Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/65

 Chap. 6.] ACCOUKT OF THE WOELD. 31 make their complete revolutions, as will be described in the account of the great year^ (9.) But the Moon-, which is the last of the stars, and the one the most connected with the earth, the remedy prodded by nature for darkness, excels all the others in its admirable qualities. By the variety of appearances which it assumes, it puzzles the observers, mortified that they should be the most ignorant concerning that star which is the nearest to them. •She is always either waxing or waning ; sometimes her disc is curved into horns, sometimes it is divided into two equal portions, and at other times it is swelled out into a full orb ; sometimes she appears spotted^ and suddenly becomes very bright ; she appears very large with her full orb and sud- denly becomes invisible ; now continuing during all the night, now rising late, and now aiding the light of the sun during a part of the day ; becoming eclipsed and yet being visible while she is eclipsed ; concealing herself at the end of the month and yet not supposed to be eclipsed^. Sometimes she is low down, sometimes she is high up, and that not ac- cording to one uniform course, being at one time raised up ^ Concerning the " magnus annus " Cicero remarks, " efficitur cmn solis et lunse et quinque eiTantium ad eandem inter se comparationem, confectis omnibus spatiis, est facta conversio." De Nat. Deor. ii. 51. See the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 281-3. 2 For the various appellations which the moon has received in the ancient and modern languages, and their relation to each other, the reader is referred to the learned remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 283-5. ^ Marcus conceives that the epithet maculosa does not refer to what are called the spots on the moon, but to the circumstance of the edge of the disc being not illuminated when it is near the full ; Ajasson, ii. 286. But, from the way in which the word is employed at the end of the chapter, and from the explanation which is given of the cause of the " maculae," I think it ought to be referred to the spotted appearance of the face of the moon. ancients, that when the moon is ecUpsed, she is sviSering from the influ- ence of magicians and enchanters, who are endeavouring to draw her down to the earth, in order to aid them in their superstitious ceremonies. It was conceived that she might be reheved from her sufferings by loud noises of various kinds which shovdd drown the songs of the magicians. Allusion is frequently made to this custom by the ancient poets, as Virgil, ^n. i. 742, Manihus, i. 227, and Juvenal, vi. 444 ; and the language has been transferred to the modems, as in Beattie's Minstrel, ii. 47, " To ease of fancied pangs the labouring moon."
 * " Quum laborare non creditiu-." It was a vulgar notion among the