Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| From Aristotle's On Signs [section 1] BOREAS (the North Wind). At Mallus this wind is called Pagreus; for it blows from great cliffs and twin mountains lying alongside one another, which are called the Pagrica. At Caunus it is called Meses. At Rhodes it is called Caunias; for it blows from Caunus, troubling their harbor, the Acania. At Olbia, the one near Mygalus in Pamphylia, it is called Gaureus; for it blows from an island called Gauris. Some think this wind is Boreas, among them the Lyrnantians who live near Phaselis. CAECIAS. At Lesbos this wind is called Thebanas; for it blows from the plain of Thebe above the Elaitic gulf of Mysia, and it troubles the harbor of the Mytilenaeans, and especially the Maloeis; but among the Aicaniae it is what others take to be Boreas. APELIOTES. At Tripolis in Phoenicia this wind is called Potameus, and it blows from a plain like a great threshing-floor, enclosed by Lebanon and Mount Bapyrus; and it is for this reason called Potameus. It troubles the Poseidonium. [section 4] In the Issic gulf and around Rhosus it is called Syriandus; for it blows from the Syrian Gates, which the Taurus and the Taurosian mountains stand apart to form. In the Tripolitan gulf it is called Marseus, from the village of Marsus. At Proconnesus, at Teos, in Crete, in Euboea, and at Cyrene it is called Hellespontias.
2| [section 5] It troubles most of all Caphereus in Euboea and the Cyrenaean harbor called Apollonia; for it blows from the Hellespont. At Sinope it is called Berecyntias, blowing from the region of Phrygia. In Sicily it is called Cataporthmias, blowing from the strait. Some think this wind is Caecias, calling it Thebanas. [section 6] EURUS. At Aegae in Syria this wind is called Scopeleus, from the Rhosian headland; at Cyrene it is called Carbas, from the Carbanians of Phoenicia, and for this reason some also call the same wind Phoenicias. There are also those who take it to be Apeliotes. [section 7] ORTHONOTUS. Some call this wind Eurus, others Amneas. Notus, by contrast, is called by the same name among everyone; the name comes from its being productive of sickness; abroad it is called Catombros, but under either name it is Notus. Leuconotus likewise: its name comes from what happens with it, for the sky whitens. . . . [section 8] LIPS. This wind too takes its name from Libya, whence it blows. ZEPHYR. This wind too has its name from blowing out of the west. Now the west . . . IAPYX. At Tarentum this wind is called Scylletinus, from the place Scylletium. In the region of Horaleon in Phrygia. By some it is called Pharangites; for it blows out of a certain ravine near the Pegaeum.
3| [section 9] Among many peoples it is called ARGESTES. THRACIAS: in Thrace it is called Strymonias (for it blows from the river Strymon); in the Megarid it is called Sciron, from the Scironian rocks; in Italy and Sicily it is called Circias, because it blows from Circaeum. [section 10] In Euboea and Lesbos it is called Olympias, the name coming from Pierian Olympus; it troubles the people of Pyrrha. I have also set down for you their positions, how they lie and how they blow, having drawn beneath them a circle of the earth, so that they might be placed before your eyes as well.