Astronomicon

And embracing the highest summits of the starry sky,
He made the walls of nature with a rampart of flames. original: "flammarum vallo." This refers to the Stoic belief in a peripheral layer of fire—the Empyrean—that surrounds the universe.
Next, the spirit spiritus: translated here from the Latin "spiritus," representing the Stoic "pneuma," a divine breath or energy that animates matter descended into thin breezes
And stretched out the air through the middle of the world's void.
The breath nourishes the fire, situated just below the neighboring stars.
The third lot spread out the waters and the floating winds;
It poured forth the newborn seas throughout the whole deep,
So that the liquid might exhale thin breezes and vomit forth air,
Nourishing the air which draws its seeds from that very source.
Last, the earth settled down with its gathered weight,
And mud mixed with sand came together more firmly,
While the thin liquid gradually fled toward the top.
And as the moisture withdrew into pure waves,
÷ Then, enclosed on all sides by the vast sea, the land emerged;
And of all things, the lowest occupies the middle seat on every side. In the geocentric model, the "bottom" of the universe is its center. Because all things fall toward the center, the Earth is considered the lowest point.
• And for that reason it remains stable, because the whole world
Flees from it by an equal distance; it has ensured by falling
From every direction that it cannot fall, for it is the center and the bottom of the whole.
Thus, bodies stand firm in these contracted regions,
And by rushing together they prevent each other from going any further.
For unless the earth hung with a balanced weight,
The world would not drive its courses as the stars go under;
Phoebus The sun god Apollo. would go to his setting and never return to his rising,
Nor would the Moon guide her submerged chariot through the voids,
Nor would this Lucifer original: "lucifer." The planet Venus when it appears as the Morning Star, literally "the light-bringer." shine in the morning hours.

÷ The dried-up seas more tightly constrained the lands,
And divided the fluid sea into hollow valleys;
The mountains emerged from the straits, and the world above the waves.