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| Concerning air and winds.
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Chapter VIII.—Concerning air and
winds.
Air is the most subtle element, and is moist and
warm: heavier, indeed, than fire: but lighter than earth
and water: it is the cause of respiration and voice: it is
colourless, that is, it has no colour by nature: it is clear and
transparent, for it is capable of receiving light: it ministers
to three of our senses, for it is by its aid that we see, hear and
smell: it has the power likewise of receiving heat and cold,
dryness and moisture, and its movements in space are up, down, within,
without, to the right and to the left, and the cyclical movement.
It does not derive its light from itself, but is
illuminated by sun, and moon, and stars, and fire. And this is
just what the Scripture means when it says, And darkness was upon
the deep1738
; for its
object is to shew that the air has not derived its light from itself,
but that it is quite a different essence from light.
And wind is a movement of air: or wind is a
rush of air which changes its name as it changes the place whence it
rushes1739
| 1739 Sever. Gabal.,
Hom. 1 in Hexaëm. | .
Its place is in the air. For place is the
circumference of a body. But what is it that surrounds bodies but
air? There are, moreover, different places in which the movement
of air originates, and from these the winds get their names.
There are in all twelve winds. It is said that air is just fire
after it has been extinguished, or the vapour of heated water. At
all events, in its own special nature the air is warm, but it becomes
cold owing to the proximity of water and earth, so that the lower parts
of it are cold, and the higher warm1740
| 1740 Nemes., De Nat.
Hom. i., ch. 5. | .
These then are the winds1741
| 1741 These are absent in
edit. Veron. | : Cæcias, or Meses, arises in
the region where the sun rises in summer. Subsolanus, where the
sun rises at the equinoxes. Eurus, where it rises in
winter. Africus, where it sets in winter. Favonius, where
it sets at the equinoxes, and Corus, or Olympias, or Iapyx, where it
sets in summer. Then come Auster and Aquilo, whose blasts oppose
one another. Between Aquilo and Cæcias comes Boreas:
and between Eurus and Auster, Phœnix or Euronotus; between Auster
and Africus, Libonotus or Leuconotus: and lastly, between Aquilo
and Corus, Thrascias, or Cercius, as it is called by the inhabitants of
that region.
[These1742
| 1742 This paragraph is
absent in almost all the copies. | , then, are the
races which dwell at the ends of the world: beside Subsolanus are
the Bactriani: beside Eurus, the Indians: beside
Phœnix, the Red Sea and Ethiopia: beside Libonotus, the
Garamantes, who are beyond Systis: beside Africus, the Ethiopians
and the Western Mauri: beside Favonius, the columns of Hercules
and the beginnings of Libya and Europe: beside Corus, Iberia,
which is now called Spain: beside Thrascia, the Gauls and the
neighbouring nations: beside Aquilo, the Scythians who are beyond
Thrace: beside Boreas, Pontus, Mæotis and the
Sarmatæ: beside Cæcias, the Caspian Sea and the
Sacai.]E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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