138 THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



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Nubes, 61519. 



CHORUS OF CLOUDS. 



The Moon by us to you her greeting sends, 



But bids us say that she's an ill-used moon, 



And takes it much amiss that you should still 



Shuffle her days, and turn them topsy-turvy; 



And that the gods (who know their feast-days well,) 



By your false count are sent home supperless, 



And scold and storm at her for your neglect 19 . 



The correction of this inaccuracy, however, was 

 not pursued separately, but was combined with 

 another object, the securing a correspondence be- 

 tween the lunar and solar years, the main purpose 

 of all early cycles. 



Sect. 5. Invention of Lunisolar Years. 



THERE are 12 complete lunations in a year ; which 

 according to the above rule, would make 354 days, 

 leaving 12 J days of difference between such a lunar 

 year and a solar year. It is said, that at an early 

 period, this was attempted to be corrected by inter- 

 polating a month of 30 days every alternate year ; 

 and Herodotus 20 relates a conversation of Solon, 

 implying a still ruder mode of intercalation. This 



19 This passage is supposed by the commentators to be 

 intended as a satire upon those who had introduced the cycle of 

 Meton (spoken of in Sect. 5), which had been done at Athens a 

 few years before " The Clouds" was acted. 



20 B. i. c. 15. 



