6.

Any one may well entertain such questions as these touching the localities mentioned by the poet [Homer], and with regard to the Mysians and the illustrious Hippemolgi: but what Apollodorus has advanced in his preface to the Catalogue of Ships in the Second Book [of the Iliad] is by no means to be adopted. For he praises the opinions of Eratosthenes, who says that Homer and the rest of the ancients were well versed in every thing that related to Greece, but were in a state of considerable ignorance as to places at a distance, in consequence of the impossibility of their making long journeys by land or voyages by sea. In support of this he asserts,2621 that Homer designated Aulis as ‘rocky,’ as indeed it is; Eteonus as ‘mountainous and woody,’ Thisbe as ‘abounding in doves,’ Haliartus as ‘grassy;’ but that neither Homer nor the others were familiar with localities far off; for although there are forty rivers which discharge themselves into the Black Sea,2622 he makes no mention whatever even of the most considerable, as the Danube,2623 the Don,2624 the Dnieper,2625 the Bog,2626 the Phasz,2627 the Termeh,2628 the Kizil-Irmak,2629 nor does [Pg 458]
[CAS. 298] he even allude to the Scythians, but makes up fables about certain illustrious Hippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii. He had become acquainted with the Paphlagonians of the interior from the relations of such as had penetrated into those regions on foot, but he was perfectly unacquainted with the sea-coasts of the country; which indeed was likely enough, for that sea was in his time closed to navigation, and known by the name of Pontus Axenus [or the Inhospitable] on account of the severity of the storms to which it was subject, as well as of the savage disposition of the nations who inhabited its shores, but more especially of the Scythian hordes,2630 who made a practice of sacrificing strangers, devouring their flesh, and using their skulls for drinking-cups; although at a subsequent period, when the Ionians had established cities along its shores, it was called by the name of Pontus Euxinus [or the Hospitable]. He was likewise in ignorance as to the natural peculiarities of Egypt and Libya,2631 as the risings of the Nile, and the alluvial deposits, which he no where notices, nor yet the isthmus [of Suez] which separates the Red Sea from the Egyptian Sea;2632 nor yet does he relate any particulars of Arabia, Ethiopia, or the Ocean, unless we should agree with the philosopher Zeno in altering the Homeric line as follows,

“I came to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Arabians.”2633

Indeed we ought not to be surprised at meeting with this in Homer, for those who have lived at a more recent period than he did, have been ignorant of many things, and have told strange tales. Hesiod has talked of Hemicynes,2634 Megalocephali, and Pygmies; Alcman of Steganopodes; Æschylus of Cynocephali, Sternophthalmi, and Monommati, (they say it is in his Prometheus,) and ten thousand other absurdities. From these he proceeds to censure the writers who talk of the Riphæan Mountains2635 and Mount Ogyium,2636 and the dwelling of the Gorgons2637 and the Hesperides,2638 the land of Meropis2639 mentioned by Theopompus, Cimmeris,2640 a city mentioned in Hecatæus, the land of Panchæa2641 mentioned by Euhemerus, and the river-stones formed of sand mentioned by Aristotle,2642 which were dissolved by rain-showers. Further, that there exists in Africa a city of Bacchus which no one can find twice. He likewise reproves those who assert that the wanderings of Ulysses mentioned in Homer were in the neighbourhood of Sicily, for again, if we should say that the wanderings did take place in those parts, we should have to confess that the poet transferred them to the ocean for the sake of making his account the more romantic. Some allowance might be made for others, but no manner of excuse can be put forward for Callimachus, who pretends to the character of a critic, and yet supposes that Gaudus was the island of Calypso, and identifies Scheria with Corcyra.2643 Other writers he blames for misstatements as to Gerena,2644 Acacesium,2645 and [Pg 460]
[CAS. 299] the Demus2646 in Ithaca, Pelethronium2647 in Pelium, and the Glaucopium at Athens.2648 With these and a few similar trifling observations, most of which he has drawn from Eratosthenes, whose inaccuracy we have before shown, he breaks off. However, we frankly acknowledge, both with respect to him [Apollodorus] and Eratosthenes, that the moderns are better informed on geography than the ancients: but to strain the subject beyond measure, as they do, especially when they inculpate Homer, seems to me as if it gave a fair occasion to any one to find fault, and to say by way of recrimination, that they reproach the poet for the very things of which they themselves are ignorant. As for the rest of their observations, particular mention is made of some of them in the places where they occur, and of others in the General Introduction.