This, amongst other circumstances treated more at large by Segrais,
agrees with the rising of Orion, which caused the tempest described
in the beginning of the first book. By some passages in the
"Pastorals," but more particularly in the "Georgics," our poet is
found to be an exact astronomer, according to the knowledge of that
age. Now Ilioneus, whom Virgil twice employs in embassies as the
best speaker of the Trojans, attributes that tempest to Orion in his
speech to Dido:-
"Cum subito assurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion."
He must mean either the heliacal or achronical rising of that sign.
The heliacal rising of a constellation is when it comes from under
the rays of the sun, and begins to appear before daylight. The
achronical rising, on the contrary, is when it appears at the close
of day, and in opposition of the sun's diurnal course. The heliacal
rising of Orion is at present computed to be about the 6th of July;
and about that time it is that he either causes or presages tempests
on the seas.
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