Likewise at a fixed time Matuta spreads The rosy dawn abroad through the sky’s borders, And opens out her light; either because The same sun, travelling back below the earth, Seizes the sky beforehand, and is fain To kindle it with his rays; or else because Fires meet together, and many seeds of heat Are wont at a fixed time to stream together Causing new sunlight each day to be born. Even so ’tis told that from the mountain heights Of Ida at daybreak scattered fires are seen; These then unite as if into one globe And make up the sun’s orb. Nor yet herein Should it cause wonder that these seeds of fire Can stream together at a time so fixed, Repairing thus the radiance of the sun. For everywhere we see many events Happening at fixed times. Thus trees both flower And shed their blossoms at fixed times; and age At a time no less fixed bids the teeth drop, And the boy clothe his features with the down Of puberty, and let a soft beard fall From either cheek. Lastly lightning and snow, Rains, clouds and winds happen at more or less Regular yearly seasons. For where causes From the beginning have remained the same, And things from the first origin of the world Have so fallen out, they still repeat themselves In regular sequence after a fixed order. The cause too why days lengthen and nights wane, While daylight shortens as the nights increase, May either be because the same sun, journeying Underneath and above the earth in curves Of unlike length, parts the celestial regions And into unequal halves divides his orbit: Whatever he has subtracted from one half, Just so much does he add, when he comes round, On to the other half, till he has reached That sign of heaven where the year’s node makes The night’s shade equal to the light of day. For in the sun’s mid course between the blasts Of south wind and of north, the heaven holds His turning-points apart at distances Now equalised, since such is the position Of the whole starry circle, to glide through which The sun takes up the period of a year, Lighting the earth and sky with slanting rays, As is shown by the arguments of those Who have mapped out all the quarters of the sky, Adorned with their twelve signs spaced out in order. Or else because the air in certain parts Is thicker, therefore the trembling lamp of fire Is hindered in its course beneath the earth, And cannot easily force a passage through And emerge at the place where it should rise. So in winter-time the nights are long and lingering, Ere the day’s radiant oriflamme comes forth. Or else again those fires which cause the sun To rise from a fixed point, for a like reason Are wont to stream together slower or quicker In alternating periods of the year.