"For in these regions, the longest day having 23 equivalent hours, the night is quite short, being left with only one hour, so that the setting of the sun is near to its rising, since only quite a small arc of the summer-tropical circle is cut off under the horizon. If then, says the poet, any one could earn two wages, 'one for tending the cattle, one for pasturing the white-fleeced sheep.' Then he adds the reason, which is mathematical and connected with the theory of the sphere, 'for the paths of night and day come near,' that is, the times of setting is close to the time of rising.
"As we go further northwards, the summer-tropical circle comes to be wholly above the earth, so that the summer solstice there consists of 24 hours."
(*as quoted in Heath, p.133.)