17
The Course of the Sun
1. The ancients Aratus and
Hyginus say that the sun moves of its own accord and that it does not revolve
with the world, remaining in one place. For if it remained fixed, it would
necessarily set in the same place and rise in the same place from which it had
risen the day before, just as the other signs of the stars rise and set.
Besides, if it were so, it would follow that all the days and nights would be
equal, and however long the present day was, it would always be exactly as long
in the future.
2. Night also would always remain
equal for the same reason, but since we realize that the days are unequal, and
we see that the sun will set in one place [tomorrow] and that it set in another
place yesterday, and because it sets and rises in different places,
philosophers think that it definitely does not revolve with the world,
remaining itself fixed, but that it moves of its own accord. After dipping its
burning wheel in the ocean, it returns by ways unknown to us to the place from
which it had emerged, and, with the completion of the night’s revolution, it
quickly bursts out again from its place. For it proceeds on an oblique and
uneven line through the south to the north and so returns to the east. And in
wintertime /235/ it runs through the southern region, but in summer it
neighbours the north. But when it runs through the south, it is nearer to the
earth; when it is close to the north, it is raised up on high.
3. God ordained diverse places
and seasons for the sun’s course, lest, by always lingering in the same places,
it destroy them with its daily heat. But, as Clement says, it takes diverse
courses, in order that the temperature of the air may be regulated in
accordance with the rhythm of the seasons, and that the order of their changes
and alterations may be preserved. For as the sun ascends to the higher regions,
it tempers the spring; but when it reaches the height of heaven, it kindles
summer heat. Declining again, it restores the moderate temperature of autumn;
and when it returns to its lower orbit, it bequeaths to us from the icy
structure of heaven the severity of our wintry cold.
4. The hours derive from the
sun; day is created from it when it arises; night is also formed from it when
it sets; the months and years are reckoned from it; the changes of the seasons
derive from it, and although it is a good /237/ servant,
to be thanked for moderating the changes of the seasons, nevertheless when by
the will of God a scourge is inflicted upon mortals, it glows more fiercely,
and burns the world with more furious flames, and the air is unsettled,
and affliction of men and corruption is cast upon the earth, and plague is
decreed upon living things and a pestilential year upon mortals everywhere.
5. As to the fact that the
rising sun takes its course through the south, that is, the meridional region,
and, after having descended through the southern region, travels invisibly,
returning to its starting place, truly this world was created in the likeness
of the Church, in which the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal sun, traverses his
own region – hence they call it the meridianum – but he does not arise
for the north, that is, for the hostile region, just as, when he comes on
Judgement Day, these people will say: ‘the light of justice has not shined on
us, and the sun has not risen upon us’. So also it is written: ‘but for
those fearing the Lord, the sun of justice arises, and health in his wings’.
Indeed, it is night at midday for the wicked, just as we read: ‘while they
await the light, darkness falls upon them; while they await brightness, they
have walked in the dark night’. (Isidore of Seville, On the Nature of Things
[trans. Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis; Translated Texts for Historians
66; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016], 139-40)
From The Etymologies III.l-li:
l. The course of the sun (De
cursu solis) 1. The sun moves under its own power, and does not turn with
the universe. If it were to remain fixed in the heavens, every day and night
would be of equal length; but since we see that it will set in a different
place tomorrow, and that it had in a different place yesterday, it appears that
it moves through its own power, and does not turn along with the universe.
Furthermore, the sun makes its annual orbits with unequal intervals, on account
of the changing of the seasons. When the sun rises, it makes the day; when it
sets, it brings on the night. 2. Wandering farther to the south it makes winter,
so that the earth grows fertile with wintry moisture and frost. When it
approaches closer to the north, it brings summer back, so that crops growfirm in
ripeness, and what was unripened in damp weather mellows in its warmth.
li. The effect of the sun (De
effectu solis) 1. When the sun rises, it creates the day, and when it sets
it brings on the night, for day is the sun over the earth, and night is the sun
under the earth. The hours come from it: the day comes from the sun when it
ascends: the night comes from it when it sets. The months and the years are
numbered by it, and the changing of the seasons is caused by it. 2. When the
sun runs across the south, it is the closer to the earth; but when it is near
the north, it is raised higher in the sky.
[Thus God made diverse locations
and seasons for the sun’s course, so that it does not consume everything with
its daily heat by always tarrying in the same place. But, as Clement said, “The
sun takes diverse paths, by means of which the temperature of the air is meted
out according to the pattern of the seasons, and the order of its changes and
permutations is preserved. Thus when the sun ascends to the higher reaches, it
tempers the spring air; when it reaches its zenith, it kindles the summer heat;
dropping again it brings back the temperance of autumn. But when it goes back
to the lowest orbit, it bequeaths to us from the icy framework of the sky the rigor
of winter cold.”] (The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville [trans. Stephen
A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, and Oliver Berghof; Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006], 102)
The translators of the above from the Etymologies
provides the following note:
The quotation is from Rufinus
Tyrannius’s translation of the Clementine Recognitions, 8.45. A circular
figure follows in some early manuscripts. It has in its center the words medium
mundi, i.e. the “center of the universe,” and around it the stations of the
sun are written thus: “here is the sunrise on the nativity of the Lord; the sixth
hour of the day; sunset on the nativity of the Lord; sunset on the equinox;
sunset on the nativity of John; perpetual midnight; sunrise on the nativity of
John; here is the sunrise on the equinox.” (Ibid., 102 n. 31)