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Book I Chapter 29

2 Arrian: Dry vapors and their forms

Dry vapors, flowing forth at once, produce winds; but when they are trapped in a cloud and then violently burst it open, they give rise to thunder and lightning. When they burst out on a great scale, those that are incandescent are thunderbolts; those that are compact and half burning are fiery whirlwinds; those without fire are whirlwinds; and those still loose are squalls.⁸⁷² When they strike the earth, all these are called “striking bolts.”⁸⁷³

2 Arrian: Cavities and ruptures

The cavities of clouds and ⟨the⟩ ruptures occurring in them do not produce thunder to the same degree.⁸⁷⁴

2 Arrian: Why the flash is seen first

Lightning is produced by friction during the rupture and ignites the wind, making it flash out over a great extent. Lightning occurs after thunder, but it is quicker by as much as sight is quicker than hearing: hearing perceives the sound as it approaches, whereas sight is sent out toward the visible object itself.⁸⁷⁵

2 Arrian: Evidence that a thunderbolt is wind

That a thunderbolt is wind may be inferred from the following evidence: it breaks apart some of the things it encounters, and [gap in the text] capable of being whirled around; and it penetrates ⟨through⟩ things that nothing other than wind could pass through.⁸⁷⁶

2 Arrian: Evidence that the wind is fiery

That it is fiery wind is shown even by its appearance to anyone near whom it has struck, for it appears as fire. Its effects have also made this clear: it scorches some of the things it approaches and sets others wholly alight, leaving traces like those left by a fire that has burned and then gone out.

2 Arrian: How a whirlwind forms

A squall wind, when it bursts out in a whirl after a cloud has ruptured, is called a whirlwind. The whirl arises in this way: when an obstacle within the cloud blocks the current from issuing straight out, the current turns back and coils upon itself. It is prevented from escaping straight ahead by the thickness of the cloud, by cold that turns it back, or by another current striking against it.

2 Arrian: Tempests checked by the ground

Thus too, at different times, tempests of different kinds turn back and, coiling upon themselves, are carried upward again when some part of the ground in their path checks the wind’s straight onward rush.⁸⁷⁷

2 Arrian: The analogy of river eddies

Eddies of water in rivers are the very same thing. Water moving in a straight course would never whirl; but when one thing or another obstructs its movement, the stream turns back. Once turned back, it bends into a circle under its own momentum, since it cannot move straight in the opposite direction.⁸⁷⁸

2 Arrian: The lifting force of whirlwinds

Whirlwinds also bring much of the cloud down with them in a spiral. When they strike the ground, they snatch up whatever they encounter: their momentum is checked, so that they turn back in the same spiral. They have even struck ships and lifted them, cargo and all, high out of the sea.

2 Arrian: Names of thunderbolts

There are many forms and names of thunderbolts. Some are called smoky, others bright; those that strike down are called striking bolts, those that descend in a whirling mass of air are called aegides, and those that dart along a spiral line are called spirals.⁸⁷⁹

2 Arrian: Speed and burning

Those which burst out without great speed and encounter combustible material burn it because they linger, and are themselves extinguished in the process. Those which strike with great speed pass through before burning it up, so that some things are left half burned by them; others pass through after merely blackening things with soot.⁸⁸⁰

2 Arrian: The box and its gold

Those still swifter than these have no time to produce any effect at all: when they encounter porous material, even if it is highly combustible, they merely pass through it. But if they meet resistant material, they are held within it, act upon it, and destroy it. Thus, when they struck a box of soft wood, they passed through and left it unharmed, but melted the gold inside because they were detained in the gold.⁸⁸¹

2 Arrian: Traces left by a strike

They have also left a tunic unburned, merely reducing it to rags; and they have passed through an earthenware vessel while scattering its contents. Among all these, the luminous ones are “bright”; those that ceased after blackening with soot whatever came near them were called “smoky” from what they did.

2 Arrian: The course of the strike

Those that strike straight down dart back in the opposite direction along the same straight line; those that strike obliquely are carried upward at an equal angle. Some strike singly, others doubly.⁸⁸²

2 Arrian: Seasons and climates

They are most numerous in spring and autumn, and also more violent around the rising of the Pleiades and of Arcturus, because at this season the air is in motion and undergoes changes of many kinds: it is neither congealed by cold nor cleared by the summer sun. Accordingly, in regions that are snowy and cold, and in those scorched by the sun, ⟨if⟩ thunderbolts strike, the strikes are counted among marvels, as among the Celts and the Egyptians.⁸⁸³

3 From Milon’s Physics

There are two kinds of lightning, one by day and the other by night.⁸⁸⁴ Daytime lightning is produced by the sun when the water breaks open and the sun shows through. It does not appear bright as nighttime lightning does, because it occurs in the light. Nighttime lightning is produced by the stars when the water breaks open and they show through; it appears bright because it occurs in darkness.⁸⁸⁵

872.“Still loose” translates eti aneimenoi provisionally. Wachsmuth calls the phrase corrupt and suggests, without printing it, a reading meaning “still coiling.” The Greek retains the printed words; the precise distinction intended here remains uncertain.

873.Skēptoi is related to the verb kataskēptein, to swoop or strike down. Here it is a collective name for these phenomena when they strike the ground.

874.The printed ou di’ isou, “not equally,” supplies a comparison whose exact point is not developed. It does not specify which produces more thunder. Usener supplies the article before “ruptures.”

875.This explanation treats sight as something sent out to its object, while sound must approach the hearer. It therefore differs both from the simultaneous production described under Chrysippus and from an explanation in terms of light traveling from the flash to the observer.

876.The words following the gap no longer form a complete construction. Usener suggests lost words meaning “it whirls around the things,” but Wachsmuth prints only the gap, which remains unfilled here. The supplied di’, “through,” repairs the following clause.

877.The opening words are defective: pros does not fit the surviving construction. The translation gives the intelligible general sense without supplying a missing object for it. A different reconstruction in a separately edited Arrian text refers to spring; that reading is not printed in the source used here.

878.The analogy explains circular motion by obstruction and continued momentum. Rhumē, translated “momentum,” is the force or rush of the moving current; it is used of both wind and water.

879.Aegides is retained as a technical name and defined by the passage itself. The text here reads “air,” aeros, following Meineke’s correction; the manuscripts have “fire,” puros. The later distinction between smoky and bright bolts returns to the effects they leave behind.

880.“Are themselves extinguished” follows Wachsmuth’s printed katesbesthēsan, his correction of the manuscripts’ kateschethēsan, “were held.” The distinction matters because the sentence describes what happens to the bolt itself during combustion.

881.The governing contrast is between porous and resistant material. The explanation attributes the melting to the bolt’s being delayed inside the gold; it does not formulate a theory of electrical conductivity. Compare the shield example in the preceding report of Aristotle.

882.The account describes an upward return following the downward strike. “At an equal angle” belongs to its comparison of oblique descent and ascent. The brief distinction between single and double strikes is not further explained.

883.The risings of the Pleiades and Arcturus serve as seasonal markers. The passage connects frequency with a changing condition of the air and rarity with climatic extremes. The conditional “if” is supplied by Usener; it keeps the claim about exceptional strikes conditional.

884.The name Milon follows the printed heading, supported by manuscript P and by the author-list preserved in Photius, as cited in Wachsmuth’s apparatus. The alternative Philo is not adopted. Physika is a work on natural philosophy.

885.The Greek says “water,” not “cloud.” This is understood here as the intervening moisture whose opening allows the sun or stars to show through. The translation retains that wording and the passage’s contrast between brightness in daylight and in darkness.