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Reading language

Book I Chapter 40

36 · Eastern and western winds

Among the east winds, Aparctias is the name of ⟨the⟩ wind flowing from the place of the summer sunrise; Apeliotes, ⟨of the one from the equinoctial sunrise; and Eurus, of the one⟩ from the winter sunrise. Of the opposite west winds, Argestes comes from the summer sunset, called Olympias by some and Iapyx by others; Zephyrus is ⟨the one⟩ from the equinoctial sunset, ⟨and Lips the one from the winter sunset⟩.¹⁰²⁰

37 · Northern and southern winds

Among the northern winds in particular, the one [of those] next to Caecias is called Boreas; [and also] the next [of them in order], coming from the pole along the meridian, is Aparctias. The one next to Argestes is Thrascias, which some call Caecias.¹⁰²¹ Among the south winds [on the one hand], the one coming from the unseen pole, opposite Aparctias, is called Notus; the one between it and Eurus is Euronotus. The one on the other side, between Lips and Notus, some call Libonotus and others Libophoenix.

38 · Wind courses and seasons

Some winds blow straight, running forward in a straight course; others bend back in their blowing, such as the one called Caecias. Some prevail in winter, like the south winds; others in summer, like the so-called Etesians, which combine winds from the north with west winds. The winds called Ornithian blow in spring and belong to the northern class.¹⁰²²

39 · Violent blasts

Among violent blasts, a squall is a wind … that strikes forcibly and suddenly. A tempest or whirlwind is wind twisting up and down. An upward blast is wind from the earth carried aloft as it rises from some depth or fissure; when a great quantity is borne along in a whirl, it is a terrestrial storm blast.¹⁰²³

40 · Thunder and lightning

Wind trapped in a thick ⟨and⟩ moist cloud and forced violently through it, ⟨rupturing⟩ the cloud’s compressed mass, produces a great roar and crash called thunder, like air driven violently through water. When the cloud bursts, the wind that has caught fire and flashed is called lightning;¹⁰²⁴

41 · Why the flash appears first

it reaches us before the thunder although it comes into being later, because what is audible naturally arrives after what is visible. The latter is apparent even from far away, the former only when it comes close to the hearing; and this is so when the one, I mean the fiery element, is the swiftest of things, while the other, the airy element, is less swift, reaching the hearing in the impact.¹⁰²⁵

42 · Thunderbolt, fiery blast, and whirlwind

What flashes, is violently kindled, and passes all the way to the earth is called a thunderbolt. If it is only partly fiery, but otherwise violent and concentrated, it is a fiery storm blast; if entirely without fire, a whirlwind. Each of these, when it strikes down upon the earth, is called a striking bolt.¹⁰²⁶

43 · Kinds of thunderbolt

Of thunderbolts, the smoky ones are called smoldering, those that dart swiftly bright, those that travel in a streak winding, and those that strike something striking bolts.¹⁰²⁷

44 · Appearances and physical formations

To sum up, some apparitions in the air occur as an appearance, ⟨others as an actual formation. As an appearance occur⟩ rainbows, rods, and things of that kind generally; as actual formations, shooting lights, comets, and similar things.¹⁰²⁸

45 · Rainbow, rod, and halo

A rainbow is an appearance of a segment of the sun or moon, seen along the circumference of a circle in a moist, hollow, continuous cloud that presents the image as in a mirror. A rod is a straight appearance of a rainbow. A halo is a surrounding appearance of a heavenly body’s brightness, differing in this characteristic: ⟨that⟩ a rainbow appears opposite the sun or moon, whereas a halo appears around any heavenly body.¹⁰²⁹

46 · Shooting and stationary lights

A luminous flare is the kindling of a mass of fire in the air. Some flares shoot out, while others remain in place. A shooting flare is fire generated by friction, moving rapidly through the air and presenting an appearance of length because of its speed. A stationary flare is an elongated extension without movement, like a stream from a star; when it broadens at one end, it is called a comet.¹⁰³⁰

47 · Other fiery appearances

Often some flares persist for a longer time, while others are extinguished at once. Many other forms of apparition are also seen, called torches, beams, beards, and pits because of their resemblance to these things. Some appear in the west, some in the east, and some in both; rarely they appear in the north or south as well. All are transient: none has ever been recorded as remaining fixed and perpetually visible.¹⁰³¹

48 · Underground fire and warm springs

Such are the phenomena of the air. The earth also contains many sources within itself, of wind and fire just as of water. Some are invisible beneath the earth; many have vents and upward blasts, as at Lipara, Etna, and the island of Aeolus. Others often flow out like a river and throw up masses of glowing rock. Some underground sources, lying near spring waters, heat them, sending up streams that are lukewarm, exceedingly hot, or well tempered.¹⁰³²

49 · Vents and oracles

Likewise, many openings for winds stand open in many parts of the earth. Some cause those who approach to enter inspired frenzy, … others to utter oracles, as at Delphi and Lebadea, while others kill them outright, as in Phrygia.¹⁰³³

50 · The cause of earthquakes

Often a naturally present, well-tempered wind within the earth, driven aside into its deep passages and displaced from its proper regions, shakes many parts together. Often, too, when it accumulates in great quantity, is driven into the earth’s hollows, and is barred from an outlet, it shakes the earth violently in seeking a way out for itself, producing the disturbance we customarily call earthquakes.¹⁰³⁴

51 · Kinds of earthquake

Of earthquakes, those that shake sideways at acute angles are called tilting; those that toss up and down at right angles, heaving; those that cause subsidence and hollows, gaping; and those that make clefts and split the earth, rending. Some of these also throw up wind, others rocks, others mud, while others reveal springs that did not exist before.¹⁰³⁵

52 · Thrusts and tremors

Some turn aside in a single thrust and are called ⟨thrusting; those that toss up and, through inclinations to either side⟩ and rebounds, repeatedly set the shaken object upright are called trembling, producing an effect like a shudder.¹⁰³⁶

1020.The directions are defined by the changing sunrise and sunset positions, rather than by evenly spaced compass points. “Aparctias” is the reading of the Stobaeus witnesses here, though the parallel has Caecias; Aparctias occurs again below as the polar north wind. The inconsistency is preserved. The bracketed restorations come from De mundo.

1021.The square brackets retain redundant or intrusive wording rejected by Wachsmuth. This catalogue also gives Caecias as an alternative name for Thrascias, despite the earlier use of Caecias on the other side of north. Names have not been silently redistributed into a corrected wind rose. The unseen pole is the southern one in the observer’s scheme.

1022.Etesian means recurring yearly; Ornithian means associated with birds. The descriptions distinguish the season and course of a wind from its direction of origin.

1023.A gap is printed after “wind” in the definition of the squall. The parallel text contains a fuller distinction between a squall and another storm wind; none is reconstructed here. The final term is prēstēr chthonios, a prēstēr arising from the earth.

1024.The explanation treats thunder as the sound of escaping wind and lightning as that wind ignited. “And” and “rupturing” are supplied from De mundo. This account continues the dry-exhalation theory rather than a theory of electrical discharge.

1025.The author distinguishes the order of production from the order of perception. The clause beginning “when” is marked as corrupt in the apparatus, though no dagger is printed in the body; its apparent contrast between the speed of fire and of air is translated without claiming that the syntax is secure.

1026.The Greek terms are keraunos, prēstēr, typhōn, and skēptos. Skēptos is explained through skēptein, to strike or fall upon. The classification depends on the presence and degree of fire in the moving air.

1027.The names are psoloeis, argēs, helikias, and skēptos. The description grammoeidōs is literally “in the form of a line,” while helikias suggests winding or spiral movement. The juxtaposition belongs to the printed classification and is retained.

1028.Emphasis is an appearance produced through reflected light in the explanation that follows; hypostasis is something physically constituted. This distinguishes optical appearances from bodies or fires thought actually to form in the air. The restored contrast is supplied from De mundo.

1029.The explanation treats the cloud as a reflecting surface. “Rod” translates rhabdos, a straight luminous band. The source’s distinction is the position of the appearance relative to the luminous body; the supplied “that” introduces it.

1030.Selas is a luminous blaze or flare. The author accounts for the apparent streak of a moving light by its speed, but places comets among stationary extensions of fire in the air. These are the text’s categories, not identifications with a modern class of objects.

1031.The names describe visual shapes. “In the west” and “in the east” render words that can also mean evening and morning; the continuation with north and south favors directions here. Amphiphanē is understood as appearing on both sides.

1032.The text explains volcanic flows, expelled glowing masses, and hot springs through sources of fire beneath the earth. It names the island of Aeolus in the singular; the apparatus records a plural in the parallel text.

1033.Enthousian is to be divinely inspired or possessed. This is the text’s explanation of the effects of subterranean emissions, including oracular inspiration. A gap after the first effect is printed in the source and left open here.

1034.The proposed cause is trapped subterranean wind. The printed exōsthen, “driven,” differs from the parallel’s wording about wind being confined from outside. The English follows the Stobaeus text.

1035.The names epiklintai, brastai, chasmatiai, and rhēktai classify the movement or visible effect. “Subsidence and hollows” follows the printed kai ta koila; the parallel instead describes subsidence into hollows.

1036.The long supplement was restored by Heeren from De mundo. The opening apotrepontai, “turn aside,” is what Wachsmuth prints; the parallel has an active participle meaning overturning. The English retains the printed construction rather than silently adopting that reading.