Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome
Contact between Ancient Greece and the ancient empires of India suggest
lines of influence on the European tradition of handreading that considerably predate the
stimulation of interest brought about by contact with Arabic civilisation in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. That there was contact between India and Ancient Greece in those
times is evidenced by what we know of the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (c.260BC) and of the
exploits and adventures of Alexander the Great (c.350BC), and it seems likely that much
knowledge and wisdom would have been exchanged either through direct contact or via the
trade routes established by the Arabs. In any case, it is clear that the practice of
handreading was known in Greece by at least the fourth century BC.
However, despite the prevalent assertions that some form of chirology
was widely practised in Ancient Greece, there are actually very few references to the
study of the hand in the extant literature from this period. It is supposed by many that
the art was known and practised by many eminent Greek figures including Homer, Anaxagoras,
Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Galen and even Alexander the Great himself. However, there
is virtually nothing mentioned of the art of handreading in the extant works of any of
these authors. It may be that some of these authors did indeed write works on the study of
the hand, but if that is the case, then nothing of these writings remain. In the absence
of any proof to the contrary, we may suppose that whilst handreading may have been known
to them, they were not practising chiromants. This can easily be demonstrated by
reference to the extant writings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) , who provides us with the only
certainty from this period within his works 'De Historia Animalium' (Book I.15)
and 'Problemata' (Books 10 & 34).
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Aristotle 'De
Historia Animalium' Bk 1:15
Of the limbs, one set, forming a
pair, is 'arms'. To the arm belong the 'shoulder', 'upper-arm', 'elbow', 'forearm', and
'hand'. To the hand belong the 'palm', and the five 'fingers'. The part of the finger that
bends is termed 'knuckle', the part that is inflexible is termed the 'phalanx'.
The big
finger or thumb is single-jointed, the other fingers are double-jointed. The bending both
of the arm and of the finger takes place from without inwards in all cases; and the arm
bends at the elbow.
The inner part of the hand is termed the 'palm', and is fleshy and
divided by joints or lines: in the case of long-lived people by one or two extending right
across, in the case of the shortlived by two, not so extending.
The joint between hand and
arm is termed the 'wrist'. The outside or back of the hand is sinewy, and has no specific
designation. |
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In 'De Historia Animalium', Aristotle is describing the
anatomy of the arm from the shoulder down to the hand and includes a description of the
lines or joints of the hand as well as giving an interpretation of the presence of lines
which extend right across the hand as being indications of a long life. The references in 'Problemata'
are but reitterations of one of the questions on longevity to which he was seeking an
answer: "Why then are men long lived who have a cut right across their hands?"
and "Why is it that men are very long lived who have a cut right across the
hand?". Aristotle struggles to find an answer to these questions and suggests that it
might be to do with the better articulation of the hand, since those animals with good
articulations of the body are longer lived than those animals whose bodies are poorly
articulated!
On the basis of Aristotle's extant writings on the hand, we should be
most suspicious of the apocryphal tale reported by many palmists that Aristotle discovered
an ancient Arabic treatise on the hand on an alter dedicated to Hermes. If he saw any such
treatise, it would seem he either didn't read it or it didn't contain any knowledge of any
value! The legend continues that Aristotle, being tutor to Alexander the Great, sent him
this golden treatise for his edification. But if Aristotle was his tutor in these matters
then we can be fairly sure that, despite the suggestions to the contrary, Alexander the
Great knew very little about handreading either!
The small fragments contained in these works do not suggest that
Aristotle really had a very comprehensive knowledge of the study of the hand at all nor,
indeed, that he was the accomplished chiromancer that many modern and ancient authors
assert that he was. Nevertheless, these short remarks do reveal that some form of
handreading tradition was known in Ancient Greece and that at least some of the
chiromantic significance of the lines of the hand were not unknown to Aristotle himself.
They also give an indication of the age of that old superstition that
the length of the lines of the hand are indicative of the length of your life. Notice,
however, that Aristotle refers to lines cutting across the hands, suggesting the
head line or the heart line rather than the 'lifeline' of traditional palmistry. Although
these references are not very extensive, they are enough to show that some form of
handreading was indeed practiced in Ancient Greece; but moreover, they are particularly
revealing in that within Indian palmistic traditions even today, it is the length of the
heart line that is regarded as being the main lineal indicator of longevity. This is a
further suggestion that the practice of handreading within Ancient Greece may well have
had Indian origins.
Ancient Rome
It is also thought that some form of handreading was practised in
Ancient Rome, but there are no remaining works outlining the extent or nature of the
practice at this time either, for the only evidence we have of hand reading traditions
from this period come from a few passing references made on the subject in various
different Latin works. Pliny (23-79AD) mentions the idea that broken lines in the palm are
indicative of a short life in his 'Naturalis Historia', citing the reference from
Aristotle discussed above. The writer Juvenal (60-130AD) makes a deprecatory remark about
chiromancy in one of his plays ( 'Satires vi.581' ) where he satirises the women
of the day by describing how whilst women of the upper classes consult astrologers, women
of the middle sort satisfy their curiosity and vanity by going to chiromancers. Suidas
reports that a treatise on chiromancy was written by one Artemidorus c.240AD and the
Emporer Hadrian reports in his auto-biograohy that his grandfather read his hands when he
was a child, predicting great things for him - but other than than these few oblique
references, nothing at all is known about the practice of hand reading in Roman times.
Popular understanding has it that handreading was so widely known and
practised in Roman times that even Emperor Julius Caesar was an adept chiromancer, at one
time refusing to receive a Prince for the lack of indications of his royal status within
his hands. But as we can see, there is so little evidence for the practice of chiromancy
at this time, we can almost certainly dismiss this story as yet another apocryphal tale;
for there simply is no evidence to substantiate it.
These few references seem to be the sum total of known certainties to
evidence the antiquity of chirology. If any of the supposed ancient authorities did have
any real knowledge of the subject, they do not reveal it in any of their works that are
still extant. If they did actually write about the hand, those works cannot now be found.
Apart from the few references cited above, nothing more is known for certain about the
early practice of handreading or of its origins. All claims to the great antiquity of the
art are therefore really nothing more than elaborate guesswork, for no records remain of
either the state of the art in terms of its form and content or of the manner in which it
was disseminated from one country to another. It may well be true that there were strong
oral traditions in these different countries, but this does not really help us trace the
early history and development of chirology. All that we can really be certain about
perhaps is that the study of the hand, like the study of the planets in the sky, is indeed
an extremely ancient branch of human learning and one that has preoccupied the minds of
men from the very earliest of times. It would seem that the art does indeed predate the
written textual references that survive, but what the ancients knew about the hand and
what they really thought about it perhaps we will never know.
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