11. On its variations depends also the condition
of the air, as is proved by sudden disturbances which often come after the new
moon, in the midst of a calm and of a stillness in the winds, to
agitate the clouds and to hurl them against each other; as the flux and
reflux in straits, and the ebb and flow of the ocean prove, so that
those who live on its shores see it regularly following the revolutions
of the moon. The waters of straits approach and retreat from one
shore to the other during the different phases of the moon; but, when
she is new, they have not an instant of rest, and move in perpetual
swaying to and fro, until the moon, reappearing, regulates their
reflux. As to the Western sea,
i.e.the Atlantic. cf. Ovid.,
Met. xi. 258, “Hesperium
fretum.” we see it in
its ebb and flow now return into its bed, and now overflow, as the moon
draws it back by her respiration and then, by her expiration, urges it
to its own boundaries. Pytheas, of
Marseilles, is first named as attributing the tides to the
moon. Plut. περὶ
ἀρεσκ.
κ.τ.λ. iii. 17. On the ancient belief
generally vide Plin. ii. 99.