Seasons, the ancient Greeks and Romans personified the seasons: The Greeks represented them as women, because the Greek word ώρα [hour] [1] is of the feminine gender. The Romans, who called the seasons anni tempora of the neutral gender, often expressed them as young boys who had wings, or by very young children without wings, with the symbols particular to each season. Spring is crowned with flowers, holding in his hands a kid, which is born in this season , or else he is milking a sheep; sometimes he is accompanied by a shrub, which is growing leaves and branches. Summer is crowned with ears of wheat, holding in one hand a bundle of ear grains, and in the other a sickle. Autumn has in his hands a vase full of fruits and a cluster of grapes, or else a basket of fruits on his head. Winter, well clothed, well shod, having his head veiled or crowned with leafless branches, holds some dried and wrinkled fruits in one hand, and some aquatic birds in the other. The wings that are sometimes given to the four seasons, correspond not only to time, but also to all of its parts.

Mr. de Boze describes in the literature mémoires, [2] an ancient marble tomb, discovered in the ruins near Athens. The four seasons of the year form the subject of the frieze on the lid of this precious monument. They are represented there by just as many figures of women, characterized by the diversity of their crowns, the arrangement of their clothing, the diverse fruits they hold, and the children or genii [3] who are in front of them. The sculptor did not place them in their natural order, but in a reciprocal order of contrasts, which gives more force and more play to the composition. In this way, summer and winter, seasons diametrically opposed by their temperature, are designated by the figures at the two extremities of the frieze, the one lying from right to left, and the other from left to right; between them are spring and autumn, as equally corresponding to summer and winter; the four genii are arranged in the same way.

The first figure lying from right to left, represents summer; she is demi-nude, she is crowned with ears of grain, and she is touching other ears of grain that are cupped in her horn of plenty; the genius that is in front of her, is touching them also, and is also holding a sickle in his hand.

Winter, which is at the other extremity lying from left to right, appears as the figure of a well-clothed woman, and whose head is even covered with a fold of her robe; the fruits on which she extends her hand are winter fruits; the genius that is in front of her has no wings, and instead of being nude like the others, he is well clothed; finally, he holds a hare [4] as a symbol, because hunting was the only exercise in the countryside at that time.

Autumn is turned towards summer; she is crowned with leafy grapevine shoots and grape clusters; she touches more vine fruits with her right hand; and her little genius also placed in her horn of plenty; finally, she is uncovered on that part of her body that touches summer, and clothed on that which corresponds to winter.

Spring is turned with her back to autumn as the figure of a woman crowned with flowers; the horn of plenty supported by her genius is also filled with them. A foot that she extends toward winter still wears a shoe; a part of her chest is hidden, and she only uncovers the part of it that is next to summer.

All of these ideas of sculpture are very ingenious; but the descriptions that the Poets have made of the seasons are no less picturesque. Read, just to convince yourself of this, that of Horace in the ode diffugere nives [The snow has fled] [5]; it is perhaps less enriched of images than the painting of spring that is in the ode solvitur acris hiems [keen winter is breaking up], [6] but is furnished more with morals.

Proterit aestas interitura , [Trampled underfoot by summer] [8] these figurative expressions are energetic, and create an effect in lyric poetry, which permits, which demands this hardiness. The year is painted here as a battlefield where the seasons pursue one another, combat one another, and destroy one another. At first victorious, then conquered, they perish and are reborn successively; only man perishes to nevermore be reborn.

Finally, not long ago, I read a charming English poem on the seasons , of which Mr. Thomson [10] is the author. Genius, imagination, the graces, [11] sentiment reign in this writing, even the horrors of winter take on agreeable traits with his inspired brush; but what characterizes it in particular is a depth of humanity, and a love of virtue, which breathes through all of his work.

Notes

1. My translation.

2. See, Claude Gros de Boze’s mémoire, “Description d’un tombeau de marbre antique,” in Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Depuis MDCCXI. Jusqu’a MDCCXVIII (1711-1718) (France). Mémoires de Littérature, Tirés des Registres de l’Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (La Haye: chez Pierre Gosse, 1724), Tome vi, pp. 430-453. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433009678107;view=1up;seq=7]. Web, Sept. 5, 2018.

3. Genii, or geniuses, are attendant spirits in Greek and Roman mythology. In this monument, they are attending the four seasons, as personified by the sculptor. See , [Genius (mythology, literature, antiquity)].

4. In Jaucourt’s previous seasonal article, [Winter, Iconographic], the genius or companion spirit tient pour tout symbole un liévre, parce que la chasse est alors le seul exercice de la campagne [holds a hare [ liévre ] as a symbol [for winter], because hunting was the only exercise in the countryside at that time]. In this later article, Saisons [Seasons], the word livre [book] is printed in error in Jaucourt’s original Encyclopédie article instead of liévre [hare]. See, Note 1 in [Winter, Iconographic] and Jaucourt’s original French article. See , also, Note [2], above, for the original mémoire by de Boze to which Jaucourt is referring here. I have, therefore, translated the word livre [book] in Jaucourt’s article Saisons as liévre [hare] to correspond to Jaucourt’s previous seasonal article Hiver, Iconographique [Winter, Iconographic] and to de Boze’s mémoire.

5. Horace. The Odes and Epodes. Trans. C.E. Bennett. Book 4. Ode 7. “Diffugere nives.” Line 1, pp. 310-311. Ed. E.H. Warmington. LCL (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914-1968), pp. 310-311. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106001541843;view=1up;seq=7] Web, Sept. 5, 2018.

6. Horace. The Odes and Epodes . Trans. C.E. Bennett. Book 1. Ode 4. “Solvitur acris hiems.” Line 1, pp. 16-17.

7. Horace. The Odes and Epodes. Trans. C.E. Bennett. Book 4. Ode 7. “Diffugere nives.” Lines 9-16, pp. 310-313. I believe the French translation from the Latin in Jaucourt’s article here, with some stylistic and spelling differences, and some of the text in the body of this article, are from R.P. Sanadon’s French translation of Horace’s odes and from his “Remarques” accompanying his translation. See, Les Poësies d’Horace, Traduction Françoise: avec des Remarques et des Dissertations Critiques. R.P. Sanadon, de la Compagnie de Jesus. T.4. Liv. 4. Ode 6. “Diffugêre nives.” Lines 9-16, p. 70 (Amsterdam and Leipzic: chez Arkstée et Merkus, 1756), pp. 69, 71, French translation; and pp. 71-77, “Remarques.” [https://bit.ly/2ozVFKk]. Web, Sept. 4, 2018.

8. Horace. The Odes and Epodes. Trans. C.E. Bennett. Book 4. Ode 7. “Diffugere nives.” Lines 9-10, pp. 310-311.

9. The French translation of this passage from Diffugere nives is, possibly, by Roger de Rabutin (1618-1693), though I am not certain. I could not find an English translation of this passage from Rabutin’s French, and have therefore provided my own translation, which is literal. See , Odes, Epodes et Chant Séculaire d’Horace: Oeuvres Lyriques d’Horace, Traduites en Vers . Trans. P.F. Lavau. Livre 4. Ode 6. Note 30 (Paris: chez H. Nicolle, Libraire and Versaille: chez J.-P. Jacob, Imprimeur de la Préfecture, etc., 1810), p. 394. Lavau quotes this passage from Rabutin’s French translation of the two first stanzas from “Diffugere nives” in Note 30, p. 394. In Rabutin’s French, however, the first pronoun nous in the third line of the second stanza (“Chaque saison nous dit: nous sommes revenues”) becomes lui in Jaucourt’s quote (“Chaque saison lui dit: nous sommes revenues”). Note, also, that the numbering of Horace’s Odes in this publication differs from other publications, which show “Diffugere nives” as Ode 7 of Book 4. [http://cdigital.dgb.uanl.mx/la/1080046322/1080046322_MA.PDF]. Web, Sept. 4, 2018.

10. Jaucourt is referring to James Thomson (1700-1748), a Scottish poet who wrote the nature poem The Seasons, which comprises four poems: Winter (1726), Summer (1727), Spring (1728), and Autumn (1730). See, The Seasons , by James Thomson , with His Life, an Index, and Glossary, a Dedication to the Earl of Buchan, and Notes to the Seasons by Percival Stockdale (London: A. Hamilton, 1793). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433074849658;view=1up;seq=1]. Web, Sept. 5, 2018.

11. I believe Jaucourt is referring to the Three Graces, who are associated with the Muses. See , [The Graces]. In that article, also by Jaucourt, both an uppercase “G” and a lowercase “g” are used where he refers to these goddesses from Greek mythology.