andy4675

История древнегреческой календарной системы

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Привлекая данные из книжки:

Greek and Roman Calendars Constructions of Time in the Classical World, Robert Hannah

Первые данные

The tablets from Knossos (c. 1370 BC) and Pylos (c. 1200 BC) list,

respectively, up to eight and up to six month-names. These are usually

attached to the word me-no, which is taken to be the Mycenaean Greek

form of the later historical Greek word for 'month', men, a word which is

itself related to mene, an early Greek word for 'moon'. This word suggests

that the Mycenaean calendar was at least initially lunar or partly so. The

month-names themselves appear to derive from gods' names or local place

names. The partial lists from Knossos and Pylos suggest that each palace

had a different set of names for the months, which is the practice in the

later historical period for the city-states.

From Knossos a set of 11 tablets (in the Fp- series) provides us with the

majority of the month-names from this palace. These tablets seem to form

part of a ritual calendar, in which monthly offerings were recorded as

being issued to various places, priests and divinities. Each tablet opens

with the name of a month, followed by the offerings, as Tablet Fpl

demonstrates:

In the month of Deukios:

To the Diktaian Zeus 12 litres of oil.

To Daidaleion: 24 litres of oil.

To Pa-de-: 12 litres of oil,

To all the gods: 36 litres of oil,

To the augur: ? 12 litres of oil.

Amnisos, to all the gods: ? 24 litres of oil,

To ?Erinys: ? 6 litres of oil.

To *47-da-: 2 litres of oil,

To the priestess of the winds: 8 litres of oil.

(total) 136 litres of oil.

Knossos Fpl, trans. Ventris and Chadwick 1973: 306

The month-names preserved from Knossos are: de-u-ki-jo-jo (of

Deukios); wo-de-wi-jo (and wo-de-wi-jo-jo, in the genitive); ka-ra-e-ri-jo

(also in the genitive as [ka]-ra-e-ri-jo-jo\ perhaps related to the monthname

Klareon in historical Ephesos and Kolophon); di-wi-jo-jo (of Diwios;

comparable to the historical month-name Dios found in Macedonia, Aitolia,

Lesbos and elsewhere); a-ma-ko-to; ra-pa-to (i.e. Lapatos, a

month-name which survived in third-century BC Arcadian Orchomenos);

and possibly pa-ja-ni-jo and e-me-si-jo-jo.

At Pylos there are pa-ki-ja-ni-jo-jo; di-pi-si-jo (reminiscent of Thessalian

Dipsios); me-tu-wo-ne-wo; wa-na-se-wi-jo and possibly ki-ri-ti-jo-jo

and po-ro-wi-to-jo. It is tempting to wonder whether the month ki-ri-ti-jo-jo

(of Krithios?) has something to do with barley (krithe in later Greek), but

whether with its sowing or harvesting we cannot tell. The Pylian name

po-ro-wi-to-jo is not qualified by me-no as a month, but it could be read as

plowi(s)toio and has therefore sometimes been taken to be a month 'of

sailing' or 'of navigation' (related to the later Greek ploisdein, to sail). If

correct, this interpretation would suggest that this month belongs to the

sailing season of summer, but obviously this is highly speculative. Otherwise,

we do not know the order of the Mycenaean months in the year

(Trumpy 1997: 2; Samuel 1972: 64).

The four month-names which may be reflected in later historical names

- di-wi-jo for Macedonian Dios, ra-pa-to for Lapatos in Arcadian Orkhomenos,

di-pi-si-jo for Thessalian Dipsios, and possibly ka-ra-e-ri-jo for

Ephesian/Kolophonian Klareon - are all the hard material evidence that

we have to suggest any continuity from the Bronze Age calendar to the

calendars of Greece in the historical period.

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also in the genitive as [ka]-ra-e-ri-jo-jo\ perhaps related to the monthname Klareon in historical Ephesos and Kolophon); i-wi-jo-jo (of Diwios; comparable to the historical month-name Dios found in Macedonia, Aitolia, Lesbos and elsewhere); a-ma-ko-to; ra-pa-to (i.e. Lapatos, a month-name which survived in third-century BC Arcadian Orchomenos
Тысяча лет для календарных имён - эт нормально. Ведь календарь есть универсальный способ передачи информации в очень лаконичном и логичном для древнего правополушарного человека виде: проекции солнечного круга, мандалы, реализации полюсной системы координат. Потому и проходят они неизменными сквозь время, эти названия месяцев. А насчёт предположения, что календарь был лунным или совмещённым - так все древние календари сначала лунные.

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Тысяча лет для календарных имён - эт нормально. Ведь календарь есть универсальный способ передачи информации в очень лаконичном и логичном для древнего правополушарного человека виде: проекции солнечного круга, мандалы, реализации полюсной системы координат. Потому и проходят они неизменными сквозь время, эти названия месяцев. А насчёт предположения, что календарь был лунным или совмещённым - так все древние календари сначала лунные.

Если название и сумело прожить столько времени, то только благодаря письменности.

Календарь был лунным - это не предположение, а утверждение. В классической Греции, а также у Гесиода. Но лунный год корректировали, чтобы он совпал с солнечным (потому что лунный год имел продолжительность 354 дня - если не делали корректировки, то летние месяцы постепенно становились зимними, и наоборот; сначала для корректировки использовали систему октаэтириды, т. е. восьмилетия, когда в 8 лет трижды добавлялся вставной 30-дневный месяц; позднее систему октаэтириды сменила система, изобретённая афинским астрономом 5 в. до н. э. Метоном, т. н. Метонова система - Метон с большой точностью просчитал разницу лунного и солнечного года).

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Если название и сумело прожить столько времени, то только благодаря письменности.
немного категорично, учитывая, что слоговое письмо после большого перерыва сменилось алфавитным, обслуживающим тот же язык. Но в промежутке люди, несомненно, помнили календарь с помощью мнемонических знаков (зарубки, пальцевый счёт и проч.) или полностью устно (что менее вероятно). Он слишком прост для использования: письменность можно забыть, но календарь - нет.
Календарь был лунным - это не предположение, а утверждение.
для крито-микенского общества это экстраполяция от известного для классического периода, т.е. уверенное предположение smile.gif

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немного категорично, учитывая, что слоговое письмо после большого перерыва сменилось алфавитным, обслуживающим тот же язык. Но в промежутке люди, несомненно, помнили календарь с помощью мнемонических знаков (зарубки, пальцевый счёт и проч.) или полностью устно (что менее вероятно). Он слишком прост для использования: письменность можно забыть, но календарь - нет.

для крито-микенского общества это экстраполяция от известного для классического периода, т.е. уверенное предположение smile.gif

1. Совсем не столь категорично. Последние следы линейной письменности теряются в Греции только ближе к концу 11 в. до н. э. (а если говорить о Кипре, то там линейное письмо засвидетельствовано в 13 в. до н. э., а потом опять, уже безперерывно с 8 в. до н. э. и почти до самого конца Эпохи Эллинизма - хотя последние 3 века своего существования там и сосуществовало уже с древнегреческим алфавитным письмом). Древнегреческое алфавитное письмо уже достоверно существовало с первой четверти 8 в. до н. э., и теперь уже высказываются предположения, что появляться оно начало с конца 2 - начала 1 тысячелетия до н. э.

Не хочу отсылать вас к статье, написанной мной на другом форуме (а это одна из лучших и "втемачных" моих статей). И копипейстить не хочу. Поэтому посоветую погуглить на тему письменности древних греков.

2. О Крито-микенском периоде известно вообще достаточно немного, чтобы высказывать стопроцентные суждения по этому поводу. Поэтому я не хотел бы высказывать по теме существовавшего тогда календара более пространно, чем приведённая мной цитата.

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Последние следы линейной письменности теряются в Греции только ближе к концу 11 в. до н. э. ... Древнегреческое алфавитное письмо уже достоверно существовало с первой четверти 8 в. до н. э.
Вот и я о том, что пусть примерно 4 века календарь существовал в бесписьменной среде. Хороший срок для проверки исторической памяти, закольцованной в мандалу! Календарь самодостаточен и ему подпорки в виде письменности, строго говоря, не нужны. Пытаюсь отделить мух от борща smile.gif

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Вот и я о том, что пусть примерно 4 века календарь существовал в бесписьменной среде. Хороший срок для проверки исторической памяти, закольцованной в мандалу!

Я так и знал, что вы клоните именно к этому. Так вот, в память без наличия письма не верю. Всегда происходят искажения и начинают возникать легенды. Чем больше времени проходит, тем большим количеством легенд обрастает рассказ, превращающийся из истории в сказкообразное поучительное повествование.

Письменность нужна и для приобретения нового знания, и для его закрепления, и для его сохранения. Для вас не должно быть секретом, к примеру, что первые календари в Египте достоверно не совпадали ни с лунным годом, ни с солнечным. Год делился на 2 эпохи, зимнюю и летнюю, на основании главного интереса египтян - эпохи сбора рожая. Первые календари же строились для деления года на летнюю и зимнюю половину гл. о. на основе разливов Нила. Со временем, в результате огромных циклов в 50 лет, становилось понятно, что такой год не соответствует действительному, потому что происходило смещение настоящих зимы и лета в сравнении с созданными египтянами. Получив это знание, египтяне пошли дальше, и стали всё время уточнять продолжительность года, процесс, продолженный и в Греции, и в Риме, и в Византии, и в средневековой Западной Европе, принявшей Григорианский календарь, и даже почти по сей день (теперь мы знаем продолжительность года с большой точностью, более милисекунды). Но для закрепления полученных знаний требовалось их записать, чтобы они не были утеряны. Именно в сохранении информации и зиждется главная роль письма для человечества.

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в память без наличия письма не верю
Это вы правильно сказали насчёт веры. А вот знание подсказывает, что есть и другие способы запоминания, кроме письма. Нумерологические расчёты, например, можно проводить (буквально) на пальцах. См. мою заметку на эту тему: http://tchakratha.narod.ru/index/0-33 Про изображения на ритуальных древнеславянских чашах (их Лепесовки и проч.) у Б.А. Рыбакова напоминать нет необходимости - это всем известно.

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Это вы правильно сказали насчёт веры. А вот знание подсказывает, что есть и другие способы запоминания, кроме письма. Нумерологические расчёты, например, можно проводить (буквально) на пальцах. См. мою заметку на эту тему: http://tchakratha.narod.ru/index/0-33 Про изображения на ритуальных древнеславянских чашах (их Лепесовки и проч.) у Б.А. Рыбакова напоминать нет необходимости - это всем известно.

1. Там где нет знания, там может быть только вера. Но я имею некоторые причины предполагать, что это так, а не иначе: Гомер исказил историю Трои, внедрив в действие богов и полубогов. Зороастрийские тексты не знают тех Ахеменидов, о которых нам сообщают современники. Письменные свидетельства современников - вот единственный и абсолютно достоверный источник знаний. Остальное - фуфло, мягко говоря. На пальцах месяцев не запомнишь. Лунный месяц, к которому так долго шёл восток, не случайно появился в Греции. Также как и год из 12 месяцев. Также как и сутки из 24 часов.

2. Рыбаков много фантазировал. И трактовал факты и свидетельства древних как ему вздумается. Утверждать о символике в искусстве у народа, не обладавшего письмом, чтобы сообщить нам об этом - чистой воды спекуляция. Впрочем, археологи во всём мире занимаются этим много лет - здесь не вина Рыбакова. Здесь он делал не более чем то, чему его учили... В любом случае я его не воспринимаю очень серьёзно, и сильно фильтрую прочтённый "базар".

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From a very early stage (c. 725 BC), however,

writing was used to record poetry, and it soon became a means of preserving

the originally oral epic poetry that had developed through the Dark

Ages. This culminated in the works of Homer, the Iliad (c. 750 BC) and the

Odyssey (c. 725 BC), narrative poems retailing events of the legendary

Trojan War and its aftermath. A generation or so later (c. 700 BC) Hesiod

produced epic poetry for different purposes - Creation myth, and Wisdom

literature - which are more closely related to Near Eastern literary forms.

Of special interest here is his Works and Days, in which the poet ostensibly

teaches his brother how to farm. From this poem in particular it is possible

to gain an idea of how the Greeks reckoned time.

Not surprisingly, given the themes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer

says very little explicitly regarding any form of calendar. His year incor

porates the expected elements of days and months, which were seen as

bringing the seasons round in a circle (Odyssey 11.294-5, 14.293-4), while

the year itself is called 'revolving' (Iliad 2.551, 8.404, 8.418, 23.833,

Odyssey 1.16, 11.248), a notion found also in Hesiod (Works and Days 386,

and in his Creation poem, the Theogony 184). In the following century or

so the composers of some of the Homeric Hymns - so called from their

supposed derivation from Homer - use the same terminology (Hymn to

Demeter 265, 445, 463; Hymn to Apollo 350).

The waning and waxing of the moon are referred to as a means for

timing Odysseus' return to Ithaka (Odyssey 19.307), while whole months

are used to count the length of a pregnancy (Iliad 19.117, compare Hymn

to Hermes 11), but overall the Homeric year was a seasonal and agricultural

one, and therefore solar rather than lunar. This seasonal year is

reflected in other parts of the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. It is the canvas

on which is painted with broad brush strokes a kind of 'natural' calendar,

in so far as it demonstrates an awareness by the Greeks of an annually

repeated series of natural and celestial events, which signal the appropriate

time for certain activities on the land or sea, from one year to the next.

It is not a chronological calendar, in the sense that dates from a given

epoch could be assigned to the years, but it is, nonetheless, a calendar,

which has a long future ahead of it. The moon's phases presumably

provided another form of calendar for various activities, but how they were

articulated with the seasonal year at this early stage, we do not know.

The celestial events which form the core of this seasonal calendar are

the risings and settings of certain stars. These are observed in the evening

after sunset and at dawn just before sunrise, the pivotal periods when

people shift from daytime activities to those of night-time, and vice versa.

At the simplest level, we find Homer referring to this year when he

mentions the dawn rising of the star Sirius in autumn, in a simile for the

dire appearance of the vengeful Akhilleus before Troy:

Old Priam saw him first with his eyes, rushing over the plain, shining like

the star which comes in late summer, and its conspicuous light appears

among the many stars in the dark of night; and they give it the name the dog

of Orion. It is the brightest, but it is made an evil sign, and brings great heat

for wretched mortals.

Homer, Iliad 22.26-31

The poet not only notes the star's rising, but also makes it the cause of the

coincident heat at the height of summer. Hesiod reports in similar vein,

colourfully ascribing to Sirius the ability to dry up men's heads and knees

(Works and Days 587). This association between the stars' appearances

and their supposed effects on the weather and on people may be regarded

Euripides, if we understand him correctly, the cry of the crane coincided

with the morning setting of the Pleiades and Orion (Euripides, Helen

1487-90; Wenskus 1990: 79). In modern times, although the numbers of

cranes have diminished markedly as breeding areas have been lost, large

flocks still migrate from Scandinavia and Russia south through eastern or

western Europe to African winter quarters. The birds leave their eastern

German halting places in this migration between late September and

mid-October, to reach the Mediterranean in mid- to late October, before

passing on to Africa (Cramp 1980: 619-20).

This migration period accords well with the Homeric and Hesiodic

testimony. The dawn setting of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion

occurred in the time of Homer from the very end of October into early

November in our terms. If we broaden our observation of the stars so as to

include the Bear, which neither rises nor sets, we discover that as these

dawn settings occurred, the Bear moved into another significant cardinal

position, that of direct north. Indeed, the Bear lay not only directly north,

but also at the highest point of its circuit around the pole (Figure 4). As

SOUTH-WEST WEST NORTH-WEST

Figure 4.

...

Figure 4. The dawn setting of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion, and the

upper culmination of the Bear, late October to early November 700 BC, Thebes

in Boiotia.

Hesiod testifies, this is the time for ploughing. It is also, we may note, the

sign of the start of the season of winter.

This configuration is repeated at another significant time of the year,

when it occurs in the dusk of evening in late March to early April. This

period is not so distinctly denoted by Hesiod, at least in terms of coincident

star phases, but he does mention the setting of the Pleiades as the start of

a period of 40 days' invisibility of this cluster, at the end of which their

rising will signal the time for harvesting the grain crop (Works and Days

385-7). This setting belongs to about 26 March, a few days after the spring

equinox (21 March). To this same time in late March we can reasonably

ascribe the following encouraging sign to the farmer who had left the

ploughing and sowing of his fields as late as the solstice in mid-winter

rather than doing it at the start of winter:

But if you plough late, this may be a remedy for you: when the cuckoo calls

for the first time in the leaves of the oak, and delights mortals over endless

earth, then Zeus may rain on the third day and not cease, neither exceeding,

nor falling short of, an ox's hoof; thus the late plougher may come out even

with the early plougher.

Hesiod, Works and Days 485-90

The cuckoo still migrates northward from its African winter quarters to

southern Europe from late March, with the main body of birds arriving

there, and their call being heard, in April and early May (Cramp 1985:405;

Pollard 1977: 43). Its appearance, therefore, denotes the second half of

spring. Aristophanes, in his late fifth-century play Birds (lines 505-6),

treats the call 'cuckoo!' as a signal among the Egyptians and Phoenicians

for work to start on the grain harvest. (This may seem premature, but the

relatively early maturation of these crops in Egypt is noted by Theophrastos,

Enquiry into Plants 8.2.7: the first barley is reaped after six months'

growth and wheat after seven, whereas in Greece barley takes seven to

eight months to ripen, and wheat even longer.) Later Roman writers also

set the bird's first sighting about the time of the spring equinox: for them

it served as a signal to farmers to complete in the first two weeks after the

equinox those tasks which ought to have been done before it, particularly

their vine-pruning (Pliny, Natural History 18.249; Horace, Satires 1.7.28-

31). For Hesiod, the cuckoo's call is a signal for the possibility of oncoming

rains which will benefit the tardy farmer who left his ploughing and

planting late. It coincides with the evening setting of the Pleiades, and, by

association, of the Hyades and Orion around the same time, while the Bear

lies to the north. Such may also have been the associations in Homer's

mind.

In addition to these two periods of farming activity denoted by the

setting of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion (and the upper culmination

of the Bear), we can find other tasks timed by the rising of these same

stars. As the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion rose at dawn, the Bear again

lay directly north but this time at the lowest point of its circuit (Figure 5).

Now, Hesiod exhorts his farmer: 'When the Pleiades, the daughters of

Atlas, rise, begin the harvest ...' (Works and Days 383-4). More picturesquely

elsewhere, he warns his farmer to stop digging his vines at this

time, when the snail also appears, and instead to prepare his reaping tools:

But when the house-carrier comes from the earth up the plants, fleeing the

Pleiades, it is no longer necessary to dig over the vines, but to sharpen your

sickles, and rouse the servants.

Hesiod, Works and Days 571-3

This rising of the Pleiades is the one that follows their 40 days of invisibility

mentioned above, and it occurred in mid-May. Later agricultural

writers would associate this observation with the start of summer (e.g.

...

Figure 5. The dawn rising of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion, and the lower

culmination of the Bear, mid-May to late-July 700 BC, Thebes in Boiotia.

Pliny, Natural History 18.222), and it is possible that Hesiod was aware of

this too, although he is not so explicit.

By the time of Orion's dawn rising, about the time of the summer

solstice, the harvest must have been completed, for the farmer now must

set to threshing the grain:

Urge on the servants to thresh the sacred grain of Demeter, when the

strength of Orion first appears ...

Hesiod, Works and Days 597-8

All hard work must be finished by the time Sirius appears at dawn a month

later, and brings with it the worst heat of summer (Works and Days 587).

The whole harvesting operation through to winnowing, then, can be

assigned to the period between mid-May and late July in our terms. This

compares well with dates for harvesting in modern but pre-technological

Greece, when barley was harvested and threshed in the third and fourth

weeks of June, while wheat was harvested, threshed and winnowed from

the first week of July to the end of the first week of August (du Boulay

1974: 275-6). The timing of the whole process was given in Homer's and

Hesiod's period by the dawn rising of the Pleiades and Orion. The Hyades

are not mentioned, nor is the Bear (as ever in Hesiod), but the former slot

in necessarily between the Pleiades and Orion, while the latter's lower

culmination may be what Homer implied when he included the Bear

among the other three star groups on Akhilleus' shield.

There is a second significant period when the rising of the Pleiades, the

Hyades and Orion, and the northing of the Bear occurred. This was in the

evening in mid- to late September, but it is not an occasion observed by

Hesiod, who instead records the slightly earlier dawn rising of Arcturus and

the coincident southing of Orion and Sirius (about 10 September) as a sign to

cut wood and to begin the grape harvest (Works and Days 414-22, 609-14).

Overall, then, we can see that Homer's selection of stars for Akhilleus'

shield probably alludes to a series of significant times for agriculture.

There is the dawn setting of the Pleiades, Hyades and Orion, coupled with

the upper culmination of the Bear, which signals the time for ploughing at

the start of winter in October. Then there is the evening occurrence of the

same observation in late March, which serves both to warn the farmer of

the need to prepare for the coming harvest season, and to raise the hopes

of the tardy ploughman if rain comes soon afterwards. Finally, there is the

dawn rising of the Pleiades, Hyades and Orion, with the lower culmination

of the Bear, which signals the start of the harvest, and arguably of summer

itself. Homer's choice of stars is not arbitrary, nor just an example of

synecdoche, of using a part to refer to the whole of the night sky. Rather,

his selection displays a sensitivity to particular celestial markers of the

agricultural seasons, and foreshadows the fuller description of these further

on in the Shield, where ploughing and harvesting are described at

length (Iliad 18.541-60).

Hesiod provides a more extensive and explicit range of star observations

as seasonal markers in his Works and Days than does Homer. In all,

Hesiod notes ten observations of the risings, settings or culmination of five

stars or star groups (if we count the culminations of Orion and Sirius as

one). For a calendar, this may seem a very thin haul of observations, and

it certainly appears so in comparison with earlier Babylonian forms and

later Greek ones.

For an agricultural calendar whose intention is to signal the appropriate

times for a few highly significant activities on the farm through the

year, Hesiod's calendar may be a little spartan in comparison with its Near

Eastern cousins, but it is nonetheless surprisingly sophisticated (Reiche

1989). The advantage to the farmer of a calendar organised according to

the periodic observation of the appearance or disappearance of stars on the

horizon is that it provided him with a timing mechanism more distinctive

and refined than that of the sun alone, and yet tied much more to the sun

and its seasons than observations of the wandering moon would be. The

moon may still provide signals for certain agricultural activities, such as

when to plant in a given month - although after Hesiod we know of this

sort of practice more from the Romans than from the Greeks - but the

farmer still needed to know at what point in the year to engage in this

activity. The moon alone could not tell him, for through its various phases

one month's moons look exactly like those of the next.

Other aspects of Hesiod's natural calendar are remarkable. Its seasonal

character is explicit, with spring, summer, autumn and winter all recognised,

and their start or end all identifiable. Spring begins with the

evening rise of Arcturus in the middle of February. Summer may be

presumed to start with the dawn rise of the Pleiades in mid-May and the

call to harvest, which is pre-eminently summer's task; but even without

that presumption, summertime is noted explicitly at the dawn rising of

Sirius in late July, and its end is recorded at 50 days after the solstice

towards mid-August. This provides an implicit record of the start of

autumn, whose rains are clearly noted in September. Finally, winter's

start occurs as the Pleiades set in the morning in late October.

Both solstices are mentioned, but neither equinox is, even though the

almost coincident setting of the Pleiades in late March is observed. Instead,

Hesiod offers us hints of what we would call 'mid-quarter' days as

the dominant seasonal markers. For him, as for most of antiquity, the

tropical points of the solstices and equinoxes were the indicators not of the

start or end of the agricultural seasons, but of the midpoints in them. The

actual starting points were about halfway between the tropics. The later

Roman writers Varro and Pliny make this absolutely clear. Pliny, for

instance, places the starts of his seasons as follows: spring at the blowing

of the west wind, Favonius (the Greek Zephyros), on 8 February (unusually,

a meteorological phenomenon, rather than an astronomical one);

summer at the dawn rising of the Pleiades on 10 May; autumn at the dawn

setting of the Lyre (Lyra) on 8 or 11 August; and winter at the dawn setting

of the Pleiades on 11 November (Pliny, Natural History 18.222).

This seasonal character to Hesiod's calendar also underlies the second

major interest evinced in it after the agricultural tasks: the times when

one can or cannot sail. The prime sailing season starts at the time of the

summer solstice, and runs for 50 days until mid-August. For some of this

time, we are told, 'the winds are steady' (Works and Days 670), a reference

probably to the north-westerly Etesians. Later authorities have these

starting at the time of the dawn rising of Sirius, although Hesiod does not

mention it at that point. They end, according to some, at the time of the

evening setting of Lyra in mid-August, a signal for the start of autumn (cf.

West 1978: 323). A secondary sailing season is placed in spring (Works and

Days 678-82). Outside these periods sailing is best avoided because of the

weather. Autumn and early winter are particularly picked out as inauspicious

times with storms at sea making sailing difficult.

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