“Have you ever seen a pomegranate seed in drifts of snow?”
ἤδη τεθέασαι κόκκον ἐν χιόνι ῥόας;
Pindar, Pythian 1. 20
“Snowy Aetna, perennial nurse of bitter snow”
νιφόεσσ᾿ Αἴτνα, πάνετες χιόνος ὀξείας τιθήνα
Plutarch, Moralia 340e
“Nations covered in depths of snow”
καὶ βάθεσι χιόνων κατακεχωσμένα ἔθνη
Herodotus, Histories 4.31
“Above this land, snow always falls…
τὰ κατύπερθε ταύτης τῆς χώρης αἰεὶ νίφεται
Diodorus Siculus, 14.28
“Because of the mass of snow that was constantly falling, all their weapons were covered and their bodies froze in the chill in the air. Thanks to the extremity of their troubles, they were sleepless through the whole night”
“Have you ever seen a pomegranate seed in drifts of snow?”
ἤδη τεθέασαι κόκκον ἐν χιόνι ῥόας;
Pindar, Pythian 1. 20
“Snowy Aetna, perennial nurse of bitter snow”
νιφόεσσ᾿ Αἴτνα, πάνετες χιόνος ὀξείας τιθήνα
Plutarch, Moralia 340e
“Nations covered in depths of snow”
καὶ βάθεσι χιόνων κατακεχωσμένα ἔθνη
Herodotus, Histories 4.31
“Above this land, snow always falls…
τὰ κατύπερθε ταύτης τῆς χώρης αἰεὶ νίφεται
Diodorus Siculus, 14.28
“Because of the mass of snow that was constantly falling, all their weapons were covered and their bodies froze in the chill in the air. Thanks to the extremity of their troubles, they were sleepless through the whole night”
"There are also numerous species of hares. Those in the Alps are white, [Note] and it is believed that, during the winter, they live upon snow for food; at all events, every year, as the snow melts, they acquire a reddish colour." -Pliny Nat 9.83
“I will go to dinner just as I promised, even if it is cold. But I certainly will not if it begins to snow.”
Ad cenam, quia promisi, ibo, etiam si frigus erit; non quidem, si nives cadent.
χιών, ὁ: “snow”
χιονόβατος: “snow-path” (“where one walks in snow”)
χιονοβλέφαρος: “with a dazzling white eye”
χιονόβλητος: “snow-struck”
χιονοθρέμμων, ὁ: “snow-nourishing”
χιονόκτυπος: “snow-beaten”
χιονόμελι: “snow-honey”
χιονόπεπλος, “robe of snow”
χιονωπός: “snow-white”
χιονωτός: “snow-beaten”
Longus, Daphnis and Chloe 3.3.1
“A winter more bitter than war fell upon Daphnis and Chloe: for a great snowstorm descended suddenly and blocked all the roads, closing off all the farmers.”
“The fury of snow and hail comes from a cloud
and thunder comes from bright lightning.
A city is destroyed by great men and the people fall
into the slavery of monarchy thanks to ignorance.”
Niphetos: This denotes thin, falling snow. There are four results of water condensing in the air. High, above the earth, the lesser type is snow and the greater force is hail. Below on the land, the lesser type is hoar-frost and the greater part is frost. But snow falling [niphetos] is not a specific type of condensing, instead it is just a different type of appearance. “When the Skythian land is blanketed in show, they cannot live without freezing weather” [Men. Fr. 10.10. And elsewhere: “Queen, even a snow storm brings you fruit as you are” [Gr. Anth. 6.242].
This is how the narrative describes Penelope and Odysseus during their encounter while Odysseus is in disguise.
Odyssey 19.204–212
‘As she was listening her tears began to flow and her skin’s color receded
As when snow melts on the highest mountaintops,
The snow the east wind melts after the west wind piles it up,
And rivers grow full and flow from the thaw—
That’s how her beautiful cheeks melted, pouring tears
As she wept for her own husband even as he sat there. But Odysseus
Pitied his wife as she mourned in his heart—
But his eyes stood motionless like horn or iron
Under his brows as he cloaked his tears with a trick.”
“How will they bear the Appenines covered in frosts and snow? Maybe they think that they can tolerate the cold, because they learned to dance naked at dinner parties.”
Quo autem pacto illi Appeninum atque illas pruinas ac nivis perferent? Nisi idcirco se facilius hiemem toleraturos putant, quod nudi in conviviis saltare didicerunt.
[Lenaion is the month that occupies the end of January and beginning of February.]
Hesiod, Works and Days 504-528
“Avoid the month of Lenaion, terrible days, all of them ox-skinning,
Avoid it and the frosts which grow cruelly
Over the earth as Boreas blows them on.
Boreas, through horse-breeding Thrace and the wide sea
Raises the cold, blowing on, and the earth and trees whimper.
He fells many high-headed oaks and broad pines
As he leaps over the much-nourishing earths and forest glens,
And the whole forest roars then in anguish.
The beasts bristle, they tuck their tails beneath their legs,
Even those with skin covered in fur. He goes cold
Straight threw them, even when they are covered in wool.
He pierces an ox-hide which cannot hold him;
He blows straight through a thin-coated got. But not sheep—
No, because their hair is lush and thick, the might
Of the wind Boreas cannot pierce it. But it makes an old man
Curved. Boras does not touch the tender maiden’s skin
If she stays at home, inside, next to her dear mother,
Where she does not know the deeds of golden Aphrodite
As she bathes her fine skin and anoints with olive oil,
Rubbing herself down in the deepest room of her home,
On that day when the boneless cold grates his foot
In his fireless home and his harsh pastures.
No sun promises to rise on his pastures,
But he turns slowly on the countries and cities of
The darker men, and shines sluggishly for all the Greeks.”