Kitap 2
20
Apiaria too is the word commonly used of places in which bee-hives are set; but I recall almost no one of those who have spoken correctly who has used that word either in writing or speaking. But Marcus Varro, in the third book of his treatise On Farming, remarks: iii. 16. 12. This is the way to make melissw=nes, which some call mellaria, or 'places for storing honey.' But this word which Varro used is Greek; for they say melissw=nes, just as they do a)mpelw=nes (vineyards) and dafnw=nes (laurel groves).
21
About the constellation which the Greeks call a(/maca and the Romans septentriones; and as to the origin and meaning of both those words.
21
SEVERAL of us, Greeks and Romans, who were pursuing the same studies, were crossing in the same boat from Aegina to the Piraeus. It was night, the sea was calm, the time summer, and the sky bright and clear. So we all sat together in the stern and watched the brilliant stars. Then those of our company who were acquainted with Grecian lore discussed with learning and acumen such questions as these: what the a(/maca, or Wain, was, and what Boötes, which was the Great, and which the Little Bear and why they were so called; in what direction that constellation moved in the course of the advancing night, and why Homer says Iliad, xviii. 489; Odyss. v. 275 )/Arkton . . . oi)/h d' a)/mmoro/s e)sti loetrw=n )Wkeanoi=o. that this is the only constellation that does not set, in view of the fact that there are some other stars that do not set.
