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Aristotle

Situations and Names of Winds

Spurious attribution

Translated by Edward Seymour Forster

About this text
Translation
Edward Seymour Forster
Digital source
Internet Archive scan; reviewed transcription by the parallel Claude Code session, worksofaristotle06arisuoft, physical PDF pages 251–254
Print edition
The Works of Aristotle, volume VI: Opuscula. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. Ventorum Situs, translated by E. S. Forster.
Facsimile
Scanned edition

The Works of Aristotle, volume VI: Opuscula. Notes, diagrams and margin material are omitted.

Translator/editor apparatus excluded by the reviewed ledger content/apparatus/aristotle-situations-and-names-of-winds-forster.json (12 spans). Classification of every bracketed span: docs/corpora/aristotle/editions/winds-forster-parallel-bracket-review-v1.json.

Boreas. At Mallus this wind is called Pagreus; for it blows from the high cliffs and two parallel ranges known as the Pagrean Mountains. At Caunus it is called . . .

Meses. . . . In Rhodes it is known as Caunias; for it blows from Caunus, causing storms in the harbour of that place. At Olbia, near Magydum in Pamphylia, it is called Idyreus; for it blows from an island called Idyris. Some people identify Boreas and Meses, amongst them the Lyrnatians near Phaselis.

Caecias. In Lesbos this wind is called Thebanas; for it blows from the plain of Thebe, north of the Elaitic Gulf in Mysia. It causes storms in the harbour of Mitylene and very violent storms in the harbour of Mallus. In some places it is called Caunias, which others identify with Boreas.

Apeliotes. This wind is called Potameus at Tripolis in Phoenicia; it blows from a plain resembling a great threshing-floor, which lies between the mountains of Libanus and Bapyrus; hence it is called Potameus. It causes storms at Posidonium. In the Gulf of Issus and the neighbourhood of Rosus it is known as Syriandus; it blows from ‘the Syrian Gates’, the pass between the Taurus and the Rosian Mountains. In the Gulf of Tripolis it is called Marseus, from the village of Marsus. In Proconnesus, Teos, Crete, Euboea, and Cyrene it is known as Hellespontias. It causes storms in particular at Caphereus in Euboea, and in the harbour of Cyrene, which is called Apollonia. It blows from the Hellespont. [At Sinope it is called Berecyntias, because it blows from the direction of Phrygia.] In Sicily it is known as Cataporthmias, because it blows from the Straits. Some people identify it with Caecias, and also call it Thebanas.

Eurus. This wind is called Scopeleus at Aegae, on the borders of Syria, after the cliff at Rosus. In Cyrene it is known as Carbas after the Carbanians in Phoenicia; wherefore some people call this same wind Phoenicias. Some people identify it with Apeliotes.

Euronotus. Some call this wind Eurus, others Amneus.

Notus bears the same name everywhere. It is derived from the fact that this wind is unwholesome, while out of doors it brings showers; thus there are two reasons for its name.

Leuconotus likewise derives its name from its effect; for it clears the sky.

Lips. This wind gets its name from Libya, whence it blows.

Zephyrus. This wind is so named because it blows from the west, and the west . . .

Iapyx. At Tarentum it is called Scylletinus from the place Scylletium. At Dorylaeum in Phrygia ⟨it is called⟩ . . . Some people call it Pharangites, because it blows from a certain ravine in Mount Pangaeus. Many call it Argestes.

Thracias is called Strymonias in Thrace, for it blows from the river Strymon; in the Megarid it is known as Sciron, after the Scironian cliffs, in Italy and Sicily it is called Circias, because it blows from Circaeum. In Euboea and Lesbos it goes by the name of Olympias, which is derived from Pierian Olympus; it causes storms at Pyrrha.

I have drawn the circle of the earth and indicated the positions of the winds, and the directions in which they blow, so that they may be presented to your vision.