This is the work of wind most turbulent.
Besides, for a space of many miles the sea
Breaks on the mountain’s roots, sucks back its waves,
695
And from this sea caves spread out underneath
Right to the deep throat of the mountain, and through these
It cannot be doubted that wind mixed with water
Comes in from the open sea and penetrates it
Deeply within, thus causing an explosion
And upward blast of flame, throwing out rocks
And raising everywhere great clouds of sand.
700
For on the topmost summit there are craters,
The ‘mixing bowls’ as the Sicilians call them,
To which we give the name of throats or mouths.
There is also a number of things for which
It is not enough to state one cause; we must
Consider many, and one of them is right.
For example, if from a distance you should see
The lifeless body of some man, then all
705
The causes of death you might think well to mention,
So that the one true cause of it be named.
For though you could not prove that steel or cold
Had caused his death, or disease perhaps, or poison,
We know quite well that what has happened to him
710
Is something of this kind. And so we shall
In many cases argue in this way.
The Nile, the river of all Egypt, swells
And flows across the fields in summertime,
Unique among the rivers of the world.
It waters Egypt through midsummer heats,
Either because North winds oppose its mouth
715
In summer, which blowing at that time of year
Are called Etesian, or ‘seasonal’;
These blowing against the stream arrest its flow,
And piling up the water fill its banks
And hold up its advance; for there’s no doubt
That these blasts coming from the Pole’s cold star
720
Do blow against the current of the river.
For the great Nile comes from the land of heat,
The south, where deep among the race of men
Burnt black by sun it rises from the noonday.
It may be also that a great sandbar
Is heaped against the river’s mouths, confronting the flow
725
When the sea driven strongly by the winds
Rolls the sand shorewards. In this way the river
Has less freedom of exit, and the current
Has a less easy downflow to the sea.
Or it may be perhaps that heavier rains
Fall on its source at the season of the year
When the Etesian breezes of the north
730
Drive all the clouds into those parts together.
You may be sure that when they have massed together
Driven out towards the region of the noonday
There they at length beating against high mountains
Are crushed and with great violence compressed.
Or deep within the Ethiopian highlands
735
Perhaps the river grows, when the hot sun
Traversing all things with his burning rays
Makes the white snows run down into the plains.
I shall now explain the nature of the lakes
And other places that are called Avernian.
Firstly, the name Avernian is given
740
Because no birds can live within these places.
For any birds that fly directly above them,
Their wings’ oars all forgotten and the sails
Let loose, and neck all limp and lifeless,
Down they fall headlong to the ground,
If it so happens that earth lies below,
745
Or into the water, if perchance a lake
Of Avernus lies outspread. There is near Cumae
A place like this, where the hills filled with sulphur
Give off a pungent smoke fed by hot springs.
There is another within the walls of Athens
Right at the summit of the citadel
Hard by the temple of Tritonian Pallas,
750
Where the crows never wing their raucous way,
Not even when altars smoke with offerings;
Such care they take to flee, not from the anger
Of Pallas, as the Greek poets have sung,
Because of that fateful vigil; but the nature
Of the place itself produces this effect.
755
In Syria also there’s another place
Like this, they say, where as soon as quadrupeds
Have set foot on it, its natural potency
Makes them to fall down flat, as if suddenly
Slaughtered in sacrifice to the gods below.
But all these things have a natural origin
760
And the causes that produce them are quite clear.
Do not believe that in these regions lie
The gates of Hell, and that the gods below
Down to the shores of Acheron draw thence
The souls of men, as the light-footed stags
765
By the breath of their nostrils are often thought to draw
The tribes of creeping creatures from their holes.
How far removed all that is from the truth
Learn now; for of the true facts I try to speak.
Firstly I say, as I have often said before,
That in the earth are atoms of every kind.
770
Many that are in food bring life; and many
Can strike us with disease and hasten death.
And I have shown before that substances
Vary in their power to support life
In different animals, because of their different natures
And different textures and atomic shapes.
775
For many noxious elements make their way
Through the ears, and many through the nostrils
Slip in that are injurious and prickly,
And not a few touch tells us to avoid
And sight to shun, or taste proclaims them bitter.
780
Next it is plain to see how many things
Are violently hostile to the senses,
Noisome and dangerous. First certain trees
Have shade so dangerous that it brings headache
If you should lie outstretched on the grass beneath.
785
And on the great high hills of Helicon
There grows a tree whose flower can kill a man
By the vile nature of its loathsome scent.
And all these things, for sure, rise from the soil
Since many seeds of many things Earth holds
Mixed up in many ways, then separates and delivers them.
790
A lamp at night is extinguished, and its wick
Sends out a pungent smell. If this assails
The nostrils of some epileptic, prone
To fits and foaming, at once it stupefies him.
The heavy scent of beaver musk brings sleep
To a woman; she falls back, the dainty work
795
Drops from her tender hands, if she has smelt it
During the period of her monthly courses.
And many other things there are that melt
And loosen languid limbs throughout the body,
And shake the spirit in its seat within.
Again, if you stay too long in a hot bath
800
After a heavy meal, how easily
You collapse on the seat amidst the steaming water!
How easil
y the heavy fumes of charcoal
Pass into the brain, unless we have taken water before!
When burning fever has possessed the limbs,
805
The scent of wine is like a deadly blow.
You can see that earth itself produces sulphur
And lumps of asphalt, with its filthy smell.
And when men follow veins of gold and silver
Searching with picks the secrets of the earth,
What smells Scaptensula breathes out from under!
810
What evil noxious fumes come up from gold mines!
What do they make men look like, and what colours!
Have you not seen or heard how speedily
Men die and how their vital forces fail
Whom the strong power of necessity
Forces to labour at such work as this?
815
And so we see earth throws out all these vapours
And breathes them into the open and ready sky.
In this way also must Avernian places
Send up to birds a deadly effluence
Which rises from the earth into the air
And poisons some part of the space of heaven;
820
At once then, when a bird has winged its way there,
The unseen poison seizes it and checks it,
And it falls straight down to the place that sends up vapours.
And when it has fallen, the power of this same vapour
Takes from its body what remains of life.
825
The vapour seems in fact to produce at first
Some form of giddiness, then later when they have fallen
Into the very fountain of the poison
They must needs spew out life itself, enveloped
All round about them by a mass of evil.
Sometimes also this vapour of Avernus
830
Dispels the air between the birds and earth
So that an almost empty space is left there.
And when the birds come flying into this
At once the thrust of pinions all is lamed
And voided, and the effort of their wings
On either side undone. When they can find
835
Nothing for wings to press on or support them
Nature for sure compels them by their weight
To drop, and through the almost empty space
Lying, their souls breathe out through all the body’s pores.
Water in wells grows colder in the summer
840
Because the earth is rarefied by heat
And sends out into the air such seeds of heat
As it itself contains. The more therefore
The earth is drained of heat, the colder grows
The water which lies hidden in the earth.
And when in turn earth pressed by cold congeals
845
And grows together as it were, then by congealing
It presses out of course into the walls
Such heat as it may have within itself.
Near to the shrine of Ammon there’s a spring
That’s cold by day and hot at night, they say.
Men wonder at this spring too much. Some think
850
It boils because the sun goes underground,
When night has shrouded earth in dreadful dark,
But this is very far removed from truth.
Though the sun beat on water’s naked body,
It cannot even heat the surface of it,
855
Hot though its blazing light above may burn;
How then from under so much solid earth
Could it boil water, fill it with its heat?
Why, even through a house’s shuttered walls
It scarce can pass, for all its burning rays.
860
What is the reason then? No doubt because
The ground around the spring remains more porous
Than the rest of the earth, and there are many seeds
Of fire adjacent to the body of water;
And when night’s dewy shades have covered the earth,
At once the soil grows cold all through and contracts;
865
And in this way, as if squeezed in the hand,
It presses out whatever seeds of fire
It may possess into the spring, and these
Make the water warm to the touch and steaming.
Next when the risen sun has loosened the earth
And made it porous as the heat penetrates it,
870
Back to their ancient seats the seeds of fire
Return, and all the warmth that’s in the water
Goes back into the earth; and for this reason
The spring is cold during the light of day.
Besides, the sun’s rays work upon the water,
And when the light comes with the quivering heat
875
They make it porous, therefore it throws off
The seeds of fire inside it, as often water
Throws off the frost contained within itself
And melts the ice and loosens all its knots.
There is also a cold spring over which
If tow be placed it often throws out flame
880
And catches fire at once. Likewise a torch
Is kindled and shines out amidst its waters
Wherever as it floats the breezes blow it.
No doubt because there are present in the water
A great many atoms of heat, and from deep down
In the earth itself bodies of fire must rise
885
All through the spring, and breathing out abroad
Come up into the air; though not so many
As to heat the water of the spring itself.
Besides, dispersed as they are, some force impels them
To burst out suddenly through the water, and then
Unite and gather together on the surface.
We may compare the spring at Aradus
890
Which wells up with sweet water through the sea
And cleaves a passage through the briny waves.
In many other regions does the sea
Give thirsty mariners a timely service,
Gushing sweet waters out amid the salt.
In this way therefore through that other spring
895
The seeds of fire break out and swarm abroad.
And when they come together on the tow
Or cling fast to the body of the torch,
At once they ignite, since tow and floating torch
Also contain many seeds of hidden fire.
And if you bring a newly extinguished wick
900
To a lamp that burns at night, have you not seen
It catches fire before it touches the flame,
And that the same thing happens with a torch?
And many other things blaze up at a distance
By mere contact with heat, before the fire
Comes close and swallows them. So this we must
Believe to happen also in this spring.
905
Now I propose to discuss what law of nature
Makes iron to be attracted by that stone
Which the Greeks call magnet, naming it from its home,
Since it is found within the Magnetes’ land.
Men find this stone amazing, since it can make
910
A chain of little rings that hang from it.
Five you may see sometimes or more hanging down
In succession, swayed by a gentle breeze,
Where one hangs from another, clinging beneath,
And each from each learns the stone’s binding power;
915
So deep the penetrating force prevails.
In matters of this kind you cannot
grasp
The real explanation unless first
Much is established; the approach must be
Extremely lengthy, winding, roundabout.
So all the more I crave attentive ears and mind.
920
In the first place, from all things that we see
A constant stream of particles must flow
And be discharged and scattered through the air
That strike upon the eyes and provoke vision.
Odours flow constantly from certain things,
As cold from rivers, heat from the sun, and spray
From waves that eat away the strong sea walls.
925
And always different sounds fly through the air.
And a damp taste of salt enters our mouths
When we walk by the sea; and when we watch wormwood
Being mixed with water we sense its bitterness.
930
So does from all things always something flow
And everywhere into all parts spreads abroad.
And no delay nor rest is given this flow
Since we constantly feel it, and all things always
We can see and smell and hear the sound of them.
935
I now repeat, what my first book made quite clear,
That the structure of all objects is most porous.
To understand this fact is relevant
To many studies, but in none more than this
On which I now embark, it is most necessary
940
To establish that all objects which we see
Consist of nothing but atoms mixed with void.
In the first place, in caves the rocky roofs
Sweat moisture out and drip with oozing drops.
Sweat likewise oozes out from all our body,
The beard grows, and hair on every limb and member.
945
Food is diffused all through the veins, increasing
And nourishing the body’s furthest parts
Even to the nails. Cold also and warming heat
We feel to pass through bronze, we feel them pass
Through gold and silver, when we hold full cups.
950
And through the stone dividing walls of houses
Voices fly and smells, and cold, and the heat
Of fire that even iron penetrates.
Again, where the great corselet of the heavens
Embraces us, the seeds of clouds fly in,
And of disease that comes in from outside.
955
And storms arising from the earth and sky
Fall duly back into the sky and earth,
Since nothing exists without a porous texture.
We add to this that not all particles
Thrown off from objects have the same effect
Upon the senses, and not all are suited
960
In the same way to influence other things.
First, the sun bakes the earth and makes it dry;
But ice it melts, and snow upon high mountains
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 29
