34. The five circles of the universe and the passage of the stars under the Earth
THE RECKONING OF TIME
has13 hours.290 These excerpts from the writings of Pliny deserve to have a place in our work.
34. THE FIVE CIRCLES OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE
PASSAGE OF THE STARS UNDER THE EARTH
When we discuss time, we are occasionally obliged /387/ to refer to the circles or zones ^ equinoctial, summer solstice or winter solstice ^ and we havedecidedtospeakabouttheseingreaterdetail.291Forthephilosophers customarilydistinguishbythesetermstheinequalitiesoftheseasonsorthe annual circuits of the Sun, so that they call that zone or region of the heavens through which the Sun circles the world around the time of the equinoxes, the ''equinoctial'',292 and that through which which it circles the world at the summer solstice, the ''[summer] solstitial'',293 and that [in which it is found] in winter, the ''winter [solstitial] circle''.294 They are called zones or circles because they are made by the orbit of the Sun. The equinoctial, which is the middle zone, encircles the lands with an equal space above and below it, but the [summer] solstitial circle passes under the Earth by as much as the winter solstitial circle passes above it.295 Likewise the winter [solstitial circle], which on the upper side of the Earth is circumscribed, has a circuit on the underside of the Earth of the same amplitude as the summer solstitial circle has on the top side. For undoubtedly, the Sun at the equinox passes the same amount of time at night under the Earth296 as it does by day above the Earth. Everywhere in the 290 Pliny, HN 6.39.211^220 (2.494^502).
291 The circles are the equator,tropics, and Arctic and Antarctic circles. Projected onto the heavens, the two tropics constitute the boundaries of the Sun's annual journey to the southern sky in winter, and to the northern sky in summer. The Sun crosses the equator at the equinoxes. Projected onto the Earth, these ¢ve lines form ¢ve parallel ''zones'' or bands running around the sphere of the Earth. These form the ¢ve climates of Earth.
292 I.e. the Equator.
293 I.e. the Tropic of Cancer.
294 I.e. the Tropic of Capricorn.
295 We cannot see the entire celestial circle of the Tropic of Cancer, or of the Tropic of Capricorn projected onto the dome of heaven overhead. What Bede means is that the segment of the Tropic of Cancer which is invisible to us at our latitude is equal to the segment of the Tropic of Capricorn which is visible to us. With some exceptions noted below, Bede understands ''top'' and ''upper'' to mean ''visible to us at this latitude'';
''bottom'' and ''lower'' mean ''invisible to us''.
296 I.e. in the opposite hemisphere.
TRANSLATION
north, [the Sun] is concealed by an intervening distance equal to that by which its course is visible when it turns to those in the south. And indeed, in winter it is borne about far and wide through the underside of the Earth297 the same distance as it circles the upper parts of the Earth in its broad orbit at the [summer] solstice. Similarly, when travelling through the summer (that is, solstitial) circle, /388/ [the Sun's] disappearance by night under the northern parts of the Earth is as brief as the ascent it makes on winter days over the southern parts. For just as any given night in the revolving year has that duration which the day had six months before and will have six months after, so the Sun travels every night under the Earth the same distance as it travelled by day six months ago and will travel six months hence, revolving now by night towards the north as much as it will then do by day towards the south. When six months have run their course, all the stars travel by day through the same ¢eld of the heavens as they illumined by night six months previously, and to which they will revert in the same number of months. At night, according to their accustomed watches, they traverse [a path] beneath the Earth as wide proportionally as that above the Earth is narrow; this also makes their journey beneath all the more brief as their journey above is more prolonged. Hence it happens that during the solar year Arcturus, Orion and the Dog, but also the Milky Way and all the rest of the army of heaven circle the Earth once more oftenthan does the Sun itself.298
Besides /389/ these three circles of the Sun, they posit two more circles, one in the north and one in the south. The northern one299 is
297 I.e. the southern hemisphere.
298 The constellations were called the ''¢xed stars'', because unlike the planets, they never change their position with respect to the backdrop of the dome of heaven. This dome was imagined as a hollow sphere, rotating from east to west around the earth, once each day, and carrying the stars along with it. It also carries the Sun and other planets around the earth each day. However, the planets also seem to move slowly in the opposite direction, from west to east, around the zodiac. The Moon, as we have seen, does this every
27˜~¯ days, while the Sun makes this reverse journey once a year. The Sun thus seems to ''run ahead''ofthesphereofthe¢xedstars,muchastheMoonseemsto''runahead''oftheSun(cf. ch.29).AstheSunmoveseastwarddaybydayalongtheecliptic,thedomeofthestarsedgesa bitmoreabovetheeasternhorizonnightbynight.Inonesolaryear,thisdomewillhavemade acompleterevolution,andtheSunwillreturntoexactlythesamepositionwithrespecttothe
¢xed stars (i.e. it will be in the same degree of the same zodiac sign) as it was a year before.
Thus, as Bede observes, the dome of the stars makes one more revolution each year around the Earth than does the Sun.
299 I.e. the Arctic circle.
THE RECKONING OF TIME
always visible to us. It is not [a circle] of the Sun, but of Arcturus and the stars close to him. Because they lack proximity to the Sun, they never cease to be cold. The southern circle300 is like it: frozen because the Sun is so far o¡, it is always hidden from us because the Earth blocks it out.301 Of the two of them it is said, in praise of God, [that He] made
Arcturus and Orion and the Hyades, and the chambers of the south,302 and elsewhere, [that He] stretcheth out the north over nothing.303 The poet also calls these to mind:
The heaven holds ¢ve zones of which one glows red with the blazing Sun and ever swelters in his £ame.304
This is the equinoctial circle, which, because the Sun shines upon it directly, or close to it on one side or the other, is scorched beyond a doubt, stripped bare by £ames and baked by steam.305
Atthe extremities of the world, [two zones] extend around to right and left, locked fast in ice and black tempests.306
Here he speaks of the northern and southern [circles]. All that lies beneath them, due to the absence of the Sun and the milder constellations, is gripped by hostile sti¡ness and everlasting cold, as that frozen sea bears witness which extends for a day's sailing from the island of Thule, up towards the north.307 /390/ The two regions that lie between these were given by divine gift to frail mankind.308
300 I.e. the Antarctic circle.
301 The chapter to this point is based on Pliny, HN 2.68.171^172 (1.304^306), 2.71.177^179 (1.310^12), Isidore, DNR 10 (209^212) and Etym. 3.44, 13.6; cf. Bede, The Nature of Things 9.
302 Job 9.9.
303 Job 26.7.
304 Vergil, Georgics 1.233^234 (xxvi); quoted in Isidore, DNR 10.1 (209.5), probably Bede's immediate source.
305 Pliny, HN 2.68.172 (1.306).
306 Vergil, Georgics 1.235^236 (xxvi).
307 Pliny, HN 2.68.172 (1.306) and 4.16.104 (2.198); cf. Solinus 22.9 (101.11^ 102.3).
308 Vergil, Georgics 1.237^238 (xxvi); quoted in Isidore, DNR 10.4 (213.26^27), which is probably Bede's immediate source.
TRANSLATION
Here he means the [circles of] the summer and winter solstices, which, placed near both the torrid zone and the frozen regions, are tempered by their power. Therefore both are called habitable, that is suitable for habitation, nor do they impede the advance of mortal men by excessive heat or cold.
However, it can only be proved that one of them is inhabited; no credence whatever should be given to fables about the antipodes, nor does any writer claim to have seen, heard, or read of any who have followed the winter Sun to southern climes, so that, with this [region] behind their backs, and having traversed the scorching heat of Ethiopia, they have discovered, beyond these, temperate lands habitable by humans, with heat on this side and cold on the other.309 Therefore consider what Pliny, that most astute researcher into natural history ^ who does not deny that although the Earth is shaped like a pine cone, it is nonetheless inhabited all over310 ^ says when he writes about these zones: Only two are temperate between the one that is scorching and the others that are frozen, and these two are not accessible to each other because of the heat of the heavenly body.311
Indeed, an illustration of these zones which is quite easy to grasp is furnished by people who in the icy cold of winter warm themselves at an oblong hearth. Like the middle zone, the ¢re itself, as well as whatever is near to it, cannot be touched because of the heat, while things placed at some distance from the £ames on either side grow sti¡ with the ambient cold.But those which are between /391/ the two are tempered and appropriately positioned tobe warmed,whether they who construct this hearth for themselves for light and warmth under the sky in the dark of a cold night care to stand on one side of the ¢re or the other. Could the ¢re move around in a circle like the Sun, it would undoubtedly produce ¢ve bands. Since it stands still, it makes ¢ve lines: one blazing hot in the middle, two frozen at the outsides, and two temperate ones in between these.
309 Cf. Augustine, DCD 16.9 (510.83^511.2); Isidore, DNR 10.2^4 (209^213); Etym. 9.2.133.
310 Pliny, HN 2.65.161 (1.296).
311 Ibid. 2.68.172 (1.306).