More thoughts on "those who pursue the clouds".
I've traced one very early allusion to tempestarii, in
a treatise written c. 815 by Archbishop Agobard of
Lyons, saying people believed that they raised winds
which brought storm-clouds & thunder to cut down
harvests, and that the crops are then gathered by
ships which sail among the clouds and carried away
through the air to tyhe land of Magonia.
There are some pages on storm magic in Stephen
Wilson's "The Magical Universe (2000), and there he
mentions that in 16th century Spain farmers hired
'cloud chasers' to drive away hail-bearing clouds
and/or dissolve them into harmless rain. His source is
W A Christian "Local Religion in 16th Century Spain"
(Princeton 1981), p. 30.
I also have in mind a French phrase 'meneur de nuages'
= 'cloud leader'. Probably I saw this in Judith
Devlin's "The Superstitious Mind", but alas I don't
own that book so can't check.
Jacqueline
--- Endymion <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Digest - 12 Dec 2005 to 13 Dec
> 2005 (#2005-14)Not really trying to talk with
> myself, but I did find something interesting in
> regards to my question although painfully brief and
> just raising more questions.
>
> "The most interesting chapter is one which says it
> is derived from the canon of Matthew, ch. i, 60. It
> is written in very bad vulgar Greek by a very
> illiterate person, and is sometimes scarcely
> intelligible. The following offenders are dealt
> with: (I) Those who lead about performing bears; (2)
> those who pursue the clouds (tà néphe diokontas)
> (sic);"
> http://users.net1plus.com/vyrdolak/nomocanon.htm
>
> I've been searching the net for "nefelodioktai" for
> good portion of the day, but it appears that the
> book I've been using as the reference got the
> spelling wrong. Anyone familiar with these "pursuers
> of the clouds" in Greek folklore that can shed some
> so much needed light?
>
> Andrija
>
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