to couch the proposal in a Marxist or atheistic metaphysics.

Perturbations: An Ideal Model Adjusted to Fit a Complex Reality

To better appreciate the scientific modeling accomplished by Ptolemy and Galen, it’s
useful to consider a technique from modern mathematical physics, namely, perturbation. The
idea is that physical reality is more complex than can be simply modeled, whether by
mathematics or otherwise. Therefore, one adopts a simple model as a basis and then considers
variations brought about by secondary factors. In modern mathematics and physics, these appear
as additional terms in the equations.
Where does Galen get his base ideal model, to serve as a first approximation? From the
data he sifts through in Book II, the base pattern is derived via induction, as I have explained.
Then, by abduction, the theoretical framework and natural laws that must be in place for the
observations and patterns of data to be as they are is posited.
Ptolemy’s planetary models, as found in the Almagest, say nothing about influences, only
about positions. Once the positions are known from the methods of the Almagest and cast into a
chart, their influences can be determined from the Tetrabiblos.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 18

 Galen, however, sought to understand a complex natural entity—i.e. the sick patient—in
the sublunary world, with many influences. Some of the factors affecting the patient are: the
planets, nature, the physician, the patient’s attendants, well-meaning but medically incompetent
loved-ones, and other external factors, such as stress-producing environmental factors, for
example barking dogs, noisy neighbors, and leaking or collapsing roofs.43 In an ideal situation,
only the heavens (sc. atmospheric conditions), nature, and the philosopher-physician would
affect the patient, and their combined effect would be toward recovery of health. The physician
is necessary, because although nature tends to heal a sick body, it usually requires the skilled
guidance of a physician. Nature as an entity is not intelligent in the rational or human sense—it is
more like an Aristotelian plant soul, that tends to grow continually. In this ideal case, the illness
would follow a predictable course, and the critical days could be determined precisely and
marked on a timeline.
However, rarely does such a set of ideal conditions obtain—unless of course Galen alone is
at the helm!44 In reality, other perturbing factors come into play, and disturb the natural unfolding
of the illness. The job of the physician, according to Galen, is to determine which additional
factors are operating, and to estimate their perturbing effect on the prognosis and the natural
course of the illness. A skilled physician can do this and adjust treatment to compensate for their
disturbance to the natural system.
The modeling approaches of Ptolemy and Galen also differ significantly. For Ptolemy,
each planet moves independently of all the others. Galen’s approach requires the assessment of
multiple variables, and estimating their affect on an ideal natural system. The ideal natural
situation is found here within the sublunary world, instead of beyond the moon, as in Ptolemy.
The subject in Galen’s system can be affected by the actions of other factors, human or not, in
this world, whereas the planets are imperturbable. Furthermore, Ptolemy has a two step process:
prediction, then inferring influences. Galen first determines the critical day sequence, and what
factors are required to assist the patient; second, what factors must be avoided, and third, what
factors, already having done their damage, must be compensated for. Galen is thus not directly
concerned with the planets, but with a host of empirical, sublunary factors. These perturbing
factors Galen describes as “external” or “from outside” (ἔξωθεν), meaning “external to the

43
See K 9.825.14-826.10.
44
K 9.833.18-834.4.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 19

system of Nature”.45 This reflects the beginning of the sophisticated notion of a closed scientific
system. Sometimes these factors are called “accidents”, which also suggests a variation from an
ideal situation. The physician’s skill is measured by his ability to size up these corrupting factors
and to estimate the effect they have on the whole system, so as to adjust his prognosis.
Therefore, the astral bodies don’t really figure into Galen’s account, for, in the actual
practice of medicine, they play no role. Astrological medicine is actually a later development,
although it cites the authority of Galen.

The Arabic Response

The Arabic authors seem to have rejected Galen’s astrology, since except for the initial
translation by Ḥunayn
ibn
Isḥāq (d. 873 A.D.), Book III of the Critical Days does not seem to
figure in Arabic accounts of medicine. For example, Qusṭā
ibn
Lūqā (d. 912/3 A.D.), one of the
early translators, prepared a catechism of the Critical Days, possibly to attract a patron who
would pay him to translate the entire treatise.46 However, Qusṭā
omits all reference to the
material of Book III from his catechism. This suggests two things: 1) he didn’t find Galen’s
astrology useful for medical practice and 2) Qusṭā
knew the Greek text of the Critical Days well
enough (he was a native Greek speaker, as both his name—”Constantine son of Loukas”—and
his origins—he was from Baalbek in the former Byzantine province of Syria—indicate, as well
as the dominant trends in astrology in his place and time to draw this conclusion.
The influential physician and philosopher, Ibn Sīnā (d.1037 A.D.), although he describes
the critical days in the fourth book of the Canon,47 and his list is identical to that of Galen’s, he
omits discussion of their astrology altogether, as far as I can determine, focusing instead on their
usefulness for prognosis. Ibn Sīnā had well-defined views about astrology, for he wrote anti-
astrological tracts (against judicial astrology).48 However, since natural astrology was embedded

45
K 9.820.15-821.7
46
Discussed in its historical context in the Introduction to my Arabic edition of the Critical Days. Text found in:
Ms. Tehran, Malik Library no. 6188, 11th C. See Sezgin, Fuat. Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums: Medizin -
Pharmazie; Zoologie - Tierheilkunde bis ca. 430 H. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 1970: 273, no.49, dating to 11th C.H., i.e.
c.17th C. A.D.
47
Qanun, Rome: Typographia Medicea, 1593, Book 4, Sect. 2, pp. 41-62.
48
Ullmann, Manfred. Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978, 114, n. 22, and August Ferdinand
Mehren, “Vues d’Avicenna sur l’astrologie” Muséon, 111 (1884), 383-403. See also Ibn Sina. Avicenne: Réfutation de
l’astrologie. Edition et Traduction du Texte Arabe, Introduction, Notes et Lexique par Yahya Michot. Préface d’Elizabeth
Teissier. Beirut-Paris: Albouraq, 2006.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 20

within the cosmos that lay at the background of all ancient science, elements of it appear
throughout his philosophical system.

Conclusion
Galen’s attempts at (judicial) astrology do not fit well with the rest of his empirical science,
and was tacked on to the Critical Days to make the theory more appealing to students or other
intelligent readers (potential clients). Yet, it has been difficult to disentangle astrology from
Galenism. For example, so much did the astrologically-inclined physicians of the Middle Ages
want to believe that Galen had endorsed astrology that they readily accepted the (false)
attribution of the overtly astrological treatise, the De decubitu49 to Galen. Whereas Galen’s
association of astrology with medicine in the Critical Days has been found wanting, that of this
pseudo-Galenic text is explicit. Its actual author has been shown to have been one Imbrasios of
Ephesus (c. 1st C. AD)50, who essentially picked up where Galen had left off in the Critical
Days, explaining how to use the moon’s position in the various signs of the Zodiac to
prognosticate the course of the patient’s illness.

To recapitulate, astrology is discordant within Galen’s science for the following reasons.
As mentioned, the popular author, Aratus, is cited by Galen as his best astrological authority.
Given that Aratus was a poet, not an astronomer, and that his poem contains many astronomical
errors, this does not inspire much confidence. Furthermore, as later critics pointed out and as I
have shown, Galen’s hypothetical birth chart in Book III of the Critical Days is sketchy. Yet, it
seems that Galen only meant to show in a general way that the critical day theory is consistent
with astrology as it was generally understood, in order to make the new methods more
acceptable, not to show how to cast or use a birth chart.

It is also evident that Galen either does not understand judicial astrology, or does not really
care to present it in any detail, since the astrology, as is apparent from his example, is just a
show. From other contexts, as I have elaborated, Galen appears to have believed in a natural

49
Prognostica de decubitu ex mathematica scientia.
50
Cumont, F. “Les Prognostica De Decubitu attribués à Galien.” Bull. Inst. Hist. Belge Rome xv, (1935): 119-31.
Weinstock, S. “The Author of Ps.-Galen’s Prognostica de Decubitu.” Classical Quarterly 42, (1948): 41-43.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 21

astrology, but the examples in the Critical Days do not inspire confidence that he understood
how to cast a chart.

As the medieval inclination to supply Galen with a practical medical astrology suggests,
there’s not enough information in the Critical Days to be able to use astrology with the critical
days. In fact, in contrast to the detailed empirical arguments of the first two books, this section is
highly theoretical. One might also cite the long list of Galen’s critics, through the Middle Ages
and Renaissance, who found fault with his astrology.51 Among these critics, perhaps the Arabic
authors were the earliest. Another critic, on the other hand, G. Cardano, wanted to reject Galen
completely, replacing his thought with an amalgam of Hippocrates and Ptolemaic astrology.
Finally, as I have tried to show, the astrology is non-integral to the medical theory of the
critical days. It is, rather, an add-on that has no real bearing on the use of the crises or critical
days in treatment, which can be practiced without reference to it at all. Even Galen’s natural
astrology has little bearing on the practical aspects of his therapy. To use a modern analogy,
invoking the stars or planets when treating a patient would be like a physician today referring to
the Big Bang or sunspot activity as relevant factors in treating an ulcer. The empirical aspects of
Galen’s therapeutic method deserve to be examined in their own right, unobscured by his
apparent astrological cosmology, which, as I have argued, is mainly there for rhetorical effect.

51
C. Pennuto 2008 provides such a list.

Galen and Astrology, Glen M. Cooper 5/9/10 7:38 AM 22