Message #168439

[Bathos]

Part 6

Let us now explain the position of the winds, their oppositions, which
can blow simultaneously with which, and which cannot, their names
and number, and any other of their affections that have not been treated
in the 'particular questions'. What we say about their position must
be followed with the help of the figure. For clearness' sake we have
drawn the circle of the horizon, which is round, but it represents
the zone in which we live; for that can be divided in the same way.
Let us also begin by laying down that those things are locally contrary
which are locally most distant from one another, just as things specifically
most remote from one another are specific contraries. Now things that
face one another from opposite ends of a diameter are locally most
distant from one another. (See diagram.)

Let A be the point where the sun sets at the equinox and B, the point
opposite, the place where it rises at the equinox. Let there be another
diameter cutting this at right angles, and let the point H on it be
the north and its diametrical opposite O the south. Let Z be the rising
of the sun at the summer solstice and E its setting at the summer
solstice; D its rising at the winter solstice, and G its setting at
the winter solstice. Draw a diameter from Z to G from D to E. Then
since those things are locally contrary which are most distant from
one another in space, and points diametrically opposite are most distant
from one another, those winds must necessarily be contrary to one
another that blow from opposite ends of a diameter.

The names of the winds according to their position are these. Zephyrus
is the wind that blows from A, this being the point where the sun
sets at the equinox. Its contrary is Apeliotes blowing from B the
point where the sun rises at the equinox. The wind blowing from H,
the north, is the true north wind, called Aparctias: while Notus blowing
from O is its contrary; for this point is the south and O is contrary
to H, being diametrically opposite to it. Caecias blows from Z, where
the sun rises at the summer solstice. Its contrary is not the wind
blowing from E but Lips blowing from G. For Lips blows from the point
where the sun sets at the winter solstice and is diametrically opposite
to Caecias: so it is its contrary. Eurus blows from D, coming from
the point where the sun rises at the winter solstice. It borders on
Notus, and so we often find that people speak of 'Euro-Noti'. Its
contrary is not Lips blowing from G but the wind that blows from E
which some call Argestes, some Olympias, and some Sciron. This blows
from the point where the sun sets at the summer solstice, and is the
only wind that is diametrically opposite to Eurus. These are the winds
that are diametrically opposite to one another and their contraries.