The Metamorphoses of Ovid | Page 9

waters into the sea.]
[Footnote 13: He commanded the plains.--Ver. 43. The use here of the
word 'jussit,' signifying 'ordered,' or 'commanded,' is considered as
being remarkably sublime and appropriate, and serving well to express
the ease wherewith an infinitely powerful Being accomplishes the most
difficult works. There is the same beauty here that was long since
remarked by Longinus, one of the most celebrated critics among the
ancients, in the words used by Moses, 'And God said, Let there be light,
and there was light,' Genesis, ch. i. ver. 3.]
[Footnote 14: On the right-hand side.--Ver. 45. The "right hand" here
refers to the northern part of the globe, and the "left hand" to the
southern. He here speaks of the zones. Astronomers have divided the
heavens into five parallel circles. First, the equinoctial, which lies in the
middle, between the poles of the earth, and obtains its name from the
equality of days and nights on the earth while the sun is in its plane. On

each side are the two tropics, at the distance of 23 deg. 30 min., and
described by the sun when in his greatest declination north and south,
or at the summer and winter solstices. That on the north side of the
equinoctial is called the tropic of Cancer, because the sun describes it
when in that sign of the ecliptic; and that on the south side is, for a
similar reason, called the tropic of Capricorn. Again, at the distance of
23½ degrees from the poles are two other parallels called the polar
circles, either because they are near to the poles, or because, if we
suppose the whole frame of the heavens to turn round on the plane of
the equinoctial, these circles are marked out by the poles of the ecliptic.
By means of these parallels, astronomers have divided the heavens into
four zones or tracks. The whole space between the two tropics is the
middle or torrid zone, which the equinoctial divides into two equal
parts. On each side of this are the temperate zones, which extend from
the tropics to the two polar circles. And lastly, the portions enclosed by
the polar circles make up the frigid zones. As the planes of these circles
produced till they reached the earth, would also impress similar
parallels upon it, and divide it in the same manner as they divide the
heavens, astronomers have conceived five zones upon the earth,
corresponding to those in the heavens, and bounded by the same
circles.]
[Footnote 15: That which is the middle one.--Ver. 49. The ecliptic in
which the sun moves, cuts the equator in two opposite points, at an
angle of 23½ degrees; and runs obliquely from one tropic to another,
and returns again in a corresponding direction. Hence, the sun, which in
the space of a year, performs the revolution of this circle, must in that
time be twice vertical to every place in the torrid zone, except directly
under the tropics, and his greatest distance from their zenith at noon,
cannot exceed 47 degrees. Thus his rays being often perpendicular, or
nearly so, and never very oblique, must strike more forcibly, and cause
more intense heat in that spot. Being little acquainted with the extent
and situation of the earth, the ancients believed it uninhabitable.
Modern discovery has shown that this is not the case as to a
considerable part of the torrid zone, though with some parts of it our
acquaintance is still very limited.]

[Footnote 16: Deep snow covers two.--Ver. 50. The two polar or frigid
zones. For as the sun never approaches these nearer than the tropic on
that side, and is, during one part of the year, removed by the additional
extent of the whole torrid zone, his rays must be very oblique and faint,
so as to leave these tracts exposed to almost perpetual cold.]
[Footnote 17: He placed as many more.--Ver. 51. The temperate zones,
lying between the torrid and the frigid, partake of the character of each
in a modified degree, and are of a middle temperature between hot and
cold. Here, too, the distinction of the seasons is manifest. For in either
temperate zone, when the sun is in that tropic, which borders upon it,
being nearly vertical, the heat must be considerable, and produce
summer; but when he is removed to the other tropic by a distance of 47
degrees, his rays will strike but faintly, and winter will be the
consequence. The intermediate spaces, while he is moving from one
tropic to the other, make spring and autumn.]
[Footnote 18: The brothers.--Ver. 60. That is, the winds, who,
according to the Theogony of Hesiod, were the sons of Astreus, the
giant, and Aurora.]
[Footnote 19: Eurus took his way.--Ver. 61. The Poet, after