Astronomicon

Then, look at whatever stars dwell around the middle of the pole,
Those that fly to the furthest western original: "hesperios," referring to Hesperia or the West. regions with stained wings,
And late in the evening, they strike the air among the distant peoples.
For if the Earth were flat, snatched from all curvature,
The light would fail across the whole world at once in a wretched state.
But because the Earth is drawn out into a smooth swelling curvature: the poet uses "tumor" (swelling) to describe the physical bulge of the Earth's sphere.,
The Delian goddess original: "delia," a common poetic name for the Moon, referring to the island of Delos where she and Apollo were born. appears now to these lands and then to those,
Rising and setting at the same time as she is carried in her orbit;
She joins the upward slope and the downward slope of the Earth's belly alike,
Passing over some rotations and leaving others behind.
From this, it is concluded that the shape of the lands is round.
Around this sphere, various nations of men and wild beasts,
And the birds of the air, make their home; part of it faces the North original: "arctos," referring to the northern constellations of the Great and Little Bears.,
And a distant part is habitable in the southern regions:
It lies beneath our feet, yet it is seen above us,
Sloping and long, with the ground itself deceiving our eyes,
With the path rising and falling in equal measure.
When the Sun, having risen there, looks upon this Earth at our sunset,
The day, begun there, awakens the sleeping cities,
And with the light, it brings back the business of life original: "vadimonia," literally legal guarantees or summons, used here to represent the start of the working day. to those lands;
But we are in the night, and we settle sleep into our limbs.
The sea separates both peoples with its waves, yet binds them together.
This is the work constructed from the body of the immense universe,
The members of nature established in their distinct forms:
Of air and fire, of earth and the low-lying sea.