Part 2 / Book 12 — BOOK XII

ON ANIMALS

INTRODUCTION

The history of zoölogical knowledge during the ten centuries from Aristotle to Isidore may be indicated with sufficient clearness by enumerating three of the works that survive. They are Aristotle’s “History of Animals”, the zoölogical part (Books VIII-XI) of Pliny’s “Natural History”, and Isidore’s “On Animals”. On the first, belonging to the fourth century B.C., Cuvier has pronounced judgment as “one of the greatest monuments that the genius of man has raised to the natural sciences”.[329] Pliny, four centuries later, is commended by Cuvier for his industry and learning, but reproached for his predilection for the fabulous, and his absolute lack of scientific order and of the scientific spirit.[330] Six centuries later a résumé of zoölogical knowledge is given in the Etymologies, which is of no value except for the information it gives of the benighted character of the medieval intellect.

Isidore’s zoölogy is shown in a better light, however, when it is compared with that of the Physiologus,[331] his great rival in this field throughout the Middle Ages. This is a collection of fabulous accounts of animals, with the moral and spiritual lessons that were drawn from them. In it the ancient science is seen in its most de-secularized form; nature knowledge is made absolutely subservient to religious teaching, and in the process actual knowledge is driven out and fable takes its place. It must be reckoned to Isidore’s credit that he resisted the temptation to give “the higher meaning”.

ANALYSIS

I. Flocks and herds and beasts of burden (ch. 1).

II. Wild beasts (ch. 2).

III. Small creatures (ch. 3).

IV. Serpents (ch. 4).

V. Worms (ch. 5).

VI. Fishes (ch. 6).

VII. Birds (ch. 7).

VIII. Small flying creatures (ch. 8).

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On flocks and work animals.

1. Adam first named all living creatures, assigning a name to each in accordance with its purpose at that time, in view of the nature it was to be subject to.

2. But the nations have named all animals in their own languages. But Adam did not give those names in the language of the Greeks or Romans or any barbaric people, but in that one of all languages which existed before the flood, and is called Hebrew.

9. A sheep is a domesticated animal with soft wool, harmless and calm in disposition.

10. The wether (vervex) is so called from its strength (vires) ... or because it has a worm (vermen) in its head, and, excited by the itch of these worms, they butt one another and fight and smite one another with great fury.

17. And so these animals (Ibices), as we have said, remain among the loftiest rocks, and if ever they perceive the hostile presence of wild beast or of man they throw themselves down from the highest summits, and land unharmed on their horns.

18. [Deer] are foes of snakes, and when they feel that they are weighed down with weakness they draw snakes out from their holes by the breath of their nostrils and overcoming the deadly poison[332] they refresh themselves by eating them. They made known the plant dittany. For they eat it, and shake out the arrows that have stuck in them.

19. They give a wondering attention to the whistling sound of the Pan’s pipes. They listen sharply with up-pricked ears, not with hanging ears. If ever they swim across great rivers or seas, they lay the head on the haunch of the one in front, and following one another in turn they feel no weariness from the weight.

43. Horses have a high spirit; for they prance in the fields, they scent war, they are roused by the trumpet-sound to battle, they are roused by the voice and urged to the race, they grieve when they are beaten, they are proud when they win a victory. Certain know the enemy in battle, so that they bite the foe. Some recall their own masters, and forget obedience if their masters are changed; some allow none but their masters to mount them; when their masters are slain or are dying, many shed tears. The horse is the only creature that weeps for man and feels the emotion of grief....

Chapter 2. On beasts of prey.

5. When lions sleep, their eyes are on the watch; when they walk about they obliterate their tracks with their tails that the hunter may not find them. When a cub is born it is said to sleep for three nights and three days. Then the shaking, as it were, of the ground where it lies, because of its father’s roaring, is said to awaken the sleeping cub.

6. Toward man the nature of the lion is kind, so that they cannot become angry unless attacked. Their pity is shown by continual examples. For they spare the fallen, they allow captives they meet to return home; they do not kill man unless very hungry.

17. The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mts. In every part of their body they are lions, and in wings and head are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces.

20. They say the urine [of the lynx] is changed to the hardness of a precious stone, which is called lincurius, and by the following proof it is shown that the lynxes are conscious of this; for when they have urinated, they cover the urine with sand as well as they can, from a sort of meanness of nature, lest such a product be turned to the advantage of man.

21. Castores (beavers) are so named from castrating. For their testicles are useful for medicine and therefore when they perceive a hunter, they castrate themselves and cut away their potency by a bite. Of these Cicero speaks in Scauriana: “They ransom themselves by that part of the body for which they are most sought.”

24. [The wolf] is a ravenous beast and greedy for blood, and of it the country people say that a man loses his voice if a wolf sees him first. And therefore if a person is suddenly silent, they say, “It is the wolf in the fable”. But if the wolf perceives that he has been noticed first, he lays aside his boldness....

25. ... No creature is more sagacious than dogs, for they have more understanding than other animals.

26. For they alone recognize their names, love their masters, guard their masters’ houses, risk their lives for their masters, of their own free will rush upon the prey with their master, do not abandon even their master’s dead body. And finally their nature is such that they cannot exist without men. In dogs two things are to be regarded, courage and speed.

38. Musio is so called because it is a foe to mice (muribus). Common people call it cat (catus) because it catches [mice]. Others say, because it sees (catat). For it has such sharp sight that it overcomes the darkness of the night by the brightness of its eyes.

Chapter 3. On small animals.

1. Mus (mouse) is a tiny animal; it has a Greek name;[333] but any word that is derived from it becomes Latin. Others say mures are so named because they are born from the humor (moisture) of the earth. For mus is equivalent to terra, and from the word comes humus too. The liver of these creatures grows at the full moon, just as certain things that belong to the sea grow, which grow smaller again when the moon lessens.

3. Mustella (weasel) is so called, being, as it were, mus longus (long mouse); for telum (missile) is so called from its length. This creature, somewhat wily in its disposition, moves and changes its nest in the house when it is nursing its young. It chases snakes and mice. And there are two sorts of weasels. For one is a creature of the woods, and is of a different size, which the Greeks call ἴκτιδες. The other wanders about in houses. Now they have an erroneous idea who say that the weasel conceives in its mouth, and gives birth through its ear.[334]

4. In Sardinia is a very tiny creature, spider-shaped, which is called solifuga, because it shuns the daylight. It is very common in silver mines, secretly creeping along, and it poisons those who unknowingly sit down on it.

8. Grillus (cricket or grasshopper) has its name from the sound of its voice. This creature walks backward, tunnels the earth, makes a loud sound at night. The ant goes hunting it, having itself lowered by a hair into its hole, first blowing the dust out, that it may not hide itself, and thus it is dragged out in the embrace of the ant.

9. Formica (ant) is so called because it carries morsels (ferat micas) of grain. Its wisdom is great. For it looks forward to the future and in summer makes ready food to be eaten in winter. At the harvest, too, it picks out wheat and refuses to touch barley. After it rains it always puts out the grain [to dry]. It is said there are ants in Ethiopia of a dog’s shape, and these dig up golden sands with their feet, and they watch them in order that no one may carry them off, and those that do seize them, they pursue till they kill.

10. Formicoleon (ant-lion) has its name for this, that it is a lion of the ants, or at least ant and lion at the same time. For it is a small creature that is very hostile to ants. It hides itself in the sand and kills the ants as they are carrying grains. And it is called lion and ant because it is, as it were, an ant to other animals, but a lion to ants.[335]

Chapter 4. On serpents.

3. The serpent has received its name because it crawls (serpit) with unnoticed steps; for it does not go with strides that are observable, but creeps on by the trifling impulses of its scales. But those that go on four feet, like lizards and newts, are called not serpents but reptiles. Now serpents are reptiles because they creep (reptant) on their belly and breast; and there are as many poisons as there are genera; as many deaths as there are species; as many dolors, as colors.

4. The dragon (draco) is the largest of all serpents and of all living things upon earth. This the Greeks call δράκοντα. And it was taken into the Latin so that it was called Draco. And frequently being dragged from caves it rushes into the air, and the air is thrown into commotion on account of it. And it is crested, has a small face and narrow blow-holes through which it draws its breath and thrusts out its tongue. And it has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it is dangerous for its stroke, rather than for its jaws.

5. It is harmless in the way of poison, but poison is not necessary for it to cause death, because it kills whatever it has entangled in its folds. And from it the elephant is not safe because of its size. For it lies in wait near the paths by which elephants usually go, and entangles the elephant’s legs in its folds, and kills it by strangling. It grows in Ethiopia and in India, in the very burning of perennial heat.

12. It is said that when the asp begins to feel the influence of the wizard who summons her forth with certain forms of words suited thereto, in order that he may bring her out from her hole—when the asp is unwilling to come forth, she presses one ear against the earth, and the other she closes and covers up with her tail, and so refuses to hear those magical sounds, and does not come out at the incantation.

36. The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other [poisonous animals] strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it; nay, even if it falls in a well, the power of the poison slays those who drink it. It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them. For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out.

Chapter 5. On worms.

1. A worm is a creature that as a rule comes into being without any begetting from flesh or wood or any earthy substance, although sometimes they are born from eggs, as the scorpion. Worms belong either to earth or water or air[336] or flesh or leaves or wood or clothes.

3. Sanguissuga, a water worm, is so named because it sucks blood. For it lies in wait for drinkers, and when it is carried into their throats or fastens itself anywhere, it draws the blood, and when it has taken its fill of gore, it vomits it out, to suck in again fresh blood.

Chapter 6. On fishes.

3. Certain kinds of fishes are amphibious, being so called because they have the practice of walking on land and of swimming in the water.

4. Men gave names to the beasts of the field and wild animals and birds, before the fishes, because they were seen and known first. And later, when the kinds of fishes had been learned by degrees, names were applied either from their likeness to land animals, or to suit the species, whether in regard to habits, color, shape, or sex.

6. [Fish receive their names] from sex, as the musculus (mussel) because it is the masculine of whale, for by union with the mussel it is said this monster conceives.

8. There are huge sorts of whales with bodies the size of mountains, like the whale that received Jonah, whose belly was of such magnitude that it held something like a hell, the prophet saying: “He heard me from the belly of hell”.

14. Thynni (tunnies) have a Greek name. They appear in spring-time. They come in on the right side and go out on the left. They are supposed to do this because they see more keenly with the right eye than with the left.

25. Mullus, so called because it is mollis (soft) and most tender, by eating which they relate that lust is held in check and that the keenness of the sight is dimmed; moreover men who have often eaten it have a fishy smell. The killing of a mullet in wine brings a distaste for wine to those who have drunk thereof.

34. Echeneis, a small fish, half-a-foot long, took its name because it holds a ship[337] back by clinging to it. Though the winds rush and the gusts rage it is seen nevertheless that the ship stands still as if rooted in the sea, and does not move, not because the fish holds it back but merely because it clings to it.

35. The uranoscope is so called from an eye which it has in its head, by which it always looks upward.

41. The likeness of the eel (anguilla) to the snake (anguis) has given it its name. Its origin is in mud. Whence whensoever it is taken, it is so slippery that the more determinedly one squeezes it the quicker it slips away. They say, too, that a river of the east, the Ganges, produces them three hundred feet long. If an eel is killed in wine they who drink of it have a loathing for wine.

43. Lamprey (muraena) the Greeks term μύραινα, because it coils itself in circles. They say that this fish is of the female sex only, and that it conceives from the serpent. On this account it is enticed by the fishermen by hissing like a serpent, and it is taken. It is killed with difficulty by the stroke of a club but at once by that of a ferule. It is certain that it has its life in its tail, for if the head is struck it is hard to kill it, but when its tail is struck it dies at once.

53. Mussels (musculi) as we have said before are shell-fish, and oysters conceive from their milk, and they are called musculi as if it were masculi.

56. Certain relate what is incredible, that ships go more slowly if they carry a tortoise’s right foot.

Chapter 7. On birds.

3. Birds (aves) are so called because they have no definite roads (viae) but speed hither and thither through pathless (avia) ways.

9. Many names of birds were evidently made up from the sound of their cry, as grus, corvus, cygnus, pavo, ulula, cuculus, graculus, and so on. For the variety of their cry told men what they were to be called.

10. The eagle (aquila) is so called from its sharpness (acumine) of sight. For it is said to possess such power of vision that when it is borne over the sea with motionless wing and is not visible to human sight, even from such a lofty place it sees the fishes swim, and descending like a missile from an engine it seizes its booty and flies with it to the shore.

11. It is also said not to lower its gaze from the rays of the sun, and for this reason it lifts its young ones in its talons and exposes them to the rays of the sun, and keeps as worthy of its kind those which it sees keep a motionless gaze, and drops down as degenerate whatever ones it sees turning their gaze downward.

18. The swan (cygnus) is so called from singing, because it pours forth sweet song in modulated tones. And it sings sweetly for the reason that it has a long curving neck, and it must needs be that the voice, struggling out by a long and winding way, should utter various notes.

19. They say that in the Hyperborean regions when cithara players lead, many swans fly up and sing very harmoniously.

44. The crow (cornix), a bird full of years, has a Greek name[338] among the Latins, and augurs say it increases a man’s anxieties by the tokens it gives, that it reveals ambushes, and foretells the future. It is great wickedness to believe this, that God entrusts his counsels to crows.

66. To the hoopoe (upupa) the Greeks give its name because it attends to (consideret) human excrements and feeds on stinking filth, a most foul bird, helmeted with upstanding crests, always lingering at graves and human excrements. And whoever anoints himself with its blood, on going to sleep will see demons choking him.

67. Tuci, which is the name the Spaniards give to cuckoos (cuculi), were evidently named from their peculiar cry. These have a time for coming, perched on the shoulders of kites because of their short and weak flights, in order that they may not grow weary and fail in the long spaces of the air. Their saliva produces grasshoppers. [The cuckoo] eats the eggs it finds in the sparrow’s nest, and substitutes its own, which the sparrow receives and sets on and cares for.

79. All kinds of flying things are born twice. For first the eggs are born, then by the heat of the mother’s body they are formed and given life.

Chapter 8. On small winged creatures.

1. Bees (apes) are so called because they hold to one another by the feet, or it may be because they are born without feet (pes). For it is only later on that they get feet and wings. These are skilful in the business of producing honey, they dwell in homes allotted to them, they arrange their dwellings with a skill that makes no mistake, they store the hive from various flowers, and forming their wax-cells, they fill the camp with unnumbered young, and they have an army and kings, they make wars, flee from smoke, and are enraged by noise.

2. A good many have proved by experiment that these spring from the carcasses of cattle. For in order to create them the flesh of slain calves is beaten, in order that worms may be created from the rotten gore, and these afterward turn to bees. In a correct sense bees (apes) are so called because they spring from boves as hornets from horses, drones from mules, wasps from asses.

BOOKS XIII AND XIV

[On Universe and Earth]

INTRODUCTION

In books XIII and XIV Isidore gives a complete and systematic account of the material universe, taking up and treating in order the heavens, the atmosphere, water, and earth. His treatment of the last two is especially full and constitutes a geographical description of the earth’s surface as known at his time.[339]

ANALYSIS

I. The universe (Bk. XIII, ch. 1).

II. Atoms (ch. 2).

III. Elements (ch. 3).

IV. The heavens (chs. 4–6).

1. The parts of the heavens.[340]

2. The circles of the heavens.[340]

V. The air and the clouds (chs. 7–11).

1. Thunder.

2. Lightning.

3. The rainbow and cloud forms.

4. The winds.

VI. Waters (chs. 12–22).

1. Springs.

2. The sea.

3. The ocean.

4. The Mediterranean.

5. Bays, etc.

6. Lakes.

7. The abyss.

8. Rivers.

VII. The dry land (Bk. XIV, ch. 1).

1. The circle of lands (chs. 2–5).

(1) Asia.

(2) Europe.

(3) Africa.

2. Islands (ch. 6).

3. Promontories (ch. 7).

4. Mountains, etc. (ch. 8).

5. The lower parts of the earth (ch. 9).

BOOK XIII

On the Universe and its Parts

EXTRACTS

Preface.—In this book, as it were in a brief outline we have commented on certain causes in the heavens, and the sites of the lands, and the spaces of the sea, so that the reader may run them over in a little time, and learn their etymologies and causes with compendious brevity.

Chapter 1. On the universe.

1. The universe is the heavens, the earth, the sea, and what in them is the work of God, of whom it is said: “And the universe was made by him”. The universe (mundus) is so named in Latin by the philosophers because it is in continued motion (motu), as for example, the heavens, the sun, moon, air, seas. For no rest is permitted to its elements, and therefore it is always in motion.

2. Whence also the elements seem to Varro living creatures, since, he says, they move of themselves. The Greeks have borrowed a name for the universe from ornament, on account of the variety of the elements and the beauty of the stars. For it is called among them κόσμος, which means ornament. For with the eyes of the flesh we see nothing fairer than the universe.

3. It is agreed that there are four climata, that is, tracts of the universe: East, West, North, South.

Chapter 2. On the atoms.

1. The philosophers call by the name of atoms certain parts of bodies in the universe so very minute that they do not appear to the sight, nor admit of τομή, that is, division, whence they are called atoms. These are said to flit through the void of the whole universe with restless motions, and to move hither and thither like the finest dust that is seen when the rays of the sun pour through the windows. From these certain philosophers of the heathen have thought that trees are produced, and herbs and all fruits, and fire and water, and all things are made out of them.

2. Atoms exist either in a body, or in time, or in number, or in the letters. In a body as a stone. You divide it into parts, and the parts themselves you divide into grains like the sands, and again you divide the very grains of sand into the finest dust, until if you could, you would come to some little particle which is now [such] that it cannot be divided or cut. This is an atom in a body.

3. In time, the atom is thus understood: you divide a year, for example, into months, the months into days, the days into hours, the parts of the hours still admit of division, until you come to such an instant of time and fragment of a moment as it were, that it cannot be lengthened by any little bit and therefore it cannot be divided. This is the atom of time.

4. In numbers, as for example, eight is divided into fours, again four into twos, then two into ones. One is an atom because it is indivisible. So also in case of the letters. For you divide a speech into words, words into syllables, the syllable into letters. The letter, the smallest part, is the atom and cannot be divided. The atom is therefore what cannot be divided, like the point in geometry....

Chapter 3. On the elements.

1. Hyle[341] is the name the Greeks apply to the first material of things, which is in no way formed, but has a capacity for all bodily forms, and out of it these visible elements are shaped. Wherefore they have derived their name from this source.[342] This hyle the Latins called materia, for the reason that everything in the rough from which something is made, is always called materia....

2. The Greeks moreover call the elements στοιχεῖα,[343] because they are akin to one another in the harmony of like quality and a sort of common character, for they are said to be allied with one another in a natural way, now tracing their origin from fire all the way to earth, now from earth all the way to fire, so that fire fades into air, air is thickened to water, water coarsened to earth, and again earth is dissolved into water, water refined into air, air rarefied into fire.

3. Wherefore all elements are present in all, but each of them has received its name from that which it has in greater degree. And they have been assigned by divine providence to the living creatures that are suited to them, for the Creator himself filled the heaven with angels, the air with birds, the sea with fish, the earth with men and other living creatures.

Chapter 5. On the parts of the heavens.

1. Ether is the place in which the stars are, and it signifies that fire which is separated on high from the whole universe. Ether is the element itself; and aethra is the glow of the ether and is a Greek word.

Chapter 7. On the air and the clouds.

1. Air is emptiness, having more rarity mixed with it than the other elements. Of it Virgil says:

Air (aer) is so called from αἴρειν (to raise), because it supports the earth or, it may be, is supported by it. This belongs partly to the substance of heaven, partly to that of the earth. For yonder thin air where windy and gusty blasts cannot come into existence, belongs to the heavenly part; but this more disordered air which takes a corporeal character because of dank exhalations, is assigned to earth, and it has many subdivisions: for being set in motion it makes winds; and being vigorously agitated, lightnings and thunderings; being contracted, clouds; being thickened, rain; when the clouds freeze, snow; when thick clouds freeze in a more disordered way, hail; being spread abroad, it causes fine weather; for it is known that thick air is a cloud and that a cloud that thins and melts away, is air.

2. ... Now the thickening of the air makes clouds. For the winds gather the air together and make a cloud. Whence is the expression: “Atque in nubem cogitur aer.”

Chapter 8. On thunder.

1. Thunder (tonitruum) is so called because its sound terrifies (terreat), for tonus is sound. And it sometimes shakes everything so severely that it seems to have split the heavens, since when a great gust of the most furious wind suddenly bursts into the clouds, its circular motion becoming stronger and seeking an outlet, it tears asunder with great force the cloud it has hollowed out, and thus comes to our ears with a horrifying noise.

2. One ought not to wonder at this since a vesicle, however small, emits a great sound when it is exploded. Lightning is caused at the same time with the thunder, but the former is seen more quickly because it is bright and the latter comes to our ears more slowly....

Chapter 9. On thunder-bolts.

1. ... Clouds striking together make thunder-bolts: for in all things collision creates fire, as we see in the case of stones, or when wheels rub together, or in the woods. In the same way fire is created in the clouds; whence they are clouds before, lightnings later.

2. It is certain that it is from wind and fire that thunder-bolts are formed in the clouds, and that they are launched by the impulse of the winds; and the fire of a thunder-bolt has greater force in penetrating because it is made of subtler elements than our fire, that is, the fire we make use of....

Chapter 10. On the rainbow and the causes of clouds.

1. The rainbow is so called from its resemblance to a bent bow. Its proper name is Iris and it is called Iris, as it were aeris (of the air), because it comes down through the air to earth. It comes from the radiance of the sun when hollow clouds receive the sun’s ray full in front, and they create the appearance of a bow, and rarified water, bright air, and a misty cloud under the beams of the sun create those varied hues.

2. Rains (pluviae) are so called because they flow, as if fluviae. They arise by exhalation from earth and sea, and being carried aloft they fall in drops on the lands, being acted upon by the heat of the sun or condensed by strong winds.

13. Shadow (umbra) is air that lacks sun, and is so called because it is made when we interpose ourselves in the rays of the sun. It moves and is ill-defined, because of the motion of the sun and the force of the wind. As often as we move in the sun, it seems to move with us, because wherever we encounter the rays of the sun, we take the light from that place, and so the shadow seems to walk with us and to imitate our motions.

Chapter 11. On the winds.

2. There are four chief winds. The first of these is from the east, Subsolanus, and Auster from the south, Favonius from the west, and from Septentrio (north) a wind of the same name blows. These winds have kindred winds one on each side.

3. Subsolanus has on its right Vulturnus, on its left Eurus; Auster has on its right Euroauster, on its left Austroafricus; Favonius on its right Africus, on its left Corus. Further, Septentrio has on its right Circius, on its left Aquilo. These twelve winds surround the globe of the universe with their blasts.

20. ... In the spring and autumn the greatest possible storms appear when it is neither full summer nor full winter, whence, as [the time] is an intervening one, bordering on both seasons, storms are caused from the conjunction of contrary airs.

Chapter 12. On the waters.

2. The two most powerful elements of human life are fire and water, whence they who are forbidden fire and water are seriously punished.

3. The element of water is master of all the rest. For the waters temper the heavens, fertilize the earth, incorporate air in their exhalations, climb aloft and claim the heavens; for what is more marvelous than the waters keeping their place in the heavens!

4. It is too small a thing to come to such a height; they carry with them thither swarms of fishes; pouring forth, they are the cause of all growth on the earth. They produce fruits, they make fruit trees and herbs grow, they scour away filth, wash away sin, and give drink to all living things.

Chapter 13. On the different qualities of waters.

5. Linus, a fountain of Arcadia, does not allow miscarriages to take place. In Sicily are two springs, of which one makes the sterile woman fertile, the other makes the fertile, sterile. In Thessaly are two rivers; they say that sheep drinking from one become black; from the other, white; from both, parti-colored.

10. Hot springs in Sardinia cure the eyes; they betray thieves, for their guilt is revealed by blindness. They say there is a spring in Epirus in which lighted torches are extinguished, and torches that are extinguished are lighted. Among the Garamantes they say there is a spring so cold in the daytime that it cannot be drunk, so hot at night that it cannot be touched.

Chapter 14. On the sea.

2. ... The depth of the sea varies; still the level of its surface is invariable.

3. Moreover that the sea does not increase, though it receives all streams and all springs, is accounted for in this way; partly that its very greatness does not feel the waters flowing in; secondly, because the bitter water consumes the fresh that is added, or that the clouds draw up much water to themselves, or that the winds carry it off, and the sun partly dries it up; lastly, because the water leaks through certain secret holes in the earth, and turns and runs back to the sources of rivers and to the springs.

Chapter 15. On the ocean.

1. Oceanus is so named by both Greeks and Latins because it flows like a circle around the circle of the land; it may be from its speed because it runs swiftly (ocius); or because like the heavens it glows with a dark purple color. Oceanus is, as it were, κυάνεος (dark purple). It is this that embraces the shores of the lands, approaching and receding with alternate tides. For when the winds breathe in the depths, it either pushes the waters away or sucks them back.

2. And it has taken different names from the neighboring lands; as Gallicus, Germanicus, Scythicus, Caspius, Hyrcanus, Atlanticus, Gaditanus. The Gaditanian strait was named from Gades where the entrance to the Mare Magnum first opens from the Ocean. Whence when Hercules had come to Gades he placed the columns there, believing that there was the limit of the circle of the lands.

Chapter 16. On the Mediterranean Sea.

1. The Mare Magnum is that which flows from the west out of the Ocean and extends toward the South, and then stretches to the North. And it is called Magnum because the rest of the seas are smaller in comparison with it. It is also called Mediterranean because it flows through the midst of the land (per mediam terram) as far as the Orient, separating Europe and Africa and Asia.

Chapter 20. On the abyss.

1. The abyss is the deep water which cannot be penetrated; whether caverns of unknown waters from which springs and rivers flow; or the waters that pass secretly beneath, whence it is called abyss. For all waters or torrents return by secret channels to the abyss which is their source.

Chapter 21. On rivers.

6. Certain of the rivers have received their names from causes peculiar to them, and of these some which are told of as famous in history should be mentioned.

7. Geon is a river issuing from Paradise and surrounding the whole of Ethiopia, being called by this name because it waters the land of Egypt by its flood, for γῆ in the Greek means terra in the Latin. This river is called Nile by the Egyptians, on account of the mud which it brings, which gives fertility.

8. The river Ganges, which the holy Scriptures call Phison, issuing from Paradise, takes its course toward the regions of India.... It is said to rise in the manner of the Nile and overflow the lands of the East.

9. The Tigris, a river of Mesopotamia, rises in Paradise, and flows opposite the Assyrians (contra Assyrios), and after many windings flows into the Dead Sea. And it is called by this name because of its velocity, like a wild beast that runs with great speed.

10. The Euphrates, a river of Mesopotamia, greatly abounding in gems, rises in Paradise and flows through the midst of Babylonia.... It irrigates Mesopotamia in certain places just as the Nile does Alexandria. Sallust, however, a most reliable author, asserts that the Tigris and the Euphrates arise from one source in Armenia, and going by different ways are far separated, an intervening space of many miles being left, and the land which is enclosed by them is called Mesopotamia. Therefore as Hieronymus noted, there must be a different explanation of the rivers of Paradise.

24. Tanus was the first king of the Scythians, from whom the river Tanais is said to have been named. It rises in the Riphaean forest, and separates Europe from Asia, flowing in the midst between two divisions of the world, and emptying into the Pontus.

35. Certain rivers were overwhelmed in the flood, and shut off by the mass of the lands, but certain ones which were not, burst forth by passages that were at that time violently formed from the abyss.

Chapter 22. On floods.

2. The first flood occurred under Noah, when the Omnipotent, offended at man’s guilty deeds, covered the whole circle of the lands[344] and destroyed all, and there was one stretch of sky and sea; and we observe the proof of this to the present time in the stones which we are wont to go to see in the distant mountains, which have mingled in them the shells of mussels and oysters, and besides are often hollowed by the waters.

3. The second flood was in Achaea in the time of the patriarch Jacob and of Ogygius, who was the founder and king of Eleusina, and gave his name to the place and time.

4. The third flood was in Thessaly in the time of Moses and Amphictyon, who reigned third after Cecrops. At which time a flood of waters destroyed the greater part of the peoples of Thessaly, a few escaping by taking refuge in the mountains, especially on mount Parnassus, on whose circuit Deucalion then possessed dominion. And he received those who fled to him on rafts, and warmed and fed them on the twin peaks of Parnassus, and so the fables of the Greeks say that the human race was re-created from stones—because of the inborn hardness of the heart of man.

BOOK XIV

On the Earth and its Parts

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On the earth.

1. The earth is placed in the middle region of the universe, being situated like a center at an equal interval from all parts of heaven; in the singular number it means the whole circle;[345] in the plural[346] the separate parts; and reason gives different names for it; for it is called terra from the upper part where it suffers attrition (teritur); humus from the lower and humid part, as for example, under the sea; again, tellus, because we take (tollimus) its fruits; it is also called ops because it brings opulence.[347] It is likewise called arva, from ploughing (arando) and cultivating.

2. Earth in distinction from water is called dry; since the Scripture says that “God called the dry land, earth”. For dryness is the natural property of earth. Its dampness it gets by its relation to water. As to its motion (earthquakes) some say it is wind in its hollow parts, the force of which causes it to move.

3. Others say that a generative water moves in the lands, and causes them to strike together, sicut vas, as Lucretius says. Others have it that the earth is sponge-shaped, and its fallen parts lying in ruins cause all the upper parts to shake. The yawning of the earth also is caused either by the motion of the lower water, or by frequent thunderings, or by winds bursting out of the hollow parts of the earth.

Chapter 2. On the circle of lands.[348]

1. The circle of lands (orbis) is so called from its roundness, which is like that of a wheel, whence a small wheel is called orbiculus. For the Ocean flowing about on all sides encircles its boundaries. It is divided into three parts; of which the first is called Asia; the second, Europe; the third, Africa.

2. These three parts the ancients did not divide equally; for Asia stretches from the South through the East to the North, and Europe from the North to the West, and thence Africa from the West to the South. Whence plainly the two, Europe and Africa, occupy one-half, and Asia alone the other. But the former were made into two parts because the Great Sea enters from the Ocean between them and cuts them apart. Wherefore if you divide the circle of lands into two parts, East and West, Asia will be in one, and in the other, Europe and Africa.

Chapter 3. On Asia.

1. Asia was so called from the name of a certain woman who held dominion over the East in the time of the ancients. Lying in the third part of the circle of lands it is bounded on the east by the sun-rise, on the south by the ocean, on the west by our sea, on the north by lake Maeotis and the river Tanais. It has many provinces and regions, of which I shall briefly explain the names and sites, beginning with Paradise.

2. Paradise is a place lying in the parts of the Orient, whose name is translated out of the Greek into the Latin as hortus. In the Hebrew it is called Eden, which in our tongue means delight. And the two being joined mean garden of delight; for it is planted with every kind of wood and fruit-bearing tree, having also the tree of life; there is neither cold nor heat there, but a continual spring temperature.

3. And a spring, bursting forth from its center, waters the whole grove, and divides into four rivers that take their rise there. Approach to this place was closed after man’s sin. For it is hedged in on every side by sword-like flame,[349] that is, girt by a wall of fire whose burning almost reaches the heaven.

4. A guard of cherubim, too, that is, of angels, is set over the burning of the fiery rampart to ward off evil spirits, in order that the flames may keep men off, and good angels, bad ones, that the approach to Paradise may not be open to any flesh or to the spirit of wickedness.

5. India is so called from the river Indus, by which it is bounded on the west. It stretches from the southern sea all the way to the sun-rise, and from the north all the way to Mount Caucasus, having many peoples and cities and the island of Taprobana, full of elephants, and Chryse and Argyra, rich in gold and silver, and Tyle, which never lacks leaves on its trees.

Chapter 4. On Europe.

2. Europe, which was parted off to form a third part of the circle, begins at the river Tanais, passing to the west along the Northern ocean as far as the limits of Spain. Its Eastern and Southern parts begin at the Pontus, extend along the whole Mare Magnum, and end at the island of Gades.

Chapter 5. On Libya (Africa).

3. It begins at the boundaries of Egypt,[350] extending along the South through Ethiopia as far as Mt. Atlas. On the north it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, and it ends at the strait of Gades, having the provinces Libya Cyrenensis, Pentapolis, Tripolis, Byzacium, Carthago, Numidia, Mauritania Stifensis, Mauritania Tingitana, and in the neighborhood of the sun’s heat, Ethiopia.

14. Ethiopia is so called from the color of its people, who are scorched by the nearness of the sun. The color of the people betrays the sun’s intensity, for there is never-ending heat here. Whatever there is of Ethiopia is under the south pole. Towards the west it is mountainous, sandy in the middle, and toward the eastern region, a desert. Its situation extends from the Atlas Mts. on the west to the bounds of Egypt on the east. It is bounded on the south by the ocean, on the north by the river Nile. It has many peoples, of diverse appearance and fear-inspiring because of their monstrous aspect.

17. Besides the three parts of the circle there is a fourth part across the Ocean on the South,[351] which is unknown to us on account of the heat of the sun, in whose boundaries, according to story, the Antipodes are said to dwell.

Chapter 6. On Islands.

2. Britannia, an island of the Ocean, completely separated from the circle of lands by the sea that flows between, is called by the name of its people. It lies in the rear of the Gauls and looks toward Spain. Its circuit is 4,875 miles; there are many large rivers in it and hot springs, and an abundant and varied supply of metals. Jet is very common there, and pearls.

3. Thanatos, an island of the Ocean in the Gallic sea, separated from Britain by a narrow strait, with fields rich in grain and a fertile soil. It is called Thanatos from the death of snakes, for it is destitute of them itself, and earth taken thence to any part of the world kills snakes at once.

4. Thyle is the furthest island in the Ocean, between the region of North and that of West,[352] beyond Britain, having its name from the sun, because there the sun makes its summer halt, and there is no day beyond it; whence the sea there is sluggish and frozen.

6. Scotia, the same as Hibernia, an island very near Britain, narrower in the extent of its lands but more fertile; this reaches from Africa towards Boreas, and Iberia and the Cantabrian ocean are opposite to the first part of it. Whence, too, it is called Hibernia. It is called Scotia because it is inhabited by the tribes of Scots. There are no snakes there, few birds, no bees; and so if any one scatters among beehives stones or pebbles brought thence, the swarms desert them.

8. The Happy Isles (Fortunatae insulae) ... lie in the Ocean opposite the left of Mauretania, very near the West, and separated from one another by the sea.

12. Taprobana is an island lying close to India on the Southeast, where the Indian Ocean begins, extending in length eight hundred and seventy-five miles, in width, six hundred and twenty-five. It is separated [from India] by a river that flows between. It is all full of pearls and gems. Part of it is full of wild beasts and elephants, but men occupy part. In this island they say that there are two summers and two winters in one year, and that the place blooms twice with flowers.

21. Delos is said to be so named because after the flood which is said to have come in the time of Ogygius, when continuous night had overshadowed the circle of lands for many months, it was lightened by the rays of the sun before all lands, and got its name from that, because it was first made visible to the eye. For the Greeks call visible δῆλος.

Chapter 9. On the under parts of the Earth.

9. Gehenna is a place of fire and sulphur, which they think is so named from the valley sacred to idols which is near the wall of Jerusalem, which was filled in former time with bodies of the dead. For there the Hebrews used to sacrifice their own sons to demons, and the place itself was called Gehennon. Therefore the place of future punishment where sinners are to be tortured is denoted by the name of this place. (We read in Job) that there is a double Gehenna, both of fire and of frost.

11. Just as the heart of an animal is in its midst, so also infernus is said to be in the midst of the earth.