From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Winter and storm
χειμών
cheimōnCheimōn can mean winter or stormy weather.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordCheimōn can mean winter or stormy weather.
- In StobaeusThe Homeric description of Elysium promises a mild life without snow, heavy winter storm, or rain.
- In this edition“Winter storm” suits the Homeric setting; “winter” suits the seasonal classification.
- A place to beginElysium is described as free from harsh wintry weather.
- English renderings
- winter; wintry storm
Meaning
Cheimōn can mean winter or stormy weather. These senses overlap where winter is characterized by cold and storms.
Use in the book
The Homeric description of Elysium promises a mild life without snow, heavy winter storm, or rain. In that poetic list, the word emphasizes adverse weather from which the destination is exempt. The separate seasonal definitions use the same noun for the coldest part of the year.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Winter storm” suits the Homeric setting; “winter” suits the seasonal classification.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 106–107, 422. Porphyry’s surrounding discussion emphasizes that Menelaus is promised this destination while alive.
From the book
The Green Notebook
Maurice de Guérin · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Winter
hiver; froid; froidure; frimas; glacé
Winter gathers cold, bare wood, snow, and contracted life, but its visible signs can return out of season.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordWinter gathers cold, bare wood, snow, and contracted life, but its visible signs can return out of season.
- In GuérinMarch 1833 repeatedly returns the hoped-for spring to winter.
- In this editionThe English keeps froid, glacé as cold, frozen in July, preserving their cumulative force.
- A reading distinctionThese winter references include literal weather, comparisons across seasons, and inward metaphors.
Meaning
Winter gathers cold, bare wood, snow, and contracted life, but its visible signs can return out of season. Froidure is a literary coldness; glacé can move from literal freezing to inward insensibility. Season and sensation do not always coincide.
Use in the book
March 1833 repeatedly returns the hoped-for spring to winter. Birds newly arrived shiver; cracks in the house moan as in January; the writer draws inward along with nature. A few days later winter takes leave smiling beneath a pure sky. Even within these short entries it is not one uniformly hostile presence.
The June complaint that only greenery distinguishes the day from December makes seasonal mismatch part of the experience. Winter can persist as an atmospheric impression after vegetation has advanced. Conversely, the final coastal walk in January is granted all spring’s grace: birds sing, rosebushes and honeysuckle green, and the sea looks festive.
This instability matters for the inward winter imagery. July’s actual warmth leaves Guérin cold and frozen, revealing a disjunction between weather and feeling. The seasonal vocabulary offers him a way of describing this failure of response, but the accurate account of external warmth prevents the metaphor from replacing the world.
Places to read
- 8 March 1833 · ¶1Cold returns the body and new arrivals to contraction
- 20 March 1833 · ¶1Winter’s departure can itself be smiling and luminous
- 13 June 1833 · ¶1June weather feels like December despite the green earth
- 17 July 1833 · ¶1Inward freezing occurs during a genuinely bright, warm day
- 20 January 1834 · ¶2January briefly possesses spring’s grace and visible growth
Translation in this edition
The English keeps froid, glacé as cold, frozen in July, preserving their cumulative force. It also retains Winter smiles in January rather than paraphrasing the paradox away as unseasonably good weather.
Source note
These winter references include literal weather, comparisons across seasons, and inward metaphors. They should not be combined into a reconstructed weather diary without preserving those differences.