Greek μετέωρα (meteōra), "things aloft"
1. Key Texts
First, we should not think that any other end is served by knowledge of celestial events, whether they be discussed in a context or in isolation, than freedom from disturbance and firm confidence, just as in the other areas of discourse. And neither should we force through what is impossible, nor should we in all areas keep our study similar either to discourses on the conduct of life or to those belonging to the solution of the other problems of physics, for example that the totality of things is body and intangible substance, or that there are atomic elements, and all the theses of this kind which are uniquely consistent with things evident. In the case of celestial events this is not the case: both the causes of their coming to be and the accounts of their essence are multiple. For physics should not be studied by means of empty judgments and arbitrary fiat, but in the way that things evident require. What our life needs is not private theorizing and empty opinion, but an untroubled existence. Now in respect of all things which have a multiplicity of explanations consistent with things evident, complete freedom from trepidation results when someone in the proper way lets stand whatever is plausibly suggested about them. But when someone allows one explanation while rejecting another equally consistent with what is evident, he is clearly abandoning natural philosophy altogether and descending into myth. Signs relating to events in the celestial region are provided by certain of the things familiar and evident -- things whose mode of existence is open to view -- and not by things evident in the celestial region. For these latter are capable of coming to be in multiple ways. We must, nevertheless, observe our impression of each one; and we must distinguish the events which are connected with it, events whose happening in multiple ways is uncontested by familiar events. (tr. Long & Sedley)