Portents (De portentis)11 1. Varro defines portents
as beings that seem to have been born contrary to nature
– but they are not contrary to nature, because they
are created by divine will, since the nature of everything
is the will of the Creator. Whence even the pagans
address God sometimes as ‘Nature’ (Natura), sometimes
as ‘God.’
11 Both portentum and monstrum can mean “omen, portent” or “monstrosity.”
The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville
Book xi The human being and portents
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