The word “air” occurs in the text over 200 times, but not always as a translation of the same Latin word. With a term so elastic and so ambiguous it would have been mere pedantry to attempt a uniform rendering; and indeed such uniform rendering would have been more misleading than the course adopted of rendering according to the context, which the idiom of our language seemed to demand.
Seneca has two main terms for air—aër and spiritus. Aër means, generally speaking, either air generically, or the atmosphere specifically. Spiritus, on the other hand, denotes air under certain conditions of tension, or strain, or pressure, when it is capable of exerting force or violence; to its influence are attributed many effects due in reality to gases, or other causes. On p. 52, l. 1, we have the definition “air (spiritus) is the atmosphere (aër) in violent motion”; and on p. 205 the concluding words of V. xiii. are “air differs from wind in degree alone. A more violent air is a wind; air in turn is gently flowing atmosphere,” where again spiritus is “air” and aër “atmosphere.”
Again, in the Aetna, l. 212, we read, “The winds when inflated are called spirit; when in subsidence, air” (Professor Ellis’s translation), where the same terms spiritus and aër are employed.123
Now if our author had been consistent in the use of the words, there would have been a strong case for a uniform adoption of “air” and “atmosphere,” whenever they occurred. But numerous passages might be cited to show that he interchanges the words without apparent motive, just as we do “air” and “atmosphere.” For example, on p. 69, l. 2, “So fire will pass into air (spiritus),” while on p. 71, l. 9, “the air (aër), which is interchangeable with fire.” Again, on p. 75, l. 6, “When the clouds have enclosed air” (spiritus); l. 26, “atmosphere (aër) shut up in a hollow cloud.” A still more conclusive case, though the passage is probably in other respects corrupt, occurs in the last sentence of c. xxix. p. 77, where the first “air” is spiritus, the second, a mere synonym or variant, is aër. Cf. p. 187, l. 27, and the passages cited below from pp. 245, 249, 251, 259, 260.
The translator has little choice. He must follow his author, and, where the latter makes a distinction, must endeavour to reproduce it; otherwise he must, as the author did, observe the idiom of his own language.
In accordance with this principle aër is usually translated “atmosphere,” and spiritus “air”; but circumstances have rendered unavoidable a considerable number of exceptions.
The discussion of phenomena in which air plays a part is contained chiefly in Books II. and VI., and here the distinction of terms in English has been, so far as practicable, maintained. In Book II. “air” is a translation of aër about a dozen of times out of a total of over fifty times that “air” occurs, and in Book VI. about half a dozen out of a total of nearly seventy.
The following is a list of the places in which “air” translates aër:—
Book I. throughout.
Book II. pp. 56, ll. 20, 21; 57, ll. 17, 22; 58, l. 3; 59, l. 26; 61, l. 18; 66, l. 12; 71, l. 9; 72, l. 22; 77, 1. 17; 98, l. 26; 101, l. 28.
Book III. pp. 120, ll. 8, 9 (four times); 121, ll. 11–20 (five times); 123, l. 28; 129, l. 3; 134, ll. 26, 28; 135, l. 1; 140, l. 29.
Book IV. pp. 176, ll. 6, 9; 184, l. 2; 186, l. 16.
Book V. pp. 195, l. 32; 196, l. 7; 198, l. 3; 199, l. 16; 202, l. 6; 205, l. 11; 206, l. 3; 211, ll. 14, 20.
Book VI. pp. 245, l. 28; 249, l. 10; 251, ll. 8, 9; 259, l. 7; 260, ll. 26, 29.
Book VII. throughout, with three exceptions, viz. pp. 277, l. 26; 279, l. 16; 281, l. 4.
In a few cases “air” occurs as a more explicit representation of a pronoun or an adjective which implies it: in these instances the context is generally a sufficient guide. Spiritus, too, has sometimes quite a different rendering, e.g. breath.
On pp. 111, 139, 152, “air” is used of a very slight breeze, the very gentlest breath of wind, and represents aura—a good illustration of the ambiguity of language.
Seneca is fond of illustrating his subject by passages from the poets. His favourites are Virgil and Ovid, and only once does he quote Lucretius, whose work was much more analogous to his own. The quotations are apparently from memory and betray occasional inaccuracies, as even the best memories will.
The following is a list of the references:—
| Book I. | Pref., 8 (p. 6). Virg. Aen. iv. 404. |
| i. 4 (10). Virg. Aen. v. 528. | |
| iii, 4 (17). Ovid, Metamorp. vi. 65. 7. | |
| v. 6 (25). Nero in an unknown poem: one or two other tags of that versatile tyrant have been preserved. | |
| vi. 1 (28). Virg. Georg. i. 380. 1. | |
| xi. 2 (35). Virg. Georg. ii. 95. 6. | |
| xiv. 2 (38). Virg. Georg. i. 367. (cf. VII. xx. 1). | |
| xvii. 5 (45). Virg. Eclog. ii. 25. 6. | |
| Book II. | i. 2 (51). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 55. |
| xliv. 1 (91). Ovid, Metamorp. iii. 305–7. | |
| Book III. | Pref., 3 (109). Origin unknown: a somewhat similar sentiment occurs in Aetna, 24. |
| i. 1 (114). Ovid, Metamorp. iii. 407. | |
| i. 1 (114). Virg. Aen. i. 245. 6. | |
| i. 1 (114). Lucilius, to whom the Q.N. was addressed. If he was the author of Aetna, as seems not improbable, he may have written other poems on Sicilian topography. | |
| xx. 2 (133). Ovid, Metamorp. xv. 313. 4 (cf. Ibid. xi. 3 sqq.). | |
| xx. 4 (134). Ovid, Metamorp. xv. 321. | |
| xx. 5 (134). Ovid, Metamorp. xv. 330. 1. | |
| xxvi. 3 (142). Ovid, Metamorp. xv. 273–6. | |
| xxvi. 5 (142). Virg. Eclog. x. 4. 5. | |
| xxvii. 12 (147). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 292. | |
| xxvii. 12 (147). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 304. | |
| xxvii. 13 (148). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 285. 290. | |
| xxviii. 2 (148). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 272. | |
| Book IV. | Pref., 17 (165). Virg. Aen. iv. 373. |
| Pref., 17 (165). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 241. 2. | |
| ii. 2 (168). Tib. Eleg. I. vii. 26. | |
| iii. 3 (178). Ovid, Ars Amat. i. 475. 6. | |
| iii. 3 (178). Lucret. De Rerum Nat. i. 313. | |
| iv. 2 (179). Virg. Georg. i. 313. | |
| Book V. | i. 1 (193). Virg. Eclog. ii. 26. |
| xiv. 1 (206). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 388. | |
| xvi. 1 (208). Ovid, Metamorp. i. 61–6. | |
| xvi. 2 (209). Virg. Aen. i. 85. | |
| Book VI. | ii. 1 (225). Virg. Aen. ii. 354. |
| ii. 8 (227). Both quotation and author are doubtful: another reading attributes the poem to A. Gellius. | |
| xiii. 5 (241). Virg. Aen. vi. 256. | |
| xvii. 1 (246). Virg. Aen. viii. 728. | |
| xviii. 1 (247). Virg. Aen. i. 55. 6. | |
| xviii. 3 (248). Virg. Aen. i. 53. 4. | |
| xxii. 3 (253). Virg. Aen. viii. 525. | |
| xxvi. 2 (258). Virg. Aen. iii. 77. | |
| xxix. 3 (262). Virg. Aen. iii. 414–9. | |
| Book VII. | x. 1 (282). Ovid, Metamorp. ii. 71. |
| xx. 1 (292). Virg. Georg. i. 367 (cf. I. xiv. 2). | |
| xx. 3 (293). Virg. Aen. ix. 20. 1. | |
| xxv. 1 (298). Virg. Georg. i. 137. | |
| xxviii. 1 (302). Virg. Georg. i. 392. | |
| xxviii. 1 (302). Virg. Georg. i. 362. |
| Rendering in the Text. | Translation of Gercke’s Text. | ||
| I. p. 5, | § 7, | the Strymon. | the Danube and the Balkans. |
| 8, | 1, | the explanation . . . Philosophy. | my opinion. |
| 9, | 2, | such as . . . answer me. | which each knows the other cannot answer. |
| 20, | 10, | an oar . . . water. | an oar is covered with shallow water and presents a broken appearance. |
| 37, | 1, | Bothynae (cave-like . . .). | putei (well-like . . .). |
| 40, | 3, | one has seen . . . (= star-struck). | what is struck by them we call smitten with a flash, that is, struck without lightning-bolt, what the Greeks call ἀστερόπληκτα (= star-struck). |
| 40, | 4, | of which more anon. | of which we have spoken. |
| 41, | 7, | For we judge . . . foreign body. | But we judge that it is the deceptive appearance of a mirror, which merely gives a counterfeit representation of a foreign body. |
| II. 51, | 2, | After “rain, snow,” | add “winds, earthquakes, lightnings.” |
| 56, | 2, | hold together as one body. | be subject to tension. |
| 63, | 4, | on account of . . . clouds. | when it has accumulated, is thrust violently upward by the massing of the clouds. |
| 75, | 2, | and it might . . . bladder. | and which might with greater accuracy be called harsh, because it emits a sound like that heard when a bladder. |
| 95, | 2, | a third neither. | a third mixed, a fourth neither. |
| 98, | 1, | (c. lv.) dry air. | air in rapid motion. |
| III. 122, | 3, | when trees are cut down. | when trees are full of sap and not cut down. |
| 123, | 1, | air is produced. | Gercke places c. xiv. immediately after this. |
| 132, | 3, | concealed throughout, until. | after “throughout” insert “in others they run above ground for some distance.” |
| 142, | 5, | you have yourself . . . Virgil. | you, my dear Lucilius, believe the story as (I said) in the first part [of my book], and so does Virgil. |
| 149, | 4, | nor do the waters, etc. | nor do the waters find this a hard task since the sea mounts from an elevation equal to that of the earth (or land). If the heights be calculated (or if the average be taken over the heights), it will appear that the surface of the sea is of uniform level. |
| IV. 161, | 8, | the stature . . . arena. | the text and meaning are somewhat conjectural. Gercke reads “the stature of an ape matched against a Thracian in the arena.” For “Apollonius Pycta” he reads “A. the boxer.” |
| 173, | 19, | nor yet the Caÿstrus . . . deep. | nor the Caÿstrus which lies beneath Mount Tmolus increases in summer, and yet deep snow lies there constantly as is natural in those northern regions. “Tmolo” is an ingenious and probable emendation. |
| 186, | 1, | no one . . . virtuous. | by which one may become only more lettered and not more virtuous. |
| VI. 232, | 2, | and, generally speaking . . . | if the boats are unduly sunk, the water uses the whole force of the burthens it upbears, in order either to pour over them, or at any rate to rise to an unwonted height to right and left. |
| 244, | (c. xv.) to hurry straight forward. | to blow where it lists. | |
| 258, | 2, | philosophers. | scholars, [or philologists]. |
| 265, | 2, | (c. xxxi.) soft materials . . . hard. | walls undergo more frequent but more gentle shocks than the nature of hard material allows. |
| VII. 296, | 4, | every star cannot but touch . . . zodiac. | no star can traverse its course without touching the zodiac, then I say a comet may have a different kind of orbit and yet some point in it may coincide with the zodiac. |