Heliodora and the Early History of Women Astrologers

In episode 402 Demetra George joins the podcast to talk about the recent discovery of the earliest named astrologer from the Hellenistic tradition who was a woman, Heliodora, and the early history of women practitioners of astrology. Heliodora was an astrologer who lived in the city of Terenuthis in Egypt around the 2nd or 3rd century CE. Her tombstone was recently discovered by archeologists, who published a paper in 2021 which noted that she is the earliest known woman in the Greco-Roman tradition that is known by name to have been a practicing astrologer. During the course of the episode we talk about what is known about Heliodora and the location and time period in which she lived, and we also discuss other historical women that may have had some connection with astrology and astronomy. For more information about Demetra see her website: DemetraGeorge.com This episode is available in both audio and video versions below. Bibliography Roger S. Bagnall, Cathy L. Callaway, and Alexander Jones,  “The Funerary Stele of Heliodora, Astrologer,” Muse: Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, 53/54, 2019-2020 (published 2021), pp. 28–45. [Link to PDF] Nadia Anderson, Drawing Down the Moon & Aglaonice of Thessaly [Link to PDF] Earlier Episodes Previous episodes of The Astrology Podcast mentioned in this episode: Episode 86: Saturn as Feminine, and the Earliest Female Astrologer Episode 137: Elsbeth Ebertin and the Rise of Women in Astrology Episode 295: Queen Buran, Astrologer in 9th Century Baghdad   Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:45 Why there were few ancient female astrologers 00:04:00 Horoscopes for ancient women 00:09:25 Hypatia in the 5th century and Queen Buran in the 9th century 00:10:48 Heliodora article 00:14:05 Heliodora as a "mathematike" or mathematician 00:21:28 Urania, Greek goddess of astrology 00:23:13 Enheduanna, poet and priestess 00:25:44 Egyptian goddess Seshat, scribe and astronomer 00:27:45 Aglaonice, predictor of eclipses 00:34:22 Were women practicing astrology prior to Hellenistic astrology? 00:39:20 Oracle of Delphi and divination 00:44:43 Heliodora's tombstone 00:46:35 Heliodora's time period and location 00:58:04 Blending of Egyptian and Greek cultures with Helidora 01:01:37 Images and inscription on the tombstone 01:03:54 Heliodora remained unmarried to pursue astrology 01:11:40 How Helidora learned astrology 01:18:04 Family lines of astrologers: Balbilla, Thrasyllus, Commagene 01:31:00 Julia Balbilla, poet 01:40:33 Women astronomers in Sumerian-Babylonian history 01:42:04 Death of Ellen Black and her role in starting Project Hindsight 01:46:28 Rise of women astrologers in the 20th century 01:51:04 New discoveries being made of notable Islamic and Indian women astrologers 01:54:40 Lost text of Ptolemy discovered 01:55:55 Demetra's background 01:59:29 Demetra's course on hand-calculating a chart 02:07:14 Asteroid retreat and lectures 02:09:27 Patrons and sponsors Watch the Video Version of This Episode Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M1ILOwNd68 - Transcript A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 402 transcript Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode Listen to the audio version of this episode or download it as an MP3: