Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  Perhaps too as it goes on it attracts certain bodies out of the air itself, and these by their blows kindle apace its velocity.

  It passes too through things without injuring them, and leaves many things quite whole after it has gone through, because the clear bright fire flies through by the pores.

  350 multaque perfringit, cum corpora fulminis ipsa

  corporibus rerum inciderunt, qua texta tenentur.

  dissoluit porro facile aes aurumque repente

  conferve facit, e parvis quia facta minute

  corporibus vis est et levibus ex elementis,

  355 quae facile insinuantur et insinuata repente

  dissoluont nodos omnis et vincla relaxant.

  Autumnoque magis stellis fulgentibus alta

  concutitur caeli domus undique totaque tellus,

  et cum tempora se veris florentia pandunt.

  360 frigore enim desunt ignes ventique calore

  deficiunt neque sunt tam denso corpore nubes.

  interutrasque igitur cum caeli tempora constant,

  tum variae causae concurrunt fulminis omnes.

  nam fretus ipse anni permiscet frigus ad aestum.

  365 quorum utrumque opus est fabricanda ad fulmina nubi,

  ut discordia sit rerum magnoque tumultu

  ignibus et ventis furibundus fluctuet aeër.

  prima caloris enim pars est postrema rigoris;

  tempus id est vernum; quare pugnare necessest

  370 dissimilis res inter se turbareque mixtas.

  et calor extremus primo cum frigore mixtus

  volvitur, autumni quod fertur nomine tempus,

  hic quoque confligunt hiemes aestatibus acres.

  propterea freta sunt haec anni nominitanda,

  375 nec mirumst, in eo si tempore plurima fiunt

  fulmina tempestasque cietur turbida caelo,

  ancipiti quoniam bello turbatur utrimque,

  hinc flammis, illinc ventis umoreque mixto.

  Hoc est igniferi naturam fulminis ipsam

  380 perspicere et qua vi faciat rem quamque videre,

  non Tyrrhena retro volventem carmina frustra

  indicia occultae divum perquirere mentis,

  unde volans ignis pervenerit aut in utram se

  verterit hinc partim, quo pacto per loca saepta

  385 insinuarit, et hinc dominatus ut extulerit se,

  quidve nocere queat de caelo fulminis ictus.

  quod si Iuppiter atque alii fulgentia divi

  terrifico quatiunt sonitu caelestia templa

  et iaciunt ignem quo cuiquest cumque voluntas,

  390 cur quibus incautum scelus aversabile cumquest

  non faciunt icti flammas ut fulguris halent

  [350] And it breaks to pieces many things, when the first bodies of the thunderbolt have fallen exactly on the first bodies of these things, at the points where they are intertwined and held together.

  Again it easily melts brass and fuses gold in an instant, because its force is formed of bodies minutely small and of smooth elements, which easily make their way in and when they are in, in a moment break up all the knots and untie the bonds of union.

  And more especially in autumn the mansion of heaven studded with glittering stars and the whole earth are shaken on all sides, and also when the flowery season of spring discloses itself.

  For during the cold fires are wanting and winds fail during the heat, and the clouds then are not of so dense a body.

  When therefore the seasons of heaven are between the two extremes, the different causes of thunder and lightning all combine; for the very cross-current of the year mixes up cold and heat, both of which a cloud needs for forging thunderbolts; so that there is great discord in things and the air raving with fires and winds heaves in mighty disorder.

  The first part of heat and the last of cold is the spring-time; therefore unlike things must battle with one another and be turbulent when mixed together.

  And when the last heat mixed with the first cold rolls on its course, a time which goes by the name of autumn, then too fierce winters are in conflict with summers.

  Therefore these seasons are to be called the cross-seas of the year; and it is not wonderful that in that season thunderbolts are most frequent and troublous storms are stirred up in heaven; since both sides then engage in the troublous medley of dubious war, the one armed with flames, the other with winds and water commingled.

  This is the way to see into the true nature of the thunderbolt and to understand by what force it produces each effect, and not the turning over the scrolls of Tyrrhene charms and vainly searching for tokens of the hidden will of the gods, in order to know from what quarter the volant fire has come or to which of the two halves it has betaken itself, in what way it has gained an entrance within walled places, and how after lording it with tyrant sway it has gotten itself out from these; also what harm the thunderstroke from heaven can do.

  But if Jupiter and other gods shake with an appalling crash the glittering quarters of heaven, and hurl their fire whither each is so minded, why strike they not those whoever they be who have recked not of committing some abominable sin and make them give forth the flames of lightning from breast pierced through and through, a sharp lesson to men?

  pectore perfixo, documen mortalibus acre,

  et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re

  volvitur in flammis innoxius inque peditur

  395 turbine caelesti subito correptus et igni?

  cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant?

  an tum bracchia consuescunt firmantque lacertos?

  in terraque patris cur telum perpetiuntur

  optundi? cur ipse sinit neque parcit in hostis?

  400 denique cur numquam caelo iacit undique puro

  Iuppiter in terras fulmen sonitusque profundit?

  an simul ac nubes successere, ipse in eas tum

  descendit, prope ut hinc teli determinet ictus?

  in mare qua porro mittit ratione? quid undas

  405 arguit et liquidam molem camposque natantis?

  praeterea si vult caveamus fulminis ictum,

  cur dubitat facere ut possimus cernere missum?

  si nec opinantis autem volt opprimere igni,

  cur tonat ex illa parte, ut vitare queamus,

  410 cur tenebras ante et fremitus et murmura concit?

  et simul in multas partis qui credere possis

  mittere? an hoc ausis numquam contendere factum,

  ut fierent ictus uno sub tempore plures?

  at saepest numero factum fierique necessest,

  415 ut pluere in multis regionibus et cadere imbris,

  fulmina sic uno fieri sub tempore multa.

  postremo cur sancta deum delubra suasque

  discutit infesto praeclaras fulmine sedes

  et bene facta deum frangit simulacra suisque

  420 demit imaginibus violento volnere honorem?

  altaque cur plerumque petit loca plurimaque eius

  montibus in summis vestigia cernimus ignis?

  Quod super est, facilest ex his cognoscere rebus,

  presteras Graii quos ab re nominitarunt,

  425 in mare qua missi veniant ratione superne.

  nam fit ut inter dum tam quam demissa columna

  in mare de caelo descendat, quam freta circum

  fervescunt graviter spirantibus incita flabris,

  et quae cumque in eo tum sint deprensa tumultu

  430 navigia in summum veniant vexata periclum.

  hoc fit ubi inter dum non quit vis incita venti

  rumpere quam coepit nubem, sed deprimit, ut sit

  in mare de caelo tam quam demissa columna,

  paulatim, quasi quid pugno bracchique superne

  435 coniectu trudatur et extendatur in undas;

  [392] And why rather is he whose conscience is burdened with no foul offense, innocent though he be, wrapped and enveloped in the flames, in a moment caught up by the whirlwind and fire of heaven?

 
Why too aim they at solitary spots and spend their labor in vain? Or are they then practicing their arms and strengthening their sinews? And why do they suffer the father’s bolt to be blunted on the earth?

  Why does he allow it himself, and not spare it for his enemies? Why again, when heaven is unclouded on all sides, does Jupiter never hurl a bolt on the earth or send abroad his claps? Or does he, so soon as clouds have spread under, then go down in person into them, that from them he may aim the strokes of his bolt near at hand?

  Ay and for what reason does he hurl into the sea? Of what has he to impeach its waters and liquid mass and floating fields?

  Again, if he wills us to avoid the thunderstroke, why fears he to let us see it discharged? Or if he wills to crush us off our guard with his fire, why thunders he from that side, to enable us to shun it? Why stirs he up beforehand darkness and roarings and rumblings? And how can you believe that he hurls at many points at the same time?

  Or would you venture to maintain that it never has happened that more than one stroke was made at one time?

  Nay often and often it has happened and must happen that, even as it rains and showers fall in many different quarters, so many thunderings go on at one time.

  Once more why does he dash down the holy sanctuaries of the gods and his own gorgeous seats with the destroying thunderbolt, and break the fine-wrought idols of the gods, and spoil his own images of their glory by an overbearing wound? And why does he mostly aim at lofty spots, and why do we see most traces of his fire on the mountain tops?

  To proceed, it is easy from these facts to understand in what way those things, which the Greeks from their nature have named presteres, come down from above into the sea.

  For sometimes a pillar so to speak is let down from heaven and descends into the sea, and round about it the surges boil, stirred up by heavy blasts of winds; and all ships caught in that turmoil are dashed about and brought into extreme danger.

  This takes place when at times the force of the wind put in motion cannot burst the cloud which it essays to burst, but weighs it down, so that it is like a pillar let down from heaven into the sea, yet gradually, just as if a thing were thrust down from above and stretched out to the level of the waters by the fist and push of the arm;

  quam cum discidit, hinc prorumpitur in mare venti

  vis et fervorem mirum concinnat in undis;

  versabundus enim turbo descendit et illam

  deducit pariter lento cum corpore nubem;

  440 quam simul ac gravidam detrusit ad aequora ponti,

  ille in aquam subito totum se inmittit et omne

  excitat ingenti sonitu mare fervere cogens.

  Fit quoque ut involvat venti se nubibus ipse

  vertex conradens ex aeëre semina nubis

  445 et quasi demissum caelo prestera imitetur;

  hic ubi se in terras demisit dissoluitque,

  turbinis immanem vim provomit atque procellae.

  sed quia fit raro omnino montisque necessest

  officere in terris, apparet crebrius idem

  450 prospectu maris in magno caeloque patenti.

  Nubila concrescunt, ubi corpora multa volando

  hoc super in caeli spatio coiere repente

  asperiora, modis quae possint indupedita

  exiguis tamen inter se compressa teneri.

  455 haec faciunt primum parvas consistere nubes;

  inde ea comprendunt inter se conque gregantur

  et coniungendo crescunt ventisque feruntur

  usque adeo donec tempestas saeva coortast.

  Fit quoque uti montis vicina cacumina caelo

  460 quam sint quoque magis, tanto magis edita fument

  adsidue fulvae nubis caligine crassa

  propterea quia, cum consistunt nubila primum,

  ante videre oculi quam possint tenvia, venti

  portantes cogunt ad summa cacumina montis;

  465 hic demum fit uti turba maiore coorta

  et condensa queant apparere et simul ipso

  vertice de montis videantur surgere in aethram.

  nam loca declarat sursum ventosa patere

  res ipsa et sensus, montis cum ascendimus altos.

  [436] and when the force of the wind has rent this cloud, it bursts out from it into the sea and occasions a marvelous boiling in the waters; for the whirling eddy descends and brings down together with it yon cloud of limber body; and as soon as it has forced it down full-charged as it is to the levels of the sea, the eddy in a moment plunges itself entire into the water, and stirs up the whole sea with a prodigious noise and forces it to boil.

  Sometimes too the eddy of wind wraps itself up in clouds and gathers out of the air seeds of cloud and imitates in a sort the prester let down from heaven.

  When this prester has let itself down to the land and has burst, it belches forth a whirlwind and storm of enormous violence; but as it seldom takes place at all and as mountains cannot but obstruct it on land, it is seen more frequently on the sea with its wide prospect and unobstructed horizon.

  Clouds are formed, when in this upper space of heaven many bodies flying about have in some one instant met together, of a rougher sort, such as are able, though they have got the very slightest holds of each other, to catch together and be held in union.

  These bodies first cause small clouds to form; and these next catch together and collect into masses and increase by joining with each other and are carried on by the winds continually until a fierce storm has gathered.

  The nearer too the tops of a mountain in each case are to heaven, the more constantly at this elevation they smoke with the thick darkness of a swarthy cloud, because, as soon as clouds form, before the eyes can see them, thin as they are, the winds carry and bring them together to the highest summits of a mountain; and then at last when they have gathered in a greater mass, being now dense they are able to make themselves visible and at the same time they are seen to rise up from the very top of the mountain into the ether: the very fact of the case and our sensations, when we climb high mountains, prove that the regions which stretch up on high are windy.

  Again clothes hung up on the shore, when they drink in the clinging moisture, prove that nature takes up many bodies over the whole sea as well.

  470 Praeterea permulta mari quoque tollere toto

  corpora naturam declarant litore vestis

  suspensae, cum concipiunt umoris adhaesum.

  quo magis ad nubis augendas multa videntur

  posse quoque e salso consurgere momine ponti;

  475 nam ratio consanguineast umoribus omnis.

  Praeterea fluviis ex omnibus et simul ipsa

  surgere de terra nebulas aestumque videmus,

  quae vel ut halitus hinc ita sursum expressa feruntur

  suffunduntque sua caelum caligine et altas

  480 sufficiunt nubis paulatim conveniundo;

  urget enim quoque signiferi super aetheris aestus

  et quasi densendo subtexit caerula nimbis.

  Fit quoque ut hunc veniant in caelum extrinsecus illa

  corpora quae faciunt nubis nimbosque volantis;

  485 innumerabilem enim numerum summamque profundi

  esse infinitam docui, quantaque volarent

  corpora mobilitate ostendi quamque repente

  immemorabile per spatium transire solerent.

  haut igitur mirumst, si parvo tempore saepe

  490 tam magnis ventis tempestas atque tenebrae

  coperiant maria ac terras inpensa superne,

  undique quandoquidem per caulas aetheris omnis

  et quasi per magni circum spiracula mundi

  exitus introitusque elementis redditus extat.

  495 Nunc age, quo pacto pluvius concrescat in altis

  nubibus umor et in terras demissus ut imber

  decidat, expediam. primum iam semina aquai

  multa simul vincam consurgere nubibus ipsis

  omnibus ex rebus pariterque ita crescere utrumque

  500 et nubis et aqu
am, quae cumque in nubibus extat,

  ut pariter nobis corpus cum sanguine crescit,

  sudor item atque umor qui cumque est denique membris.

  concipiunt etiam multum quoque saepe marinum

  umorem, vel uti pendentia vellera lanae,

  505 cum supera magnum mare venti nubila portant.

  consimili ratione ex omnibus amnibus umor

  tollitur in nubis. quo cum bene semina aquarum

  multa modis multis convenere undique adaucta,

  confertae nubes umorem mittere certant

  510 dupliciter; nam vis venti contrudit et ipsa

  copia nimborum turba maiore coacta

  urget et e supero premit ac facit effluere imbris.

  praeterea cum rarescunt quoque nubila ventis

  aut dissolvuntur solis super icta calore,

  515 mittunt umorem pluvium stillantque, quasi igni

  cera super calido tabescens multa liquescat.

  [471] This makes it still more plain that many bodies may likewise rise up out of the salt heaving sea to add to the bulk of clouds; for the two liquids are near akin in their nature.

  Again we see mists and steam rise out of all rivers and at the same time from the earth as well; and they forced out like a breath from these parts are then carried upwards and overcast heaven with their darkness and make up clouds on high as they gradually come together; for the heat of starry ether at the same time presses down too on them and by condensing as it were weaves a web of clouds below the blue.

  Sometimes there come here into heaven from without those bodies which form clouds and the flying storm-rack; for I have shown that their number passes numbering and that the sum of the deep is infinite; and I have proved with what velocity bodies fly and how in a moment of time they are wont to pass through space unspeakable.

  It is not therefore strange that a tempest and darkness often in a short time cover over with such great mountains of clouds seas and lands, as they hang down upon them overhead, since on all sides through all the cavities of ether and as it were through the vents of the great world around the power of going out and coming in is accorded to the elements.