#macrobius

cosmological, astronomical, and other diagrams

(1. the harmony of the spheres; 2. the world and the orbits of the planets, sun and moon; 3. the ages of the world until godefroy of bouillon; 4. the connection between sun, moon and earth; 5. apuleius' sphere of life and death; 6. the five zones of the earth of macrobius)

illustrations from a 15th c. copy of the liber floridus, an encyclopedic work originally written by lambert of st. omer in the 12th century. this copy was produced in lille and ninove, c. 1460

Robert Graves's interpretation of Macrobius is somewhat inaccurate. He confused different paragraphs.

The key figure Macrobius discusses here is not Phanes, but the Sun (Helios). The so-called Oracles of Apollo mention only Zeus in spring, Helios in summer, Hades in winter, and Iao in autumn. All of these are representations of the Sun.

Macrobius mentions animals associated with the Sun—the Lion, the Ram, and the Bull—primarily because they belong to the zodiac. The serpent is mentioned because of the way they move. However, he does not link them to specific seasons.

Perhaps Robert is referring to the correspondence between the sun's passage through the twelve signs of the zodiac and the seasons, but if that's the case, the animal associated with Hades should be the scorpion, the very creature Persephone was embroidering when she was abducted (OF 196). But that means autumn, not winter. I suppose that's why he changed autumn to New Year.

sources:

In this case, the ploy worked, and Octavian bought the bird from its owner for a handsome sum. But another fortune-hunter used a raven for the same purpose, with less than ideal results:

It happened that a man appeared before Caesar with a raven, which he had taught to say, “Hail Caesar, conqueror and leader!”

Caesar, marveling, bought the dutiful bird for twenty thousand coins. But a companion of the bird’s trainer, who had received nothing of this generosity, declared that the trainer had another bird, too, which Caesar demanded to see as well. When brought forward, it greeted him with the words “Hail Antony, conqueror and leader!” (Macrobius 3.30; my translation)             

The bird-trainer evidently had been hedging his bets.