§2.8#3τὴν μὲν γὰρ νηνεμίαν ἀναγκαῖον ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ συμβαίνειν, καθάπερ εἴρηται καὶ πρότερον, οἷον μεταρροίας εἴσω γιγνομένης τοῦ πνεύματος, καὶ μᾶλλον πρὸ τῶν μειζόνων σεισμῶν·
For it is necessary that calm should for the most part occur, as has also been said before, as if a backflow of the wind were taking place inwards, and more so before the greater earthquakes.
μὴ διασπώμενον γὰρ τὸ μὲν ἔξω τὸ δ᾿ ἐντός, ἀλλ᾿ ἀθρόως φερόμενον ἀναγκαῖον ἰσχύειν μᾶλλον.
For if the wind is not divided, partly outside and partly inside, but is carried all at once, it must necessarily have greater force.
τὸ δὲ ψῦχος συμβαίνει διὰ τὸ τὴν ἀναθυμίασιν εἴσω τρέπεσθαι, φύσει θερμὴν οὖσαν καθ᾿ αὑτήν.
And the cold occurs because the exhalation, which is by its own nature warm, turns inwards.
οὐ δοκοῦσι δ᾿ οἱ ἄνεμοι εἶναι θερμοὶ διὰ τὸ κινεῖν τὸν ἀέρα πλήρη πολλῆς ὄντα καὶ ψυχρᾶς ἀτμίδος, ὥσπερ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ διὰ τοῦ στόματος φυσώμενον·
Winds do not seem to be warm because they move the air which is full of abundant and cold vapor, just like the breath blown out through the mouth.
καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο ἐγγύθεν μέν ἐστι θερμόν, ὥσπερ καὶ ὅταν ἀάζωμεν, ἀλλὰ δι᾿ ὀλιγότητα οὐχ ὁμοίως ἐπίδηλον, πόρρωθεν δὲ ψυχρὸν διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν τοῖς ἀνέμοις.
For this breath too is warm near at hand, just as when we breathe with open mouth, though because of its small quantity it is not equally obvious, but from a distance it is cold for the same reason as the winds.
ἐκλειπούσης οὖν εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς τοιαύτης δυνάμεως, συνιοῦσα δι᾿ ὑγρότητα ἡ ἀτμιδώδης ἀπόρροια ποιεῖ τὸ ψῦχος, ἐν οἷς συμβαίνει τόποις γίγνεσθαι τοῦτο τὸ πάθος.
Therefore, when such power retreats into the earth, the vaporous emanation, condensing because of the moisture, produces the cold in those places where this phenomenon happens to occur.
τὸ δ᾿ αὐτὸ αἴτιον καὶ τοῦ εἰωθότος ἐνίοτε γίγνεσθαι σημείου πρὸ τῶν σεισμῶν·
And this same cause is also responsible for the sign that sometimes customarily occurs before earthquakes.
ἢ γὰρ μεθ᾿ ἡμέραν ἢ μικρὸν μετὰ δυσμάς, αἰθρίας οὔσης, νεφέλιον λεπτὸν φαίνεται διατεῖνον καὶ μακρόν, οἷον γραμμῆς μῆκος εὐθύτητι διηκριβωμένον, τοῦ πνεύματος ἀπομαραινομένου διὰ τὴν μετάστασιν.
For either by day or a little after sunset, when the sky is clear, a thin and long cloud appears stretching out, like a line drawn with precise straightness, as the wind fades away because of its relocation.
τὸ δ᾿ ὅμοιον συμβαίνει καὶ ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ περὶ τοὺς αἰγιαλούς·
And a similar thing happens also in the sea around the shores.
ὅταν μὲν γὰρ κυμαίνουσα ἐκβάλλῃ, σφόδρα παχεῖαι καὶ σκολιαὶ γίγνονται αἱ ῥηγμῖνες, ὅταν δὲ γαλήνη ᾖ, διὰ τὸ μικρὰν ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἔκκρισιν λεπταί εἰσι καὶ εὐθεῖαι.
For when the sea breaks in waves upon the shore, the ripples become very thick and crooked, but when there is a calm, because the secretion made is small, they are thin and straight.
ὅπερ οὖν ἡ θάλαττα ποιεῖ περὶ τὴν γῆν, τοῦτο τὸ πνεῦμα περὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ ἀέρι ἀχλύν, ὥσθ᾿ ὅταν γένηται νηνεμία, πάμπαν εὐθεῖαν καὶ λεπτὴν καταλείπεσθαι ὥσπερ ῥηγμῖνα οὖσαν ἀέρος τὴν νεφέλην.
What the sea does, then, in relation to the land, the wind does in relation to the mist in the air, so that when a calm occurs, the cloud is left entirely straight and thin, being as it were a ripple of the air.
διὰ ταῦτα δὲ καὶ περὶ τὰς ἐκλείψεις ἐνίοτε τῆς σελήνης συμβαίνει γίγνεσθαι σεισμόν·
For this reason, an earthquake also sometimes happens to occur around eclipses of the moon.
ὅταν γὰρ ἤδη πλησίον ᾖ ἡ ἀντίφραξις, καὶ μήπω μὲν ᾖ πάμπαν ἀπολελοιπὸς τὸ φῶς καὶ τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου θερμὸν ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος, ἤδη δ᾿ ἀπομαραινόμενον, νηνεμία γίγνεται ἀντιμεθισταμένου τοῦ πνεύματος εἰς τὴν γῆν, ὃ ποιεῖ τὸν σεισμὸν πρὸ τῶν ἐκλείψεων.
For when the obstruction is already near, and the light and the heat from the sun have not yet completely departed from the air, but are already fading away, a calm occurs as the wind shifts into the earth, which produces the earthquake before the eclipses.
γίγνονται γὰρ καὶ ἄνεμοι πρὸ τῶν ἐκλείψεων πολλάκις, ἀκρόνυχον μὲν πρὸ τῶν μεσονυκτίων ἐκλείψεων, μεσονύκτιον δὲ πρὸ τῶν ἑῴων.
For winds also often occur before eclipses—at nightfall before midnight eclipses, and at midnight before dawn eclipses.
συμβαίνει δὲ τοῦτο διὰ τὸ ἀμαυροῦσθαι τὸ θερμὸν τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης, ὅταν πλησίον ἤδη γίγνηται ἡ φορὰ ἐν ᾧ γενομένων ἔσται ἡ ἕκλειψις.
And this happens because the heat from the moon grows dim when its path already comes near to the point where, when they are in it, the eclipse will take place.
ἀνιεμένου οὖν ᾧ κατείχετο ὁ ἀὴρ καὶ ἠρέμει, πάλιν κινεῖται καὶ γίγνεται πνεῦμα τῆς ὀψιαίτερον ἐκλείψεως ὀψιαίτερον.
Therefore, since that by which the air was held and kept quiet is released, the air moves again and a wind arises—later for a later eclipse.
ὅταν δʼ ἰσχυρὸς γένηται σεισμός, οὐκ εὐθὺς οὐδʼ εἰσάπαξ παύεται σείσας, ἀλλὰ τὸ πρῶτον μὲν μέχρι περὶ τετταράκοντα πρόεισι πολλάκις ἡμέρας, ὕστερον δὲ καὶ ἐφʼ ἓν καὶ ἐπὶ δύο ἔτη ἐπισημαίνει κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς τόπους.
And when a strong earthquake occurs, it does not stop shaking immediately or all at once, but at first it often continues for up to about forty days, and later its signs appear in the same places even for one or two years.
αἴτιον δὲ τοῦ μὲν μεγέθους τὸ πλῆθος τοῦ πνεύματος καὶ τῶν τόπων τὰ σχήματα διʼ οἴων ἂν ῥυῇ·
The cause of the magnitude is the quantity of the wind and the shapes of the places through which it flows.
ᾗ γὰρ ἂν ἀντιτυπήσῃ καὶ μὴ ῥᾳδίως διέλθῃ, μάλιστά τε σείει καὶ ἐγκαταλείπεσθαι ἀναγκαῖον ἐν ταῖς δυσχωρίαις, οἶον ὕδωρ ἐν σκεύει οὐ δυνάμενον διεξελθεῖν.
For where it meets resistance and cannot easily pass through, there it shakes most violently, and it must necessarily be trapped in difficult passages, like water in a vessel that is unable to get out.
διὸ καθάπερ ἐν σώματι οἱ σφυγμοὶ οὐκ ἐξαίφνης παύονται οὐδὲ ταχέως, ἀλλʼ ἐκ προσαγωγῆς ἅμμα καταμαραινομένου τοῦ πάθους, καὶ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἀφʼ ἧς ἡ ἀναθυμίασις ἐγένετο καὶ ἡ ὁρμὴ τοῦ πνεύματος δῆλον ὅτι οὐκ εὐθὺς ἅπασαν ἀνήλωσεν τὴν ὕλην, ἐξ ἧς ἐποίησε τὸν ἄνεμον, ὃν καλοῦμεν σεισμόν.
Therefore, just as in the body throbbings do not stop suddenly or quickly, but gradually as the affection fades away, so it is clear that the source from which the exhalation arose and the impulse of the wind did not immediately consume all the matter from which it made the wind that we call an earthquake.
ἕως ἂν οὖν ἀναλωθῇ τὰ ὑπόλοιπα τούτων, ἀνάγκη σείειν, ἠρεμαιότερον δὲ καὶ μέχρι τούτου ἕως ἂν ἔλαττον ᾖ τὸ ἀναθυμίωμενον ἢ ὥστε δύνασθαι κινεῖν ἐπιδήλως.
Until, therefore, the rest of these is consumed, it must necessarily shake, but more gently, and until the exhalation becomes too small to produce a visible movement.
ποιεῖ δὲ καὶ τοὺς ψόφους τοὺς ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν γιγνομένους τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τοὺς πρὸ τῶν σεισμῶν·
And it is the wind that also produces the noises that occur under the earth, both those before earthquakes and those that have already occurred somewhere under the earth even without earthquakes.
καὶ ἄνευ δὲ σεισμῶν ἤδη που γεγόνασιν ὑπὸ γῆν· ὥσπερ γὰρ καὶ ῥαπιζόμενος ὁ ἀὴρ παντοδαποὺς ἀφίησι φόφους, οὕτως καὶ τύπτων αὐτός· οὐδὲν γὰρ διαφέρει· τὸ γὰρ τύπτον ἅμα καὶ αὐτὸ τύπτεται πᾶν.
For just as the air when struck emits all kinds of noises, so it does also when it strikes; for there is no difference, since that which strikes is at the same time itself entirely struck.