Clime

Not to be confused with Clima.
Diagram showing climatic zone corresponding with those suggested by Aristotle.

The climes (singular clime; also clima, plural climata, from Greek κλίμα klima, plural κλίματα klimata, meaning "inclination" or "slope"[1]) in classical Greco-Roman geography and astronomy were the divisions of the inhabited portion of the spherical Earth by geographic latitude.[2]

Starting with Aristotle (Meteorology 2.5,362a32), the Earth was divided into five zones, assuming two frigid climes (the arctic and antarctic) around the poles, an uninhabitable torrid clime near the equator, and two temperate climes between the frigid and the torrid ones.[3] Different lists of climata were in use in Hellenistic and Roman time. Claudius Ptolemy was the first ancient scientist known to have devised the so-called system of seven climes (Almagest 2.12) which, due to his authority, became one of the canonical elements of late antique, medieval European and Arab geography. In Medieval Europe, the climes for 15 and 18 hours of longest daylight at summer solstice were used to calculate the changing length of daylight through the year.[4]

The modern concept of climate and the related term clime are derived from the historical concept of climata.

  1. ^ H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek English Lexicon.
  2. ^ Otto Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy, (New York: Springer Verlag, 1975), p. 725. ISBN 0-387-06995-X
  3. ^ Abel K. (1974). "Zone". Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Ed. A. F. von Pauly, G. Wissowa et al. Stuttgart. Suppl.-Bd. XIV: 989–1188.
  4. ^ Otto Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy, (New York: Springer Verlag, 1975), p. 731. ISBN 0-387-06995-X