Teucer of Babylon

{{Short description|1st century Egyptian astrologer}}{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2022}}

Teucer of Babylon (also spelled Teukros and Tinkalūŝā{{cite web|last1=Panaino|first1=Antonio|title=Teukros of Babylon|url=http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000793.php|website=The Melammu Project|accessdate=20 July 2017|date=2002}}) was an ancient Egyptian astrologer of uncertain date, though likely in or before the first century AD.{{cite book|last1=Holden|first1=James Herschel|author-link1=James Herschel Holden|title=A History of Horoscopic Astrology|date=23 August 2006|publisher=American Federation of Astrologers|location=Tempe, AZ|isbn=0-866-90463-8|pages=32–33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9p1igGF3gpUC&pg=PA32|quote=first published 1 October 1996}}{{Cite book |last=Brennan |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjI8DgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Teucer+of+Babylon%22&pg=PA78 |title=Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune |date=2017-02-10 |publisher=Amor Fati Publications |isbn=978-0-9985889-0-2 |pages=78 |language=en}} He was most likely of Greek descent.{{Cite book |last=Popović |first=Mladen |url=https://books.google.nl/books?id=Ue6K0IU0yL0C&pg=PA220 |title=Reading the Human Body: Physiognomics and Astrology in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Hellenistic-Early Roman Period Judaism |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15717-0 |pages=220 |language=en}} David Pingree concluded that he is used as a source by Vettius Valens and Rhetorius,{{Cite book |last=Holden |first=James H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9p1igGF3gpUC&dq=%22Teucer+of+Babylon%22&pg=PA32 |title=A History of Horoscopic Astrology |date=2006 |publisher=American Federation of Astr |isbn=978-0-86690-463-6 |pages=32–33 |language=en}} which dates him to at least the first century AD, while Wolfgang Hübner argues Marcus Manilius and Julius Firmicus Maternus drew on some of his materials, dating him to at least the first century BC. Teucer is mentioned by the philosopher Porphyry, which places him definitively before the third century AD.

The "Babylon" in his name is the Babylon Fortress near Cairo.

He combined the zodiac with melothesia and geography, and created many unconventional constellations and is very important for the paranatellonta (constellations that rise together with certain degrees of the zodiacal signs).

His work was translated into Middle Persian,{{Cite book |last=Bladel |first=Kevin van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxwTDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Teucer+of+Babylon%22+middle+persian&pg=PA27 |title=The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science |date=2009-08-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-537613-5 |pages=27 |language=en}} which was then translated into Arabic.{{Cite book |last1=Grafton |first1=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC&dq=%22Teucer+of+Babylon%22+giordano+bruno&pg=PA487 |title=The Classical Tradition |last2=Most |first2=Glenn W. |last3=Settis |first3=Salvatore |date=2010-10-25 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 |pages=487 |language=en}}

We know fragments of three texts:

1. paranatellonta of the 36 decans, ed. F. Boll, Sphaera (1903), 16–21), id. , CCAG VII (1908), 156–214; the end from Aquarius 18° until Pisces 30°: W. Hübner, Grade und Gradbezirke (1995), I 126f., aside with Latin translation, probably from 10th century) and Commentary II 94-103
2. paranatellonta of certain degrees of the zodiacal signs (with some hexametrical traces), ed. F. Boll, Sphaera (1903), 41–52; W. Hübner, ibid. I 108-127 (from Aries 1° until Aquarius 18°, aside with Latin translation, probably from 10th century) and Commentary II 1-93
3. paranatellonta of the decans, ed. St. Weinstock, CCAG IX 2 (1953), p. 180-186