Notes by Translator
“Air”
The word “air” occurs in the text over 200 times, but not always as a translation of the same Latin word. With a term so elastic and so ambiguous it would have been mere pedantry to attempt a uniform rendering; and indeed such uniform rendering would have been more misleading than the course adopted of rendering according to the context, which the idiom of our language seemed to demand.
Seneca has two main terms for air—aër and spiritus. Aër means, generally speaking, either air generically, or the atmosphere specifically. Spiritus, on the other hand, denotes air under certain conditions of tension, or strain, or pressure, when it is capable of exerting force or violence; to its influence are attributed many effects due in reality to gases, or other causes. On p. 52, l. 1, we have the definition “air (spiritus) is the atmosphere (aër) in violent motion”; and on p. 205 the concluding words of V. xiii. are “air differs from wind in degree alone. A more violent air is a wind; air in turn is gently flowing atmosphere,” where again spiritus is “air” and aër “atmosphere.”
Again, in the Aetna, l. 212, we read, “The winds when inflated are called spirit; when in subsidence, air” (Professor Ellis’s translation), where the same terms spiritus and aër are employed.123
Now if our author had been consistent in the use of the words, there would have been a strong case for a uniform adoption of “air” and “atmosphere,” whenever they occurred. But numerous passages might be cited to show that he interchanges the words without apparent motive, just as we do “air” and “atmosphere.” For example, on p. 69, l. 2, “So fire will pass into air (spiritus),” while on p. 71, l. 9, “the air (aër), which is interchangeable with fire.” Again, on p. 75, l. 6, “When the clouds have enclosed air” (spiritus); l. 26, “atmosphere (aër) shut up in a hollow cloud.” A still more conclusive case, though the passage is probably in other respects corrupt, occurs in the last sentence of c. xxix. p. 77, where the first “air” is spiritus, the second, a mere synonym or variant, is aër. Cf. p. 187, l. 27, and the passages cited below from pp. 245, 249, 251, 259, 260.
The translator has little choice. He must follow his author, and, where the latter makes a distinction, must endeavour to reproduce it; otherwise he must, as the author did, observe the idiom of his own language.
In accordance with this principle aër is usually translated “atmosphere,” and spiritus “air”; but circumstances have rendered unavoidable a considerable number of exceptions.
The discussion of phenomena in which air plays a part is contained chiefly in Books II. and VI., and here the distinction of terms in English has been, so far as practicable, maintained. In Book II. “air” is a translation of aër about a dozen of times out of a total of over fifty times that “air” occurs, and in Book VI. about half a dozen out of a total of nearly seventy.
The following is a list of the places in which “air” translates aër:—
Book I. throughout.
Book II. pp. 56, ll. 20, 21; 57, ll. 17, 22; 58, l. 3; 59, l. 26; 61, l. 18; 66, l. 12; 71, l. 9; 72, l. 22; 77, 1. 17; 98, l. 26; 101, l. 28.
Book III. pp. 120, ll. 8, 9 (four times); 121, ll. 11–20 (five times); 123, l. 28; 129, l. 3; 134, ll. 26, 28; 135, l. 1; 140, l. 29.
Book IV. pp. 176, ll. 6, 9; 184, l. 2; 186, l. 16.
Book V. pp. 195, l. 32; 196, l. 7; 198, l. 3; 199, l. 16; 202, l. 6; 205, l. 11; 206, l. 3; 211, ll. 14, 20.
Book VI. pp. 245, l. 28; 249, l. 10; 251, ll. 8, 9; 259, l. 7; 260, ll. 26, 29.
Book VII. throughout, with three exceptions, viz. pp. 277, l. 26; 279, l. 16; 281, l. 4.
In a few cases “air” occurs as a more explicit representation of a pronoun or an adjective which implies it: in these instances the context is generally a sufficient guide. Spiritus, too, has sometimes quite a different rendering, e.g. breath.
On pp. 111, 139, 152, “air” is used of a very slight breeze, the very gentlest breath of wind, and represents aura—a good illustration of the ambiguity of language.