Greek Popular Meteorology From Antiquity To The Present The Folkinterpretation Of Celestial Signs Patrick Cronin by Patrick Cronin 9780773436572, 077343657X instant download after payment.

This book, the only one of its kind in the English language, examines the Greek attempts to predict weather change by means of naked-eye observation of celestial phenomena, unaided by scientific meteorology. In ’A Catalogue of Signs’, which constitutes the main body of the book, the author sets forth systematically 720 signs derived from clouds, comets, dew, hoar frost, lightning, mist, moon, planets, rainbow, stars, sun, thunder, and winds: the assemblage of signs associated with each predictive phenomenon is preceded by a brief introduction, which includes a resume of the views of the Greek natural philosophers, mainly those of Aristotle, on the nature of the phenomenon and on its relationship to the weather, if such a relationship was thought to exist. The book aims to impose a comprehensible order on that part of the amorphous body of Greek popular meteorology that is concerned with celestial phenomena; it testifies to the abiding interest of the Greeks, from their earliest days to the present, in the observation of these phenomena as a guide to weather prediction. It will be of interest not only to all students of Greek culture, but also to folklorists and meteorologists. Its publication is opportune at the present time when, more than ever before, the world is concerned with climatic change and its impact on our environment.