Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/59

 CHAP. ii. $ 22. INTRODUCTION. 45 and Bion the astronomer, entertain so mistaken an opinion in regard to the winds. They say that the north-east (Caecias) blows from the commencement of summer, and that the south- west wind (Libs), which is exactly opposite to this, blows from the decline of winter. And again, the south-east wind (Eurus), which is opposite to the north-west wind ( Argestes), from the commencement of winter. The east and west winds being intermediate. When our poet makes use of the expression "stormy zephyr," he means the wind which is now called by us the north-west ; and by the "clear-blowing zephyr" our west wind ; our Leuco- notus is his Argestes-notus, or clearing south wind, 1 for this wind brings but few clouds, all the other southern winds bringing clouds and rain, 2 " As when whirlwinds of the west A storm encounter from the clearing south." 3 Here he alludes to the stormy zephyr, which very frequently scatters the feathery clouds brought up by the Leuconotus, or, as it is called by way of epithet, the clearing south. The statements made by Eratosthenes in the first book of his Geography, require some such correction as this. 22. Persisting in his false views in relation to Homer, he goes on to say, " He was ignorant that the Nile separated into many mouths, nay, he was not even acquainted with the name of the river, though Hesiod knew it well, for he even mentions it." 4 In respect of the name, it is probable that it Noroc, the clearing south wind, Horace's Notus Albus ; in the improved compass of Aristotle, dpyscrr/jf was the north-west wind, the Athenian GKEIOWV. 2 Tou XoiTroy Norow oov Evpoy TTWC OVTOQ. MSS. i. e. all the other southern winds having an easterly direction. We have adopted the sug- gestion of Kramer, and translated the passage as if it stood thus, TOV Xoi- TTOV Norow oAfpow TTWQ OVTOQ. 3 As when the west wind agitates the light clouds of the clearing south, striking them with a dreadful gale. Iliad xi. 305. 4 Gosselin observes that Hesiod lived about forty years after Homer, and he mentions not only the Nile, but also the Po, with which certainly Homer was unacquainted. He speaks too of the Western Ocean, where he places the Gorgons, and the garden of the Hesperides. It is very likely that these various points of information were brought into Greece by the Car- thaginians. The name Nile seems to be merely a descriptive title ; it is still in use in many countries of India, where it signifies water. The river known subsequently as the Nile, was, in Homer's time, called the