μεσημβρία

mesēmbria
Greek · noun
variant μεσαμβρίη : mesambriē
Edited by: Thomas Peeters
Last edited: 2025-02-03

Literal translation
midday
Categories
temporal expression
cardinal direction
Related Lemmata 7

1. midday

1.a midday temporal expression

Θερμότατος δὲ ἐστὶ ὁ ἥλιος τούτοισι τοῖσι ἀνθρώποισι τὸ ἑωθινόν, οὐ κατά περ τοῖσι ἄλλοισι μεσαμβρίης, ἀλλ᾽ ὑπερτείλας μέχρι οὗ ἀγορῆς διαλύσιος.

‘But the sun is the hottest among those people in the morning, not at midday such as amongst all others, but from when it has completely risen until the moment when the market is closing.’

— Herodotus 3.104.2

Genre: historiography Date: 5th century BCE

Herodotus. 1920. Herodotus, with an English translation by A.D. Godley, ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

2. south

2.a south cardinal direction

Ἰσημερία δέ ἐστι φθινοπωρινή, ὅταν ὁ ἥλιος ἀπ’ ἄρκτων πρὸς μεσημβρίαν παροδεύων πάλιν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἰσημερινοῦ γένηται κύκλου καὶ ἴσην τὴν ἡμέραν τῇ νυκτερινῇ ποιήσηται.

‘And it is autumnal equinox, when the sun, in passing from north to south, arrives at the celestial equator again and makes the day equal to the night.’

— Geminus 1.11

Genre: astronomy Date: 1st century BCE

Geminus. 1975. Géminos, Introduction aux Phénomènes, ed. G. Aujac. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 4


Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Peeters, T. (2025). μεσημβρία (Lemma #1283). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/

Chicago (Author-Date)
Peeters, T. (2025). μεσημβρία (Lemma #1283). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/

MLA (9th)
Peeters, T. (2025). μεσημβρία (Lemma #1283). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/

Harvard
Peeters, T. (2025) μεσημβρία (Lemma #1283), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/ (Accessed: July 4, 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{zodiac1283,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-07-04]},
	author = {Peeters, Thomas},
	year = {2025},
	title = {μεσημβρία ({Lemma} #1283)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1283/},
}