Persepolis - History in the stars

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE). Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran.  The circumstances of its destruction by fire are recorded in history thus:

(Diod. 17.70.1-73.2) 17.70 (1) Persepolis was the capital of the Persian kingdom. Alexander described it to the Macedonians as the most hateful of the cities of Asia, and gave it over to his soldiers to plunder, all but the palaces. It was the richest city under the sun and the private houses had been furnished with every sort of wealth over the years. The Macedonians raced into it, slaughtering all the men whom they met and plundering the residences.

 Alexander held games in honour of his victories. He performed costly sacrifices to the gods and entertained his friends bountifully. While they were feasting and the drinking was far advanced, as they began to be drunken a madness took possession of the minds of the intoxicated guests.  At this point one of the women present, Thais by name and Attic by origin, said that for Alexander it would be the finest of all his feats in Asia if he joined them in a triumphal procession, set fire to the palaces, and permitted women's hands in a minute to extinguish the famed accomplishments of the Persians.  This was said to men who were still young and giddy with wine, and so, as would be expected, someone shouted out to form up and to light torches, and urged all to take vengeance for the destruction of the Greek temples. (4) Others took up the cry and said that this was a deed worthy of Alexander alone. When the king had caught fire at their words, all leaped up from their couches and passed the word along to form a victory procession [epinikion komon] in honour of Dionysius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis

Shown above is the eclipse chart of a total lunar eclipse that occurred in 330BC at Shiraz [modern day location of Persepolis]. By the rules of mundane astrology, the eclipse is significant since it squares the Ascendant-Descendant axis.  The eclipse Moon [21vi35] was sharply conjunct the star Spica [21vi30] and in the fourth house connected with buildings. This star is linked in Vedic astrology to the asterism Chitra. Chitra means the brilliant, the bright or the beautiful. It is symbolised by a bright jewel. The presiding deity is Vishvakarma, the celestial architect. Through the four yugas (aeons of Hindu mythology), he is supposed to have built several beautiful  towns and palaces for the gods.

Also the Moon [3N43] is parallel and antiparallel in declination to Betelgeuse [3N40] and Alograb of Corvus [3S39]. This helps identify the actors in the drama:

Algorab of Corvus the Raven has been associated with “destructiveness, malevolence, fiendishness, repulsiveness and lying” [Robson*] and so easily fits the character of the woman Thais who incites Alexander shown here by the star Betelgeuse of Orion, the Hunter or Warrior.

From the chart we have the following:

Neptune-Zeus midpoint = 18 Vi00 ; Ascendant = 18 Ge27 ; TNP Cupido = 18 Sg57

All these are in hard aspects so that we can write:

Neptune/Zeus = Ascendant = Cupido

Cupido itself is conjunct Kronos and Jupiter

The interpretations are:

Neptune-Zeus: ‘victims of  fires or those who are at the mercy of a military action--especially one  that occurs in the dark or is accompanied by chaos….there's some  subtrefuge  that can incite’. Martha Wescott Lang [* that all this was carried out under the influence of alcohol is also shown by Neptune]

- with Cupido …a burning building.

Cupido-Kronos-Jupiter: A famous palace

P.S.

 Alexander [born 20 Jul 0356 BC, Pella, Greece] had his radix Sun 21cn45 conjunct Zeus [fire] in the eclipse chart. His horoscope carries a Mars-Neptune square – a signature aspect for many who over-indulge in drinks.