Fifth House
The fifth house follows the fourth and precedes the sixth. It is succedent, one of the four houses that follow directly after an angle, in the classification set out at House Division. In the whole-sign aspect scheme it is in aspect to the first, second, third, seventh, eighth, ninth and eleventh houses, and in aversion, sharing no aspect, with the fourth, sixth, tenth and twelfth. The eleventh, which Dorotheus describes as its counterpart, stands directly opposite it, and opposition is an aspect.
Good Fortune, and the house of the child
The Hellenistic Greek name recorded for this place is Good Fortune, Agathē Tychē 1 bk. III ch. 10.
Tradition
Held byDorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation bk. I, c. 75 CE
Dorotheus calls it the house of the child and ranks it fourth of the twelve places by strength, immediately after the ascendant, the midheaven and the eleventh, of which it is described as the opposite 2 bk. I.
Tradition
Held byJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis bk. II, Roman North Africa, c. 334-337 CE
Firmicus assigns Venus’s joy to the fifth house, one part of a complete sevenfold scheme covering all seven planets 3 bk. II. Venus belongs to the nocturnal team in the day and night division set out at Sect, together with the Moon and Mars, whose own joys fall in the third and sixth houses; all three nocturnal planets have their joy in a house below the horizon, and Good Fortune sitting among them fits the same pattern.
Tradition
Held byWilliam Lilly, Christian Astrology bk. I, London, London, 1647
Lilly assigns the fifth house judgment of children, including their conception and the question of whether a son or a daughter will be born; of ambassadors and those sent abroad on a king’s business; of the founding of a town; and, in the body, the stomach 4 bk. I.
Children remain the constant across the gap between Dorotheus’s house of the child and Lilly’s fifth house, even as the surrounding list of subordinate topics differs.
Gap in the evidence
Whether Ptolemy stated a house-based method for children, comparable to his stated methods for parents and for siblings at neighbouring chapters of the same book, has not been checked against a printed edition for this entry, and no claim about it is made here.
References
- Claudius Ptolemy, trans. F. E. Robbins. Tetrabiblos. Loeb Classical Library 435. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940 (composed c. 150 CE). bk. III ch. 10. find a copy (catalogue search) recordprimary source
The standard English reference and the chapter-numbering scheme this site adopts and names. Non-Robbins reprints number the chapters differently, so every locus here is given as Robbins numbering.
- Dorotheus of Sidon, trans. Benjamin N. Dykes. Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation: Cazimi Press, 2019 (composed c. 75 CE). bk. I. ISBN 9781934586501 recordprimary source
Second updated edition. A practitioner translation, cited alongside rather than instead of Pingree's 1976 Teubner critical edition. The Greek original is lost; the text survives through a Middle Persian intermediary into Arabic, which is itself part of why the Dorothean material needs careful reading.
- Julius Firmicus Maternus, trans. James Herschel Holden. Mathesis. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2013 (composed c. 334-337 CE). bk. II. ISBN 9780866906432 recordprimary source
Complete translation of the eight books of the Mathesis in a single volume. A paperback impression exists under ISBN 9780866906197; edition details for both were confirmed against independent bookseller listings rather than a publisher's own catalogue page, which was not found online. Book II is the earliest surviving source to state the planetary joys as a complete scheme covering all seven planets.
- William Lilly. Christian Astrology. London, 1647 (composed 1647). bk. I. https://archive.org/details/b30338724 recordprimary source
Second edition 1659. Where a figure differs between the two printings this site says which printing it is quoting.