Greek and Roman Weather Lore of Winds (Classical Weekly: 24)

In a recent biography of Lincoln there is to be found a list of weather signs and superstitions that were familiar to the people with whom he came in contact in his youth.1 If this knowledge helps one to an understanding of Lincoln's life and character, then collections p12 of classical weather lore should prove an aid to the appreciation of the daily life of the Greeks and the Romans.

My previous papers in The Classical Weekly2 on popular meteorology have to do with forecasts derived from objects that are tangible or visible, such as animals, plants, and heavenly bodies. In this paper I wish to gather together the lore of an element that is unsubstantial and hopelessly varium et mutabile — the wind.3 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. . ."

In justifying the weather as a topic of conversation Emerson once said:4 "We are pensioners of the wind. The weathercock is the wisest man. All our prosperity, enterprise, temper, come and go with the fickle air". The wind affected the material welfare of the ancients in more ways than it does ours. By its aid they caught quail in nets,5 wd grain,6 and sailed their ships.7 Seneca states8 that Heaven had many purposes in view in creating the winds and sending them throughout the world, but he not es9 that the winds were not an unmixed blessing, since they carried Roman soldiers to distant places to war with men whom they did not hate.

Greece is a country of many mountains and with many indentations caused by arms of the sea. Both by sea and by land it created many opportunities for the caprices of a wayward and fickle wind. Italy, too, is much broken and its seacoast is irregular. There existed a close relation between the geography and the weather of these countries, as the ancients were well aware.

Aristotle10 asks why different winds are rainy in different places, and not es variations in the Aegean. He calls attention to the part played by the Hellespont and explains how mountains interfere with the freedom of clouds and cause them to condense and drop their burden.10a Livy11 speaks of the Cyclades a very windy region and attributes this aspect of their weather to their being separated by wide straits, sometimes by narrow passages.

Pliny12 knew that winding mountains broken by peaks and ridges united with hollow meandering valleys to cause winds without number. It is hardly to be wondered at, therefore, that Seneca13 shrinks from the task of enumerating the various winds. He says that there is hardly any district with which there is not associated some wind that arises within it and falls not far from it.

The Greek proverb, 'Natives know best which way the wind lies',14 is in itself a sufficient commentary upon the way in which conditions changed from place to place. Only residents could become familiar with the varying aerial channels of the wind. We are informed by Theophrastus15 that signs derived from local weather seers were most trustworthy. Such village savants have been the source of much weather knowledge throughout the ages.16 They may, perhaps, be typified by Cloddipole:17

Directions and Weather Associations of the Principal Winds

Doubtless the vast bulk of the weather wisdom of popular meteorologists in small localities never found its way into literature, but there has survived much traditional information about the habits and the weather significance of winds that blew in certain seasons and worked weal or woe in large areas of Greece and Italy. Aristotle, Theophrastus, Pliny, and Seneca have written at length about the directions of the more prominent winds and their well-established reputations for breading certain kindness of weather.18 The saying, "Every wind has its weather", is nowhere better exemplified than in Greece and in Italy. In these lands recognition of a change of wind seems to have been almost immediate.

The orientation of the winds, according to the important Greek and Latin references to the subject, has been given in convenient form in a table compiled by Otto Gilbert, and published in his invaluable work, Die Meteorologischen Theorien des Griechischen Altertums,19 550‑551. His entire chapter on Windsysteme, 539‑584, is important.

In the various wind-roses or wind-charts constructed by modern scholars one finds minor discrepancies, a thing that is inevitable, since some at least of the ancients were unable to thread their way through the maze of conflicting statements, as is abundantly attested by Aulus Gellius.20 It is obvious that with migrations and intermingling of tribes and races confusion would result. Our own weather lore has p13 European importations and in Europe certain days still keep unchanged the weather associations they had before the calendar was modernized.

A great point of difference among modern scholars lies in the number of degrees in the sectors to be assigned to the principal winds.21

In an illuminating paper by Professor D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, entitled The Greek Winds, in The Classical Review 32.49‑56, corrections are made in the traditional interpretation of the wind-chart described by Aristotle, Met. 2.6, 363b. Professor Thompson's divisions of the Greek compass-card seems to have been accepted by later writers who knew of its existence.22

The winds were closely associated with the sun. Professor Thompson shows that the directions to winds listed by Aristotle were determined directly or indirectly by the positions at various periods23 of the rising and the setting sun. East and west winds come, of course, from the directions of the equinoctial rising and setting of the sun; north and south winds come from the directions ascertained by cutting the east and west line at right angles. Four other winds come from the directions of the summer and winter solstitial sunrises and sunsets. This leaves two northern and s9ns sectors, by subdividing which directions for four other winds may be found. This arrangement gives twelve sectors of 30 degrees each.

Since each quadrant of the modern compass-card is divided into four sectors instead of into three, there is no convenient way of indicating accurately the directions of the winds according to the chart reconstructed by Professor Thompson. Such directions as I may give are, therefore, only approximate, except for the cardinal points.

In this section of my paper I wish merely to give a fair idea of the weather reputation of each wind. I shall start with the north winds and shall go round the wind-chart clockwise.23a Readers who desire to multiply references may consult the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, which is giving numerous citations under names of winds and doubtless will continue to do so.a

Aristotle, the fountain-head of much lore of the winds, makes several general remarks about a group of winds: Aparctias (= Septentrio),24 the north wind; Thrascias (= Circius), the north-northwest wind, and Argestes (= Caurus, Corus), the west-northwest wind. It seems best to follow Aristotle in grouping the characteristics they have in common.25

Aparctias, Thrascias, and Argestes are the winds that fall on others most and stop them. Their source is so close to us that they are greater and stronger than other winds. They bread fair weather most of all winds for the same reason, for, blowing as they do, from close at hand, they overpower the other winds and stop them; they also blow away the clouds that are forming and leave a clear sky — unless they happen to be very cold. Then they do not bread fair weather, but being colder than they are strong they condense the lands before carving them away.

These winds bread hail since they cause sudden condensation;26 they give rise to hurricanes also.27 Together with Meses, the north-northeast wind, they are very commonly accompanied by lightning.28 In general all the winds from the north are drier than those from the south,29 and likewise more salutary.30 The characteristics that Aristotle attributes to these three winds are ascribed to them, of course, in the scattered references made to them by other authors.

Boreas, 'the king of the winds',31 is placed, on some wind-charts,32 due north, but Pliny,33 who says that Boreas is called Aquilo in Latin, assigns to it a position between Aparctias and the place of the rising sun at the summer solstice.34 Seneca35 regards Aquilo as the most easterly of the winds that emanate from the north. It is, of course, impossible to say that all authors who mention Boreas and Aquilo located them as precisely as did Pliny and Seneca.

Boreas, or Aquilo, is cold,36 dry,37 rainless,38 cloud-dispelling,39 bright and clear,40 and also the most salutary of winds.41 It is wintry, too,42 and can have angry moods.43 It is called 'black' by Strabo.44 Josephus45 means a local wind called 'the black north wind' at Joppa; at Antioch some sort of magico-religious rite was conducted against 'black Boreas'.46 With Meses and Aparctias Boreas is snowy;47 with Argestes it makes the heavens thick with clouds.48 Though it may leave Italy with skies serene, it causes p14 rains in Africa.49 Pliny50 tells us that Aquilo and Auster change their dispositions with a change of place, for in Africa Aquilo is cloudy and Auster is serene. A north wind striking a heated atmosphere naturally causes condensation; if it manages to cross the Mediterranean, it induces precipitation in Africa.

When Aquilo begins to blow violently and stirs up a number of clouds it indicates fair weather.51 In the Orphic Hymns it is invoked to derive away the rain clouds and make the heavens clear. In Proverbs 25.23 it is stated that the north wind driveth away rain.51a

The north wind was keen during the day, but generally fell at night.52 A Greek proverb says: 'Never did a night-time Boreas reach the third dawn'.53 A north wind generally ceased in an odd number of days, a south wind in an even number.54

Aquilo attended by lightning indicated storm. So did Eurus attended by thunder.55 Aquilo itself was heralded by the sudden drying of the earth.56

Meses, the north-northeast wind,57 was commonly accompanied by lightning, as we have seen. Meses and aparctias were the coldest winds and brought most snow.58 Meses is infrequently mentioned in weather lore. I suspect that the domain of Boreas or Aquilo extended far enough to the East to absorb its functions.59 Some of the ancients did in fact regard Boreas and Meses as the same wind.60

Caecias,61 the east-northeast wind, sometimes called Hellespontias,62 was notoriously rainy.63 It made the sky thick with clouds,64 which were heavier than those brought by Lips.65 Caecias had a reputation for thrusting back to itself the clouds it found before it, so that this characteristic gave rise to a proverb about bridging a thing upon oneself as Caecias breads clouds upon itself.66

Apeliotes (= Subsolanus), whose domain Hellespontias shared more than it did that of Caecias,67 blew from the equinoctial sunrise.68 It was a wet wind, but brought the rain in light showers.69 If it started to blow by day from a clear part of the heavens, it continued throughout the greater part of the night.70 Attended by thunder from the East it signified temperate weather.71 On the Tower of the Winds at Athens it is represented as the bringer of blessings; its lap is filled with honeycomb, grain, and fruits.

The clouds which the north wind blew from the upper end of the Hellespont were caught by Hellespontias and were driven toward Attica and the islands.72 The name for this wind was, of course, purely local in origin.73

Eurus, the east-southeast wind, was dry as it started, but became rainy later.74 It brought clouds;75 against Lesbos especially clouds were driven by it and by the south winds.76 Along with Notus and Zephyr it carried heat.77 It could become fierce; Ovid78 uses the expression truculentior Euris. In northeast the southeast wind is likewise regarded as violent: "If the winds blows from the southeast for twelve hours, it will rain zzzzzzzzz hell".79 Volturnus, as the Roman called this wind, after the name of an Italian mountain,80 was drier and warmer than Auster,81 and, with Favonius, was drier than Subsolanus.82 Lucretius83 calls it altitonans. If it started to blow from a clear part of the heavens, it would not last till night.84

This is the wind which helped to bring disaster to the Roman arms at Cannae. Hannibal had noted the habits of this wind and had so arranged his position and the time of starting the battle that this wind almost blinded the Romans at a critical moment.85

Between Eurus and Notus was Euronotus86 (= Phoenicias),87 a warm wind88 from the south-southeast. Bede89 makes a distinction between this wind and Euroauster, both of which he regards as warm; he puts Euroauster to the right of Notus, Euronotus to the left.

Notus (= Auster), the south wind, seems to be mentioned more frequently than other winds. Without doubt its various weather characteristics are described by a great variety of synonyms than are those of any other wind. I shall quote a number of descriptions from Latin authors, who, of course, often used the form Notus: udus,90 umidus,91 umectus,92 madidus,93 imbricus,94 cum imbribus,95 imbribus atrum,96 nigerrimus,97 p5 pluvius,98 pluvialis,99 cum pluvia,100 nubifer,101 nubilus,102 nimbis gravis,103 nebulosus,104 rabies Noti,105 procellosus,106 hibernus,107 frigidus,108 fulmine pollens,109 cum grandine,110 aestuosus,111 ventorum calidissimus,112 noxius Auster et magis siccus ◂quam Aquilo▸.113

The weather characteristics of Auster are well summarized by Isidore.114 . . . Auster, . . . ex humili flans, humidus, calidus, atque fulmineus, generans largas nubes et pluvias latissimas, solvens etiam flores. He neglects to add that after south winds there occur especially destructive earthquakes.115

Auster was stronger by night than by day.117 It blew regularly at the time of the Dog-star.118 Unlike Boreas, it was stronger when it was ready to cease than when it began; hence the proverb, 'Sail when the south wind begins and Boreas ceases to blow'.119 It stirred up bigger waves, however, than did Aquilo.120

Like Eurus, Auster was dry as it began, but wet as it ended.121 For southern Europe in general

Elsewhere Shakespeare has the simile "Like foggy south puffing with wind and rain".124

Sometimes the north wind coming into conflict with the moisture-laden south wind caused snow.125 It was evidently this condition that gave rise to the saying, 'If the south wind challenges the north wind, then it snows'.126

The portending of heat by the south wind reminds one of Christ's words in Luke 12.55: "When ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass".127

Theophrastus brands as false the belief that Notus did not blow near the sea in Egypt or for a day and a night's journey inland from the sea, whereas beyond Memphis it blew freshly for a similar distance.129

When the south wind was less strong, it brought clear weather and lasted a shorter time.130 Leukonotus, the White Notus, which is placed farther to the West, sometimes belied its rain-making character, as Horace states:131

To the west of Notus was Libonotus (= Austroafricus),133 the south-southwest wind. Naturally it was a hot wind.134

Between Libonotus and Zephyr was Lips (= Liba, or Africus),135 the west-southwest wind. Its reputation was somewhat like that of Auster, though it is mentioned much less frequently. It was rainy,136 stormy,137 cloudy,138 and brought lightning and thunderbolts.139 If it blew at the equinox, it brought rain.140 Vergil141 speaks of it as teeming with squalls. It is described as having sable wings.142 Horace143 calls it Africus pestilens. In this connection one may note the curse of Caliban: "A south-west blow on ye and blister you all o'er".144

At Cnidos and Rhodes there was a proverb about Lips and Argestes: 'Lips causes clouds quickly and clear weather quickly; but every cloud follows the wind Argestes'.145

Zephyr (= Favonius)146 blew from the West. It was warm,147 but agreeably so. It was regarded as the pleasantest of winds148 and was looked upon as a herald of spring149 and flowers.150 On its arrival, one might say, spring was officially opened. With it came the birds, a fact which caused it to be called the 'bird' wind, or, less inclusively, the 'swallow' wind.151 It was a seasonable wind for sailing;152 prayers were made to it to send breezes favorable for ships.153 It rose near or during the evening.154 It was noted for collecting and driving before it the largest clouds.155

p16 Shelley's Ode to the West Winds, written in a wood that skirts the Arno, gives one a far different picture of the west wind in Italy:

Above Zephyr was Argestes (= Caurus, Corus),156 the west-northwest wind. It was known locally in Athens as Sciron, and in some places elsewhere as Olympias.157 There is much difference of opinion about the Latin equivalent of Argestes. Seneca says158 that Corus was called Argestes by some, but that Corus is violent, whereas Argestes is usually gentle. Corus could make the sea squally and fierce.159 Like other northern winds it was cold.160 It was dry except when it was ceasing.161 It gathered clouds and drove them away.162 Lucan163 calls it caeli fuscator Eoi. In the Orient it brought clouds, but in India it brought clear weather.164

It was attended by hail.165 On a clear night lightning accompanied by Corus, Auster, or Favonius meant wind and rain from the direction of these winds.166 From the murmur of the waters Caesar's boatman on the adventurous trip from Greece to Brundisium predicted the blowing of Corus.167

Thrascias (= Circius) has already been mentioned in connection with the north winds in general. It was given to hail and snow.168 The name Circius is infrequent; it was evidently a local name.169 In Provincia Narbonensis, Liguria, and part of Etruria Thrascias (= Circius) tempered the climate, though it might at times be violent enough to unroof houses.170 In spite of its power the people were grateful to it, believing that it caused their healthful climate.171 •••

Etesian Winds

The etesian or seasonal winds are frequently mentioned in classical literature, though there is no exact agreement in regard to their periods or their duration.JJJ There seems to have been a tendency to associate them with prevailing winds,JJJ but in general they were regarded as blowing from the north in summer and from the south in winter.JJJ AristotleJJJ says that they blew after the summer solstice and the p19 rising of the Dog-star. SenecaJJJ tells us that they started at the time of the summer solstice and that they relieved the severity of the scorching summer months. They did not blow strongly in Italy after the rising of the Dog-star,JJJ a condition that seems at one time to have been paralleled on the island of Ceos. After the people of the island had suffered for a long time from drought and pestilence Aristaeus interceded with Zeus, who caused the etesian winds to blow for forty days after the rising of Sirius.JJJ These winds were salubrious and refreshing.JJJ

CiceroJJJ says that the etesian winds made voyaging by sea speedy and certain.JJJ They did — if one was going in their direction. in 218 B.C. Messenians implored Philip V of Macedon to come to their aid, pointing out that with the help of the winds he could easily sail from Cephallenia in one day. A secret enemy of Philip supported the proposal, knowing that, if Philip acceded, the summer would be wasted by him, since he could not sail back during the period of the winds.JJJ

On one occasion a pilot urged Dion to seek safety upon the shore of Sicily from a menacing storm, reminding him that, if they should be blown away from the land, they would be tossed about for many days awaiting a south wind during the summer season.JJJ

Another example of a certain tendency of the winds to blow in one direction is to be found in the caption of a picture in the National Geographic Music.JJJ

Cretan windmills operate only when the wind blows from one point of the compass. But the strong breezes of the island do blow chiefly in one direction most of the time, and hence this row of windmills combs the gusts as they sweep down the valley.

The power of the etesian winds was mentioned very frequently in connection with the Nile.JJJ The ancients never tired of telling how they drove back the waters of that river.

These winds ceased at night and rose about the third hour or day.JJJ Because of their reluctance to get up in the morning the sailors called them 'sleepy-headed' and 'dainty'.JJJ By contrast this reminds one of an old saying: "A northwest wind is a gentleman and goes to bed".

Seneca records that the whole of India and Ethiopia was watered by constant rain during the prevalence of etesian winds.JJJ In some places this period was a favorite period for drying and harvesting salt from evaporating sea water.JJJ

Local Winds

There were, of course, many local winds, peculiar es quibusque gentibus venti,JJJ for instance the iapygian in Calabria, the Scironian in Athens, the Cataegis in Pamphilia.JJJ Horace prays that iapyx may take Vergil safely to Greece,JJJ for even an albus iapyx may be stormy.JJJ This is the wind that aided Cleopatra in her flight from the battle of Actium.JJJ St. PaulJJJ speaks of "a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon".

Our own Continent has winds with local names. The name 'chinook' is derived from the name of an Indian tribe that once lived near the mouth of the Columbia River. Members of a trading-post established by Hudson Bay Fur Company at Astoria, Oregon, noticing that a warm southwest wind blew from over the Indian camp, called it 'chinook', a term that has been much extended.JJJ In the level coastal plain of South Carolina the sea winds which wander inland and cool the hot villages are known as 'pine-land breezes' because they whisper through the tops of the long-leaf pines.JJJ

The Sun and the Periods of Certain Winds

We have seen that the directions of the principal winds were referred to various positions of the sun. The periods of certain winds were likewise associated with this body.JJJ

Thus Caecias and in general the winds north of the summer solstice blow about the time of the spring equinox, but after the autumn equinox Lips; and Zephyrus about the summer solstice, but about the winter solstice Eurus.

The etesian winds started to blow after the summer solstice.JJJ The periods of other winds too might be dated with reference to the solstices and the equinoxes.JJJ

Recently a Michigan seeress gave me the following directions: "Watch which way the wind is when the sun crosses the line. That will be the prevailing direction for the season". Another friend informs me that, if the winds i prevailingly in the West or in the Southwest on March 21, one may look for an early spring, but, if the winds is in the Northwest at that time, one should look for a backward spring, because the wind will be in that direction for most of the time for three months.

In a previous paper I listed a number of other weather associations of the wind and the sun.JJJ

The Weather-vane

The close association between wind and weather in general is shown by our giving to the device which shows the direction of the wind the name weather-vane rather than wind-vane. The contrivance shows p20 more than the direction of the wind. It indicates also the kind of weather to follow, since in popular weather lore the wind is the pulse of the weather.

So far as I am aware, the earliest weather-vane of which we have any record played 'I spy' with the wind upon the beautiful octagonal Tower of the Winds which was erected in Athens, in the first century before Christ, by Andronicus of Cyrrhus. It consisted of a triton holding a rod in his right hand and working on a pivot in such a way that the rod always pointed at the figure which typified the prevailing wind.JJJ With the help of the eight bas-reliefs below even a casual visitor in Athens might be able to identify the wind.

In far later times the cock adorned weather-vanes on Church spires. The reason for its selection, according to a medieval Latin poem, is that it was mirabilis Dei creatura, with many wholesome lessons to teach to the followers of Christ.JJJ

Makeshift ways of telling from which direction the wind is coming are much more interesting than the use of the weather-vane. A peculiar method practised by seafaring men is thus described by Miss Pearl Wilson in The Classical Weekly 10.24:

. . . If you hold your head so that the wind somes straight into one ear, and then turn it slowly till it is blowing with equal force in both ears, you will find yourself then facing it directly.

Attention has been calledJJJ to this method in connection with Vergil, Aeneid 3.513‑514:

In The Classical Weekly 13.219 I quoted a striking confirmatory passage from Kipling, Captains Courageous:JJJ

He ◂Dan, the captain's son▸ could steer in anything short of half a gale from the feel of the wind on his face, humoring the We're Here just when she needed it.JJJ

In Joseph Conrad's short story, The Inn of the Two Witches,206a the following statement is made of a seaman who had an adventure on land during a storm: ". . . he steered his course by the feel of the wind".

A method not entirely unlike that of sailors of old is attributed to one of the characters in The Story of Kennett, by Bayard Taylor:JJJ

Once, indeed, she stopped, wet her forefinger with her tongue, and held it pointed in the air. There was very little breeze, but this natural weathercock revealed from what direction it came.

"Southwest!" she said, nodding her head — "lucky!"

An odd practice is that of tasting the wind to prophesy the direction of a coming wind. It is resorted to by a negro in Du Bose Heyward, Porgy:JJJ

Standing in the bow, he moistened his finger, and held it up to the wind. "You mens bes' git all de fish yuh kin tuhday", he admonished. "Win' be in de eas' by tuhmorruh. It gots dot wet tas' ter um now."

The Farmer and the Winds

Perhaps no class of persons were more keenly interested in the winds and their directions than farmers and sailors.JJJ The former gave heed to the wind in relation not only to the immediate activities of the day, but also to the general management of the farm throughout the year. For the benefit of the farmer Columella tells the kinds of weather to be expected at the rising and the setting of many stars throughout the year. It is but seldom that he fails to mention the wind.JJJ

The north wind was so severe that the pruner had to guard against exposing to it the incisions he had made, and orchards and vineyards in general were not to face it, except in Africa (i.e. the province), Cyrene, and Egypt.JJJ Trees were not to be dug up for transplanting with the wind blowing from the north or from any direction between it and the point of rising of the sun at the winter solstice; at any rate the roots were not to be exposed to these winds, since they killed the trees, and farmers did not always know why. Cato thought that rains and all winds should be avoided in transplanting.JJJ

Trees and vines were to be planted so that they would be exposed to Aquilo.JJJ Democritus thought that this produced more fragment fruit.JJJ There was a belief that this exposition caused trees to thrive and sprout and that the cold in season made them more compact and harder.JJJ In vineyards, however, stakes were so arranged as to break the force of Aquilo and to shield the vines from cold.JJJ

When Aquilo prevailed, no plowing, planting, or sowing was to be done. The cold would injure sprouting seed and would even freeze the roots of trees that were being transplanted. Praedoctus esto: alia robustis prosunt, alia infantibus.JJJ Cato advised that in the operation of transplanting trees the bark should be marked so that the tree could be reset in the same direction; otherwise the northern part would be scorched by southern suns and the southern part frozen by Aquilo.JJJ

Whoever felt the cold of Aquilo was to beware. It was more dangerous than the north wind. In Asia, Greece, Spain, coastal Italy, Campania, and Apulia, however, orchards and vineyards were to face it.JJJ In Italy beehives were to face neither Aquilo nor Favonius, but the East.JJJ

There was a widespread belief that male cattle were conceived when the parents were facing Aquilo.JJJ

p21 In healthful regions villas and vineyards were to face Subsolanus.JJJ The GeoponicaJJJ advises having the house face the rising sun, because Notus was damp and capricious and unwholesome. PlinyJJJ records the same advice for villas in temperate regions, but says that in hot places they should face the north, in cold places the south.

It was recommended that apiaries and vineyards of Italy and Gaul should face Volturnus.JJJ

Those who were planting olives were to be on their guard against Notus for four days at the rising of the Vergiliae. while it was blowing the farmer was not to fell timber or to handle wine, since for Italy this wind meant either moisture or much heat. Palms might face this wind, but not the pruned parts of trees or vines. The man who did grafting was fearful of its effect on twigs and buds.JJJ Grafting of olive trees and fig trees was not to be done with a south wind blowing.JJJ Pruning of vines and trees should be done with dry winds blowing.JJJ

Budding trees and those in bloom were injured by a hot wind mention by a cold wind.JJJ Under the spell of Auster fruit matured more quickly, but not so well.JJJ Both vines and trees throve better when they were facing Aquilo.JJJ

DOlia were but to be opened except on a clear day, with Auster blowing and the moon full.JJJ Some wine-testers tasted wine with the north wind blowing because then the wine was clear and undisturbed, but experts thought that better proof of the quality of the wine was to be had under the trying conditions provided by Auster.JJJ A writer who visited Sicily half a century ago says that "wine cannot be fined" during the days when the sirocco is blowing.JJJ

As the north wind caused the conception of male cattle, so the south wind insured the birth of females.JJJ Africus, too, influenced the conception of females.JJJ

It was recommended that granaries should face either Septentrio or Aquilo, since it was believed that winds from other directions generated insects destructive to grain.JJJ It was supposed that book worms owed their origin to south winds. For this reason VitruviusJJJ was opposed to having the library of a house face this direction.

Pliny informs us that animals mated and began to conceive when Favonius started to blow. This wind he calls genitalis spiritus mundi. An even more vivid expression of that same idea is the peasants' name for it, catlitio.JJJ In this connection it is pertinent to quote from a description of an old Scotch custom:JJJ

The first night of the new year, when the wind blows from the west, they call dàr‑na coille, the night of the fecundation of the trees; and from this circumstance has been derived the name of that night in the Gaelic language.

Cato advised that olive trees should face Favonius.JJJ Since Favonius softened the ground, it indicated the time to prune vines, tend to fruits, plant trees, and give attention to olive trees. By its breezes this wind nursed things along.JJJ Unless the berries of olive trees were plucked before Favonius came, they acquired new strength and clung to the trees.JJJ

In Provincia Narbonensis and in Liguria and in part of Etruria it was considered folly to sow in the face of circius, but far-sighted to receive it from one side.JJJ

Local Winds and Warfare

A knowledge of the peculiarities of local winds was a great military asset and sometimes meant the difference between victory and defeat.JJJ I shall give two expense of this by land and two by sea.

A good illustration of the deliberate, rather than the fortuitous, use of the wind is to be found in the career of Camillus. Latins and Volscians, caught between two Roman forces, barricaded their encampment with a formidable wooden palisade. The Romans had to act before a relieving force should come. Noticing that a strong wind blew down from the mountains regularly at sunrise,JJJ Camillus planned a daybreak attack with two contingents, one armed with weapons, the other with fire. The fire was directed at the point where the wind struck the defences with the greatest speed. The fiery darts found lodgment in the crowded timbers of the palisade and flames soon spread in every direction and finally reached the camp. Few of the Latins made their escape.JJJ

Beyond the river Tagonius in Spain amid the caves and hollows of a cliff that faced the north dwelt the Characitani, a tribe that felt boastfully secure in the fastness es of its retreat. Sertorius, encamping at the base of the cliff, found it unassailable, but he noticed that great quantities of dust were being carried against the openings from the porous and crumbly soil below. Learning the local characteristics of the wind, he had his men collect loose earth, which the barbarians regarded as a mound for a futile assault upon them. The next day, however, a breeze sprang up which grew stronger and stronger and carried up more and more dust. Horses were driven back and forth through it in order to pulverize it still more. Since all the caves faced the wind, the barbarians were soon being blinded and choked. They held out with difficulty for two days, but surrendered on the third. The peculiar nature of this feat added greatly to the prestige of Sertorius.JJJ

p22 A good example of the effect of the local vagaries of wind upon naval warfare is afforded by the Battle of Salamis:JJJ

Themistocles is thought to have divined the best time for fighting with no less success than the best place, inasmuch as he took care not to send his triremes bow on against the Barbarian vessels until the hour of the day had come which always brought the breeze fresh from the sea and a swell rolling through the strait. This breeze brought no harm to the Hellenic ships, since they lay low in the water and were rather small; but for the Barbarian ships, with their towering sterns and lofty decks and sluggish movements in getting under way, it was fatal, since it smote them and slewed them round broadside to the Greeks, who set upon them sharply . . .

During the Peloponnesian War twenty Athenian vessels under Phormio attacked forty-seven vessels of the Corinthians and their allies in the Corinthian Gulf. Even this numerical superiority did not give the enemy confidence, for they formed in a circle with the prows outward. The Athenians sailed round and round them, keeping them ever alert for an attack. But Phormio had given orders not to charge; he was hoping that the enemy would not be able to keep their ships in order and also that a breeze which usually blew from the gulf toward dawn would spring up and complete the confusion. When the wind observed its daily schedule, the Athenians made the long-delayed attack. They sank some ships and captured twelve others as they were fleeing.JJJ

Harbingers of Wind

There were many ways of judging what kind of wind was going to blow. Pindar has a sentence with a proverbial ring, to the effect that the wise man knew what the third day's wind was going to be.JJJ The air as it condensed gave indications by its thinks or thinness or by its cold or heat and by other characteristics also,JJJ but the winds themselves were good indexes.

When winds, instead of being dispersed by other winds, died down of their own accord, they changed to the next wind to the right, going around the compass-chart sunwise.JJJ If the wind that happened to be blowing was felt to be hot, one might conclude that it would last for several days.JJJ

SenecaJJJ mentions breezes which rose before daybreak, but fell when the sun became strong. They started in the spring and ceased by the end of summer.

If periodic winds have been blowing for a long time, and a windy autumn follows, the winter is windless; if however the contrary happens, the character of winter is also reversed.JJJ

The earth, too, was a prophet, for, as PlinyJJJ tells us, it proclaimed a north wind when it was becoming dry, but a south wind when it was becoming moist with dew. Theophrastus,JJJ however, simply says that during a northerly wind everything dries up, but during a south wind there is abundant moisture.

It is said that breezes do not blow from a river in a hot country. the Nile, the source and mouth of which are in hot lands, is garden as an example of this.JJJ It seems that rivers had a reputation for not stirring up breezes in the morning, for we are told that Hannibal planned the Battle of Cannae in a way to take advantage of local conditions when he learned that the Volturnus caused strong winds to blow in the morning.JJJ

When rain comes, wind ceases, but wind generally follows rain in those places where the rain falls.JJJ A south wind generally blows after Suetonius and a north wind after hoar-frost.JJJ

Aristotle was much interested in the connection between shooting stars and wind.JJJ Signs from them and from comets are given in The Classical Weekly 20.46,JJJ 23.12.

If the sky is overcast, wind comes from the quarter in which the sun is first seen,JJJ or, as PlinyJJJ puts it, in which the scattering of the clouds has revealed the sky. Other relations of clouds and winds are noted in The Classical Weekly 23.3.

Thunder and lightning, too, were studied as indexes of the winds that were to be expected. The signs derived from them are thus summarized by Theophrastus:

If lightning comes from all sides, it indicates rain, and from any quarter from which the flashes come in quick succession there will be wind. In summer from whatever quarter light and thunder come, there will be violent winds:JJJ if the flashes are brilliant and startling, the wind will come sooner and be more violent; if they are of gentler character and come at longer intervals, the wind will get up gradually. In winter and autumn however the reverse happens, for the lightning causes the wind to cease: and, the more violent the lightning and thunder are, the more will the wind be reduced. In spring I consider that the indications would not so invariably have the same meaning, — and this is also true of winter.

If, while a south wind is blowing, there comes lightning from the north, the wind ceases. If there is lightning at dawn, the wind generally ceases on the third day: other winds than a south wind however do not cease till the fifth seventh or ninth day, though a wind which got up in the afternoon will cease sooner.JJJ

Thunder in winter at dawn indicates windJJJ rather than rain; thunder in summer at midday or in the evening is a sign of rain. If lightning is seen from all sides, it will be a sign of rain or wind,JJJ and also if it occurs in the evening. Again, if when the south windJJJ p23 is blowing at early dawn, there is lightning from the same quarter, it indicates rain or wind. When the west wind is accompanied by lightning from the north, it indicates either storm or rain. Lightning in the evening I mean summer time indicates rain within three days, if not immediately. Lightning from the north in late summer is a sign of rain.JJJ

Signs of wind are swelling seas, moaning billows, far-resounding beaches, murmuring crags and promotes, and echoing woods.JJJ An explanation of t sounds that herald a south wind is given by Aristotle:JJJ

When a south wind is going to blow there is a premonitory indication: a sound is heard in the places from which the eruptionsJJJ issue. this is because the sea is being pushed on from a distance and its advance thrusts back into the earth the wind that was issuing from it. The reason why there is a noise and no earthquake is that the underground spaces are so extensive in proportion to the quantity of the air that is being driven on that the wind slips into the void beyond.

Modern descriptions of the sounds that precede storms from the seas are not less picturesque than ancient accounts. Washington Irving gives a vivid account of a rising storm encountered by ColumbusJJJ in the New World:

One of those tremendous hurricanes which sometimes sweep those latitudes had gradually gathered up. The baleful appearance of the heavens, the wild look of the ocean, the rising murmur of the winds, all gave notice of its approach.

. . . a sudden loud sound from the sea, as if a large steamer were letting off steam by the shore. . . . The old man said that this was what they called the "rut," a peculiar roar of the sea before the wind changes, which, however, he could not account for. He thought that he could tell all about the weather from the sounds which the sea made.

Old Josselyn, who came to New England in 1638, has it among his weather-signs that "the resounding of the sea from the shore, and murmuring of the winds in the woods, without apparent wind,JJJ sheweth wind to follow."

Being on another part of the coast one night since this, I heard the roar of the surf •a mile distant, and the inhabitants said it was a sign that the wind would work round east, and we should have rainy weather. The ocean was heaped up somewhere at the eastward, and this roar was occasioned by its effort to preserve its equilibrium, the wave reaching the shore before the wind. Also the captain of a packet between this country and England told me that he sometimes met with a wave on the Atlantic coming against the wind, perhaps in a calm sea, which indicated that at a distance the wind was coming from an opposite quarter, but the undulation had traveled faster than it.

A far different, but no less picturesque, vocabulary is used by Du Bose HeywardJJJ to describe the noises of the storm-bringing wind:

At one o'clock the tension snapped. As though it had been awaiting St. Christopher's chimes to announce "Zero Hour," the wind swung into the east, and its voice dropped an octave, and changed its quality. Instead of the complaining whine, a grave, sustained note came in from the Atlantic, with an undertone of alarming variations, that sounded oddly out of place as it traversed the inert waters of the bay.

Slowly the threatening undertone of the wind grew louder. Then, as though a curtain had been lowered across the harbor mouth, everything beyond was blotted out by a milky screen.

A murmuring or roaring noise, sometimes heard several miles inland during a calm, in the direction from which the wind is about to spring up, and is known as the calling of the sea.JJJ

. . . If at sea during a wind there is a sudden calm, it indicates a change or an increase of wind. If promotes seems to stand high out of the sea,JJJ or a single island looks like several, it indicates a change to south wind. If the land looks black from the sea, it indicates a north wind, if white, a south wind.JJJ

. . . The ebb-tide indicates a north wind, the flowing tide a wind from the south. For, if the flowing sets in from the north, there is a change to the south, and if an ebb-tide comes from the south, there is a change to the north.JJJ

Interesting signs of wind are provided by living things. If a pilot sees cranes turn and fly in the opposite direction, he knows that wind is threatening from the quarter toward which they had been going.JJJ Winds come from the direction in which dolphins appear.JJJ It is still believed by seamen in the Aegean that dolphins show the direction of the next wind or of the wind on the following day.JJJ Many similar signs of wind derived by the ancients from the actions and the habits of animals both by sea and by land are listed in The Classical Weekly 14.97‑98.

Modern illustrations of signs of wind given by animal life are not hard to find. There is a Louisiana beliefJJJ that

Roosters resting on a tree limb always roost with their heads pointing in the direction in which the wind will blow the next morning.

Just before a hurricane there invariably arrive off the Caribbean coasts vast numbers of these weather-wise birds that are called in Dominica 'Twa‑oo,' from their peculiar cry. These birds are regarded locally sure harbingers of the dreaded tropical storms. They only appear during the calms immediately before the wind and rain break loose in all their fury. They cover the rocks in large flocks, coming in from the desolate sandy islands where they breed. American bird books call them the 'sooty tern,' but they are known to the natives as 'hurrican birds.'

A most remarkable tale, interesting either as fact or as fiction, is told of the Seminoles of Florida:JJJ

Four weeks before the hurricane struck Palm Beach and the east coast of Florida last September ◂1928▸, the Seminole Indians of the Okeechobee Band prophesied the disaster. They vividly described the velocity of the coming wind, specified the depth of water which would sweep the Everglades, and warned of general destruction and appalling loss of life.

No quibbling marked their predictions. The blossoming of the saw grass first attracted their attention. This blooming was out of season, and untimely blooming of this everglades grass has been for centuries a signal to the Seminoles to stop, look, listen.

They sensed a certain tenseness in the stillness which hung over the 'glades; the smaller birds stopped singing and chirped nervously, and their flights were short and furtive — their general drift was northward and westward. The great buzzards, too, were apprehensive and seemed to group themselves as though in consultation. Instead of taking their usual great, gliding flights, they went aloft and nervously beat the air — their drift was northward and westward. The alligators barked with unusual frequency and exposed themselves recklessly, moving in great numbers toward deeper waters. The water snakes moved with them. Meadow rats and rabbits began a trek along the roads and trails, northward and westward, squeaking and grunting irritably, making little effort to hide their movement. Crickets signaled a warning to those who would listen. This was enough. The Seminoles had read the 'signs'.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Having read the 'signs,' the Seminoles prepared a brief migration into the land of their brothers, the Tallahassees, far to the north and west of their own threatened territory. Before leaving they urged their white friends to follow them to safety. . . . Insofar as is known, not a single Seminole was lost in the storm.

A friend of mine who crossed the Everglades in the middle of the summer of 1929 heard that the Seminoles had warned the white people of impending storm because of the blooming of a plant out of season and because of the restlessness of alligators. In the early fall there were storms to the south of Florida, but most of their fury was spent before they reached Florida.

Again,JJJ if the wind is from the south, the snuff of the lamp-wick indicates rain; it also indicates wind in proportion to its bulk and seize: while if the snuff is small, like millet-seed, and of bright colour, it indicates rain as well as wind. Again, when in winter the lamp rejects the flame but catches, as it were, here and there in spurts,JJJ it is a sign of rain; so also is it, if the rays of light leap up on the lamp, or if there are sparks.

Some sayJJJ that, if in the embers there is an appearance as of shining hail-stones, it generally prognosticates hail;JJJ while, if the appearance is like a number of small shining millet-seeds, it portends fair weather, if there is wind at the time, but, if there is no wind, rain or wind.

One recalls in this connection that Aeolus foretold the rising winds by observing fire.JJJ

The cracking sounds made by glued articles when the south wind was blowing indicated a change to the north wind.JJJ •••

Astrology and Astro-Meteorology

It is a cardinal principle of ancient superstition that changes in the phases or conditions of heavenly bodies bring changes upon earth, among which are included the vagaries of the weather. The Chaldeans held that planets by their rising and setting and sometimes by their colors foreshadowed, among other things, great winds (hurricanes?), tempestuous rains, and droughts.JJJ At the beginning of every year Indian philosophers predicted droughts, winds, and rain,JJJ though we are not told that heavenly bodies were observed by them. Among the Romans the planet Mars had a reputation for abounding in winds and fitful flashs of lightning.JJJ Plutarch tells how the quenching of heavenly bodies that looked like fire caused unusually violent winds.JJJ

There is extant a systematic prediction of the kinds of weather that will ensue when Jupiter is in each 'house' of the zodiac.JJJ I give as a sample the influence of Jupiter in Gemini in the 'house' of Hermes. The prevailing winds will be Notus and Liba. The winter will begin windy, change to temperate in the middle, and become frosty and windy at the end. The spring will be mild, with light rains. The summer will be temperate on account of the brisk blowing of the etesian winds for a long time. In the fall there will be damaging hail.JJJ

With the confidence and assurance of a modern almanac Eudoxius (Eudoxus?) made a twelve-year weather calendar in which he predicted, sometimes for the entire year, the general type of weather that one was to expect. He based his forecasts upon the presence of the moon in the various signs of the zodiac on the fourteenth of June and the twentieth of July.JJJ If, for instance, the moon be found in Gemini on the twenty of July, Lips will dominate the year, though other winds will mingle with it. The winter will start damp and windy, change to temperate in the middle, and end frosty and windy. During the next summer etesian winds will blow.JJJ

Among the changes of weather that are listed in various star-catalogues as attending the rising and the setting of stars the wind receives much prominence.JJJ A great deal of this material is conveniently collected and arranged in composite star-calendars in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines (s.v. Calendarium, Volume 1, Part 2, 836‑49). An important reference for this section of my paper is Julius Röhr, Beiträge zur Antiken Astrometeorologie, Philologus 83 (1928), 259‑305.

The Human Barometer

Winds may bring pleasure and prosperity or they may cause discomfort and even adversity. The ideal living conditions supposed to exist in the Islands of the Blest off the coast of Spain were attributed in no small measure to beneficent winds laden with dew.JJJ One may compare with this the salutary effects produced by a wind in the western part of North America, the chinook, which has been describedJJJ as "an ever-welcome guest, whose coming is indicative of good, and whose absence would be a momentous evil".

TheophrastusJJJ not es that we are responsive to changing conditions of the atmosphere and that they make themselves felt in advance of the winds they portend.

Swelling of the feet indicated to a Greek a change to a south wind or, sometimes, a hurricane. A shooting pain in the right foot might signify the same thing.JJJ Some of Joseph C. Lincoln's characters were even better barometers than were the Greeks. One of them, who was taken to sea because of his ability to forecast the weather, was reluctant to admit that humble things like bones provided him with second weather sight. When he was pressed to tell what particular bones gave him his clews he replied:JJJ

Why, my laig bones mostly. If a no-theaster's comin' my right laig sort of aches, and if it's a sou'easter it'll fetch me in the left one. Then there's other —

An unsympathetic roar of laughter interrupted him. A few days later the captain disdainfully informed him of a Government prediction of a gale. The ser remonstrated:JJJ

. . . "Now, Cap'n Ez," he protested in an aggrieved tone, "ain't I been tryin' to git at you or Brad for four days or more? I know there was a blow comin'. She's come a‑bilin', too. And I don't need no specs nuther."

One of Lincoln's short stories, The South Shore Weather Bureau,JJJ is based on similar ability of another seer:

"Wall," drawls Beriah, "now to‑day looks fine and clear, don't it? But last night my left elbow had p26 rheumatiz in it, and this morning my bones ache, and my right toe-j'int is sore, so I know we'll have an easterly wind and rain this evening. If it had been my left toe, why —"

In Scarlet Sister Mary 299,JJJ the observation is made that "Worry-ation makes a misery worse dan east rain an' wind."

The ill effects of the south wind upon the human body are frequently noted. Theophrastus says that, during the prevalence of this wind, men felt more sluggish and less efficient, but the north wind made them energetic.JJJ Again, the south wind brought feversJJJ and affected the health in other ways.JJJ

The wind should be taken into account in town-planning. Expense of what not to do were numerous.

For example, Mytilene in the island of Lesbos is a town built with magnificence and good taste, but its position shows a lack of foresight. In that community when the wind is south, the people fall ill; when it is northwest, it sets them coughing; with a north wind they do indeed recover but cannot stand about in the alleys and streets, owing to the severe cold.JJJ

Giordani felt storms coming four days in advance; Diderot said, 'It seems to me that I go crazy when the winds blows violently.' Maine de Biran said, 'In bad weather my mind and my will are not the same as when it is fine.' Alfieri wrote, 'I am like a barometer; I have always experienced, more or less, a greater ease of composition according to the atmospheric pressure; absolute stupidity when the great winds of the solstices and the equinoxes are blowing, an infinitely less penetration in the evening than in the morning.'

The comments of the ancients about the depressing effects of winds from across the Mediterranean will be borne out by anyone who has visited the classical lands in summer. Captain SmythJJJ thus describes the sirocco as felt in Sicily:

The sirocco generally continues three or four days, during which period such is its influence, that wine cannot be fined,JJJ or meat effectually salted; oil paint, laid on whilst it continues, will seldom harden, but dough can be raised with half the usual quantity of leaven, and though blighting in its general effects in summer, it is favourable to the growth of several useful plants in winter. This wind is peculiarly disagreeable at Palermo, a city situated in a plain in the north-west part of the island, surrounded on the land side by mountains, which collect the solar rays as if to a focus. Although inured to the heat of the East and West Indies, and the sands of Arabia and Africa, I always felt, during a sirocco, more incommoded by an oppressive dejection and lassitude than in those countries. At such times the streets are silent and deserted, for the natives can scarcely be prevailed on to move out while it lasts,JJJ and they carefully close every window and door of their homes, to exclude it.

The effects of the norther, a wind in the western part of our own country, are thus pictured:JJJ

Human beings suffer from nervousness and headaches and become irritable and impatient. It is said that in the early days in California if a murder or any personal violence resulted from a quarrel which occurred during a norther that fact was taken into account as an extenuating circumstance. During a norther cattle are restless and cows are reported to give less milk than usual.

Captain Wm. H. Smyth's descriptionJJJ of the rôle of the winds in Sicilian weather is both pertinent to classical study and interesting:

Whilst the sun is in the northern signs, the sky, although it seldom assumes the deep blue tint of the tropics, is, nevertheless, beautifully clear and serene; but after the autumnal equinox, the winds become boisterous, and the atmosphere hazy and dense; the dews and fogs increase, particularly on the coasts, and the rain falls in frequent and heavy showers.

In summer it is generally calm early in the morning, but a breeze springs up about nine or ten o'clock, freshens until two or three, and gradually subsides again into a calm towards evening. The winds are variable both in their force and their direction. The most prevalent are the northerly and westerly, which are dry and salubrious, producing, with the clearest sky, the most refreshing sensations. Those from the east round to southerly are heavy, and loaded with an unwholesome mist, of accompanied with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning, during which the luminous meteor, called by seamen campasant, (a corruption of Corpo Santo) is sometimes seen, and hailed with similar ideas to those which inspired the ancients on the appearance of their Castor and Pollux.

About the time of the vernal equinox, the force of the south-west wind is very sensibly felt along the shores of trapani, Marsala, mazzara, and girgenti; but as the season advances the winds blow more from the northward, with fresh gales at intervals, which, however, are seldom experienced with violence in bays or harbours, and their power rarely continues longer than forty hours. The most experienced pilots say, that storms which commence in the day-time are more violent, and of longer duration than those which start up during the night.

Remarkable Storms

Antiquity, like modern times, experienced storms which surpassed all previous storms within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. In the neighborhood of ilerda in 49 B.C. Caesar's men encountered one so great that it was evident that there had never been a greater deluge of water in those places.JJJ During a battle between Lucullus and Mithridates "a tempest of wind, the like of which had not been known in the p27 memory of man, tore down the tents of both, swept away the beasts of burden, and dashed some of their men over the precipices. Both sides then retreated for the time".JJJ Octavian's fleet was destroyed in 38 B.C. by a storm in which wind played a devastating part. It was entirely without parallel in the region of the straits of Sicily.JJJ

Queer turns were sometimes given to accounts of weather in foreign countries. DiodorusJJJ thus describes the pranks of the wind in Gaul:

There happens through most of Gaul a strange and miraculous thing which we think it unseemly to pass by in silence. From the west and the north winds are wont to blow with such violence and power that they sweep from the ground stones as large as one can hold and a coarse cloud of pebbles. In the general violence of the storm they tear weapons and clothes from men and riders from horses.

For in Dalmatia . . . a wind of great violence and exceedingly wild is wont to fall upon the country, and when this begins to blow, it is impossible to find a man there who continues to travel on the road, but all shut themselves up at home and wait. Such, indeed, is the force of the wind that it seizes a man on horseback together with his horse and carries him through the air, and then, after whirling him about in the air to a great distance, it throws him down wherever he may chance to be and kills him.

Rains of Animals and Things

To the power of the wind may be ascribed the superstitious belief in showers of various things, animate and inanimate, which are a subject of perennial interest, as is shown by rather frequent items in newspapers.JJJ As often as they occur, their real nature is explained, sometimes with long lists of similar phenomena. Though superstitions about them continue and are widespread, they do not flourish with the vigor they attained in ancient Greece and ancient Italy, where rains of blood, milk, chalk, ashes, earth, animals, and miscellaneous objects struck awe into the hearts of even the educated. The most casual reading of Livy will reveal the dread which such events aroused.JJJ Occasionally, however, they might portend blessings. During performances in the theater in the consulship of Quintus Metellus and Titus Didius (98bc) it rained chalk, an occurrence that signified welcome rains and good crops.JJJ

The literature on this general subject is voluminous.JJJ It is my aim at this time merely to show that some of the ancients knew that these terrifying phenomena were to be explained on physical grounds. The inclusion of the subject here is justified simply because the wind (or a wind-driven cloud) is the carrying agent.

A scholium on HomerJJJ states that on an occasion when there was a great war clouds picked up the bloody water in neighboring rivers and scattered it as bloody dew. This explanation is remarkable in that it removes the occurrence from the realm of the supernatural.

PlinyJJJ knew that stones and many other things were carried by the wind. In his account of the wanderings in Africa of the force under Cato the Younger LucanJJJ shows that he understood perfectly well the nature of the phenomenon:

ProcopiusJJJ tells how ashes from Vesuvius rose to great heights and were borne by the winds to lands very far away.

And once, they say, they fell in ByzantiumJJJ and so terrified the people there, that from that time up to the present the whole city has seen fit to propitiate God with prayers every year; and at another time they fell on Tripolis in Libya.

I am adding two references to the enormous literature on this subject. The first was written by a keen observer of things Sicilian, Captain Wm. H. Smyth:JJJ

Waterspouts, and various singular meteoric phenomena, occur. Among the latter, on a warm, cloudy, lazy day, the 14th of March, 1814, it began to rain in large drops, that appeared muddy, and they deposited a very minute sand of a yellowish-red colour. The wind, on the day before, had been blowing strongly from the south-south‑west to the north-east, and during the time the rain fell was from the south-west, which leads to a supposition that it was transported from the deserts of Africa, though the first impression on the minds of the people in Messina, was, that an eruption of Mount Aetna had occurred.

The dust reached as far south ◂of Pekin▸ as Shanghai and its yellow blanket hovered over the sea •sixty-five miles beyond the coast. It came from a land parched by fourteen well-nigh rainless months which had cut a heavy toll of human life.

The wind manifests its power in other ways, notably in affecting water levels, which are sometimes raised and sometimes lowered. My expense of this have been given in The Classical Weekly 19.83‑84, 126, 21.193, 22.40.JJJ When the north winds forced the waters back before Alexander as he was leading a brigade beyond Phaselis in Pamphylia, the impression was created that Heaven was helpful the youthful conqueror.JJJ he Religion and Magic

Naturally religion and magic play an important part in weather lore. Prayers and offeringsJJJ were made to winds, and even altarsJJJ and templesJJJ were erected in their honor. In return for their providential aid against the enemies of Thurii and Megalopolis the people of these cities conferred citizenship upon them.JJJ

Like witches and magicians, deities were able to arouse the fury of the winds or to pacify them and to direct them for good or ill, as I have shown by many expense in a previous paper, Magic and the Weather, The Classical Weekly 18.154‑157, 163‑166.JJJ At this time I merely wish to add an ancient and a modern example of the retributive power of the winds. In the Homeric Hymn to DionysusJJJ the pirates are represented as being afraid to do violence to the deity lest he stir up dangerous winds and heavy squalls. The Ancient Mariner was not so far-sighted in his treatment of the albatross:JJJ

High Mountains

Storms were supposed to be restricted to regions comparatively near the earth. Thus Aristotle tells usJJJ that on very high mountains such as Athos there were no winds. As proof he states that ashes of sacrifices on this mountain were undisturbed from one year to another. Plutarch held similar views,JJJ for he says that some mountains reach up into an air that is pure and free from moisture, so that upon their tops there is no cloud nor dew nor mist. Lucan addsJJJ the thunderbolt to the list of things that belong to the lower regions:

Goldsmith's Deserted Village has been aptly quoted in connection with this passage of Lucan:JJJ

Caves

Since the ancients believed in the existence of underground winds,JJJ it is but natural that they should think of some of them as issuing from caves. nemesianus refersJJJ to Thracian Boreas as coming from a cave, and an anonymous poem speaks of circius as thundering in a cave.JJJ At Senta, in Dalmatia, there was a wide-mouthed cave from which issued a whirlwind whenever a light object was thrown into it. It made no difference how tranquil the day might be.JJJ In the Egyptian city of Thebes there was cave in which cave prevailed on the thirtieth day (of the month), but on the other days there was wind.JJJ The great troglodyte meteorologist was of course Aeolus.JJJ I have twice referred to his activities in previous papers on weather lore.JJJ

Wind Cycles

The ancients too had theories about cycles of weather. In the BibleJJJ one reads that

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

The Bible does not tell how long it takes the wind to do this, but Eudoxus is more specific. According to Pliny,JJJ Eudoxus thought that the winds and the weather in general had a cycle of four years. In my concluding paper I shall give references to wider aspects of this subject.

Modern References

In this paper I have given but few references to modern lore. Many expense of sayings and beliefs about the winds are gathered together by Richard Inwards, Weather Lore: A Collection of Proverbs, Sayings and Rules Concerning the Weather3, 79‑99,JJJ and by fletcher S. Bassett, Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors in ALL Lands and at All Times, 101‑147.JJJ Compare also Edward B. Garriott, Weather Folk-Lore and Local Weather Signs, 6‑8;JJJ T. Morris p29 Longstreth, Reading the Weather, 76‑86;JJJ D. E. Marvin, Curiosities in Proverbs, 212‑214;JJJ O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Das Wetter im•• Sprichwort, 41‑45;JJJ C. Swainson, A Handbook of Weather Folk-Lore, 218‑228;JJJ Edward Vernon, Is It Going to Rain?2, 63‑66, 71‑73.JJJ For such popular signs as are dependable the reasons are given by W. J. Humphres, Weather Proverbs and Paradoxes, 59‑63.JJJ

The wind has, of course, been mentioned many times in my previous papers on weather lore, especially in the last four. In this paper I have repeated but two or three small items. Cross-references have been given only to pages containing considerable material.

Thunder and lightning still remain upon my weather calendar. They, too, have been mentioned many times in other articles, but there are certain popular ideas about them upon which I have not yet touched.

The Author's Notes:

1 Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years 1.66‑68 (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1926).

2 An Animal Weather Bureau, 14.89‑93, 97‑100; The Folk Calendar of Times and Seasons, 16.3‑7; The Plant Almanac and Weather Bureau, 17.105‑108; Magic and the Weather in Classical Antiquity, 18.154‑157, 163‑166; The Classical Astral Weather Chart for Rustics and Seamen, 20.43‑49, 51‑54; Greek and Roman Weather Lore of the Sun and the Moon, 22.25‑31, 33‑37; Clouds, Rainbows, Weather Galls, Comets, and Earthquakes as Weather Prophets in Greek and Latin Writers, 23.2‑8, 11‑15.

3 The following abbreviations will be used: Arist., Met. = Aristotle, Meteorologica; Arist., Prob. = Aristotle, Problemata; Bede = Bede, De Natura Rerum; Isidore = Isidore (Isidorus), De Natura Rerum; Pliny = Plinius, Naturalis Historia; Seneca = Seneca, Natural es Quaestiones; Th. = Theophrastus.

5 Callimachus, Aitia 3.1 (page 209 of A. W. Mair's translation of Callimachus and Lycophron in the Loeb Classical Library).

16 See, for instance, an unsigned article on Village Weather Prophets, The Spectator 89 (1902), 982‑983.

18 Arist., Met. 363a‑365a, Prob., Book 26, De Mundo 4.364b; Th., De Ventis (to be found in F. Wimmer's edition of Theophrastii Eresii Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia, 3.94‑115 [Leipzig. Teubner, 1862]); Th., De Signis 26‑37; Pliny 2.119‑130, 18.328‑339; Seneca 5.8‑18. Other valuable references, though secondary, are Lydus, De Mensibus 4.119; Adamantios, jjj (the text is published by V. Rose, Anecdota Graeca et Graecolatina, Erstes Heft, 27‑52 [Berlin, 1864]); Isidore 37, Origines 13.11; Gellius 2.22; Vegetius, De Re Militari 4.38; Vitruvius 1.63; Bede 27, Strabo 1.2.21 is interesting. Perhaps one should include the short poem Incerti Versus De Duodecim Ventis (in Poetae Latini Minores, edited by N. E. Lemaire, 4.493‑498 [Paris, 1825]). Much classical lore of the winds is used in Bacon, Historia Ventorum (The Works of Francis Bacon, Collected and Edited by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath, 3.236‑243, 281‑291, 9.448‑458 [Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Riverside Press]).

21 See the first page of the article by Professor Thompson which is referred to in the text, in the next paragraph.

22 E. W. Webster, in his translation of Aristotle, Meteorologica (Oxford, 1923), is obviously indebted to Professor Thompson. See his chart at 2.6, 363a. E. S. Forster, in his translation of Aristotle, Problemata (Oxford, 1927), agrees with Professor Thompson; he had, however, reached similar conclusions independently. See his note at the bottom of the first page of his translation of Book 26.

23a This means that I shall go are from left to right. The ancients used "sunwise" in exactly the sense in which I use "clockwise". See Sunwise in Webster's New International Dictionary of The English Language, and in the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.

25 Arist., Met. 2.6, 364b (E. W. Webster's translation). See also Arist., Prob. 26.62; Th., De Signis 36, De Ventis 1.6‑7; Pliny 2.126.

27 Arist., Met. 365a; Th., De Signis 36. Compare Varro, Marcipor, as quoted by Nonius Marcellus 1.66 (in W. M. Lindsay's edition, Leipzig, Teubner, 1903): ventique frigido se ab axe eruperant phrenetici, septentrionum filii, secum ferentes tegulas, ramos, syrus.

32 See, for example, the chart on page 50 of Professor Thompson's article, referred to in the text.

34 Timosthenes, as quoted by Agathemerus 3.7 (C. Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores 2.473), places it between aparctias and Caecias.

39 Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.328 nimbis . . . Aquilone remotis. Isidore, however, says (37.1): non discutit nubes sed stringit. Compare Lucan 4.50‑51: Pigro brumas gelu siccis Aquilonibus haerens aethere constricto pluvias in nube tenebat.

40 Vergil, Georgics 1.460 claro . . . Aquilone, and Servius ad loc.: claro Aquilone serenifico.

41 Pliny 2.127. In Geoponica 2.3.4 it is stated that the winds which blow from the rising sun are most salutary.

43 Lucan 5.603 Scythici . . . rabies Aquilonis; Vergil, Aeneid 3.285 et glacialis hiems Aquilonibus asperat undas.

46 Joannes Malalas, Chronographia 10.343b. See also W. M. Lindsay, Aquilo, The Black Wind, The Classical Review 42 (1928), 20 .

49 Lucan 9.422‑423. Compare Statius, Thebais 5.11‑12, 8.411 cum Libyae Boreas Italos niger attulit imbres.

51a Note Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.262‑267, Protinus ◂Iuppiter▸ Aeolis Aquilonem claudit in antris . . . emittitque Notum. Madidis Notus evolat alis . . ., and 1.328‑329 Nubila ◂Iuppiter▸ disiecit, nimbisque aquilone remotis et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris. Ovid is here describing how the Flood began and how it was brought to an end. 000ck

53 Th., De Ventis 8.40. See Arist., Prob., 26.9, 14. In this connection it is pertinent to quote from an author who was familiar with modern weather lore in the Mediterranean, W. H. Smyth, Memoir Descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants, and Hydrography, of Sicily and Its Islands, 4‑5 (London, John Murray, 1874): "The most experienced pilots say, that storms which commence in the day-time are more violent, and of longer duration than those which spring up during the night".

57 Pliny 2.120 does not give a Latin equivalent for Meses. He merely states that it is inter Boreaan et Caecian.

61 Seneca says (5.16.5) that the Romans had no name for this wind. Pliny (2.120) locates it . . .inter Aquilonem et exortum Aequinoctialem ab ortu solstitiali.

67 There was some confusion in Sicily between the names Caecias and Apeliotes. See Th., De Ventis 10.62.

74 Arist., Met. 2.6, 364b; Th., De Signis 35. Compare Lucan 1.219 et madidis Euri resolutae flatibus Alpes.

80 Seneca 5.16.3; Livy 22.46.9. See also Preller-Jordan, Römische Mythologie 1.330, note 2 (Berlin, 1883).

85 Livy 22.43.10, 22.46.9; Plutarch, Fabius 16.1; Seneca 5.16.4; Frontinus, Strategemata 2.2.7; Valerius Maximus 7.4, Ext. 2; Appian, Romana Historia 7.4.20, 26.

87 Arist., Met. 2.6, 364a says it is opposite Thrascias. See Thomson, as cited in the text, 50. Pliny, however, merely states (2.120) that it is between the winter solstitial sunrise and the south. It did not occur to him to make the equation Euronotus = Phoenicias.

102 Propertius 2.16.56; Auctor Aetnae 288; Ovid, Ex Ponto 2.1.26; Statius, Thebais 11.520.

111 Pliny 2.126. Compare Th., De Signis 36; Arist., Met. 2.6, 364b; Bede 36.

122 T. F. Thiselton-Dyer, Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, 89 (London, Griffith and Farran, 1884).

132 The Shorey-Laing edition of Horace (on Carmina 1.7.15) compares a line of Arnold's Empedocles, "As the sky-brightening south-wind clears the day . . ."

133 Pliny 2.120; Isidore 37.3. Seneca says (5.16.6) that Libonotus has no Latin name.

149 Lucretius 5.737‑738; Pliny 18.337; Horace, Carmina 14.1, 3.7.2, 4.12.2 (where the expression animae Thraciae may refer to Zephyrs); Orphic Hymn 81; Claudii Ptolemaei Opera Quae Extant Omnia, Opera Astronomica Minora, 2.38 (Leipzig, Teubner, 1907).

153 Orphic Hymn 81. See also the Greek Anthology 12.171; Ovid, Amores 2.11.37‑42; Claudian 12.41‑45 (Fescennia de Nuptiis Honorii Augusti).

172 See Gilbert (as cited in the text, near the beginning of this paper), 571, note 1; Arist., Met. 2.6, 362a.

173 See, for example, Arist., Met., 2.6, 365a; Th., De Ventis 2.10‑12; Gellius 2.22.30; Pliny 2.124, 18.335; Lucretius 5.742; Diodorus 1.39.6.

178 Diodorus 4.82.1‑3; Apollonius Rhodius 2.516‑527; Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata 6.28.4‑6; Callimachus, Aitia 3.1 (page 209 of A. W. Mair's translation, in The Loeb Classical Library); Nonnus 5.260‑279. See also Geoponica 1.9.7.

181 Compare Seneca, Thyestes 126‑129 nives quas . . . aestas veliferis solvit Etesiis. See also Aratus, Phaenomena 151‑156.

185 Herodotus 2.20; Athenaeus 2.87; Pomponius Mela 1.53; Diodorus 1.38.2; Seneca 4.2.21‑23; Pliny 5.55; Lucretius 6.712‑718; Ammianus Marcellinus 22.15.5, 7 Not less interesting is Tacitus, Annal es 6.33.

188 5.18.2. According to Arrian 6.25 the country of Gedrosia was likewise supplied with rain by periodical winds.

190 Pliny 2.120. See also Seneca 5.17.4; Th. De Ventis 10.62; Procopius 8.4.10; Isidore 37.5. The most important source for references to local winds is Ventorum Situs et Appellationes, which is based upon a work of Aristotle.

196 A. T. Burrows, The Chinook Winds, The Journal of Geography 2 (1903), 124‑136.

201 The Classical Weekly 22.29. Zeno, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Book 7, Chapter 1, Section 81.152, says that the sun produces winds by turning clouds into vapor.

203 Stephen Gaselee, The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse, 178‑180 (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1928).

205 Page 154 of the edition published by The Century Company for The Review of Reviews Company. ◂Pertinent is a note on Aeneid 3.514, by Dr. B. W. Mitchell, The Classical Weekly 7 (1914), 168. 000ck▸.

206 Compare a humorous sentence of O. Henry, in The Passing of the Black Eagle, one of the stories in Roads of Destiny: "They want them whiskers and that nose of his to split the wind at the head of the column".

206a The story is to be found in a volume entitled Within the Tides: Tales, 210 (New York, Doubleday, Page, and Co., 1916).

210 He mentions wind in 11.2.4, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 24, 31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 43, 45, 49, 51, 52, 58, 63, 65, 66, 74, 77, 78, 84, 88, 89, 93, 94, 97.

221 Pliny 8.189, 18.336; Geoponica 17.3.6; Columella 7.3.12; Palladius, July, 4.4.; Aristotle, De Animalibus Historia 6.19. De Generatione Animalium 4.2.

235 Pliny 8.189, 18.330; Columella 7.3.12; Geoponica 17.3.6; Aristotle, as cited in note 221.

237 Vitruvius 6.6.4. ◂See also The Classical Weekly 23.49, column 2. 000ck▸.

238 6.4.1. Aelian says (De Natura Animalium 17.40) that a heavy atmosphere brings jjj into being.

240 W. Carew Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore. A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs, Past and Present, with Their Classical and Foreign Analogues, Described and Illustrated, 638 (London, Reeves and Turner, 1905).

245 I am planning to discuss in a general volume on ancient warfare the effect of the weather on military operations both by land and by sea. I touched upon the subject in The Classical Weekly 23.4.

246 On the association of the wind with sunrise see Arist., Met. 2.5, 364 be, Prob. 26.34; Th. De Ventis 3.16‑18; Pliny 2.129. For mention of this association in connection with military operations see Livy 25.27.6, 29.27.8; Lucan 5.717‑718. ◂See also note 85, above. 000ck▸.

249 Plutarch, Themistocles 14.2 (B. Perrin's translation, in The Loeb Classical Library).

250 Thucydides 2.83‑84. For other expense of familiarity with local conditions see Plutarch, Marius 37.3; Procopius 8.41.10. Polybius 4.44 is interesting in contrasting the aid afforded by the winds to those sailing to and from Brundisium with the difficulties it presented to those sailing to and from Chalcedon.

251 Nemea 17.1. Compare Vegetius 4.41 Aer vero et mare ipsum nubiumque magnitudo vel specie sollicitos instruit nautas.

p11 Greek and Roman Weather Lore of Winds