Seas and Seasons

This week, as I mentioned to some extent in class, I really enjoyed Boethius' imagery in his metron dealing with the order of the seasons and the natural world and how these strict laws remain in stark contrast to the apparent lax behavior of Fortuna, who whirls individuals around by chance.  In particular, the image of a stormy ocean (I really liked the phrase salo fortunae) relates well to the capricious nature of fate and this depiction is picked up again by the rapidos fluctus that are supposed to be repressed by the creator.  Naturally, the image of a city or even the world as a ship at sea is fairly common throughout Latin literature, so there is little surprise here that this analogy continues throughout the work.  Although Prof. Malamud mentioned that the stormy seas eventually die down allowing for more navigable waters, I would be interested to know if, later on in the poem, the water itself provides a clear and direct course in the form of currents (i.e. rather than acting as a opposition or a passive medium)
My second observation of this week stems from the language in Boethius' depiction of the natural world, and in particular through his description of a unfortunate farmer who turns to nuts and berries after he is deceived in his trust of the goddess of agriculture.  What struck me about this passage is even though the order and nature of the seasons is fixed, there is still some semblance of uncertainty within this established framework.  This is echoed in the language as the farmer who entrusts his seeds (and presumably his livelihood) to the soil is duped and let down in his trust of Ceres.  This concept of chaos (or at least, ignorance) within order may relate to the concept that some things still remain largely unknown to humans in the cosmic order of the world (although it could of course just be an untrained farmer!)