2'"« S. No 98., Nov. 14. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



391 



the oar ; it was said not to be even moveable 

 by wind. (^Agr. 10.) This, the only account of 

 Thule which f)rof'esses to rest on actual inspection, 

 is tinged with fiible, and cannot be admitted as 

 sufficient evidence. The distant land, supposed 

 to be Thule, was probably not more real than 

 Croker's Mountains in the northern seas, which 

 were afterwards sailed over by Sir Edward Parry. 

 The notion of remote seas beinjj impassable by 

 ships, either from their shoals (llerod., ii. 102.), 

 or from the obstacles to navigation produced by 

 the semi-fluid and muddy qualities of the water, 

 frequently recurs among tlie ancients, and was 

 probably invented by sailors, as a reason why 

 their further progress had been arrested. Thus 

 Piato describes the Atlantic Ocean as imperme- 

 able by vessels, on account of the depth of mud, 

 which he attributes to the subsidence of the 

 island of Atlantis. (Tim., §, 6.) Hiinilco, the Car- 

 thaginian, affirmed that the sea beyond the Pillars 

 of Hercules could not be navigated : the obstacles 

 were the absence of wind, the thickness of the 

 sea-weed, the shallowness of the water, and the 

 monsters with^which it was infested. (Avienus, 

 Ora Maritima, v. 117 — 129., and compare v. 192. 

 210. 362 , in Wernsdorf's Poetce Latini Minores, 

 vol. v. part iii.) The muddy nature of the sea 

 beyond the Pillars of Hercules is also mentioned 

 by Scylax in his extant Periplus. (§ 1.) Tacitus 

 himself describes the northern sea near the Suiones 

 in Germany as " sluggish and nearly motionless " 

 (pigrum ac prope hnmotum, Germ. 45.) Even 

 the scientific Aristotle believed the current fable ; 

 " The waters beyond the Pillars of Hercules are 

 (he says) shallow from mud, and unmoved by 

 winds, as being in the hollow of the sea." (Me- 

 teoroL, ii. 1. § 14.) 



According to Pliny, Thule was an island situ- 

 ated beyond Britain, at the distance of one day's 

 sail from the frozen sea ; in the summer solstice 

 it had no night, and in the winter, no day (JV. H. 

 IV. 30.). The account of Solinus is that Thule is 

 five days' and nights' sail from the Orcades ; that 

 at the summer solstice it has scarcely any night, 

 at the winter solstice scarcely any day ; that it 

 abounds with fruits : that its inhabitants live in 

 spring upon grass, like cattle; afterwards on milk, 

 and in winter on dried fruit: they have no mar- 

 riages, and their women are in common. Be- 

 yond this island the sea is motionless and frozen, 

 (c. 22.) 



The current notion respecting Thule, as a re- 

 mote island in the Northern sea, is repeated by 

 the later geographers, but without adding any- 

 thing to the evidence of its existence. Thus 

 Mela s{)eaks of Thule as opposite the coast of the 

 Belgians, and celebrated by Greek and Latin 

 poets. He states that the nights are light in 

 winter, and that there is no night at the solstices 

 (hi. 6.). According to Dionysius Perieg. 580-6,, 



Thule is an island beyond Britain, where the sun 

 shines both day and night. Agathemerus de 

 Geogr., II. 4., combines Thule with the " Great 

 Scandia " (^ /xeyciAjj ^KavSia), which adjoins the 

 Cimbric Chersonese. The two latter writers ap- 

 pear to belong to the third century ; Mela wrote 

 under the early Caesars. 



Isidorus, who wrote in the seventh century, 

 speaks of Thule as an island to the north-west of 

 Britain, which derived its name from the sun, be- 

 cause the sun here makes its summer solstice, and 

 beyond it there is no diiy. For the same reason, 

 its sea is motionless and frozen. {Orig. xiv. 6. 4.) 

 In what manner the name Thule (©ouAij) is derived 

 from the sun, does not appear. 



Although Mela describes Thule as having been 

 celebrated by both Greek and Latin poets, its 

 name occurs in no extant Greek verse with the 

 exception of the geographical poem of Dionysius. 

 By the Latin poets it is occasionally mentioned; 

 but only in the vague sense of a remote and un- 

 known island, and never as invested with any 

 positive attributes savouring of geographical 

 reality. Thus Virgil, in the elaborate flattery of 

 Augustus which he places near the beginning of 

 his Georgics, represents him as god of the sea; 

 and in this character as ruling over Thule at the 

 extremity of the ocein, and espousing a daughter 

 of Tethvs : 



" An deus immensi venias maris, ac tua nautse 

 Numina sola colant, tibi serviat ultima Thule, 

 Teque sibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis." 



Georg. i. 29. 



The celebrated verses of Seneca, which have 

 been supposed to contain a prediction of the dis- 

 covery of America, likewise refer to the remote 

 position of Thule. 



" Venient annis ssecula seris, 

 Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 

 Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, 

 Tethj'sque novos detegat orbes, 

 Nee sit terris ultima Thule." Med. 374. 



Juvenal ironically describes the progress of 

 Greek and Roman literature towards the barbarous 

 north, by saying that the Britons had learnt elo- 

 quence from the Gauls ; and that even Thule 

 thinks of hiring a rhetorician : 



" Nunc totus Graias nostrasque habet orbis Athenas ; 

 Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos, 

 De conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule." 



XV. 110. 

 Similar passages occur in Statius, who speaks 

 of Thule as a distant island, enveloped in dark- 

 ness, and lying beyond the course of the sun. 

 " Si gelidas irem mansurus ad Arctos, 

 Vel super Hesperiffi vada caligantia Thules, 

 Aut septemgemini caput baud penetrabile Nili." 



Sylv. iii. 5. 19. 

 " Forsitan Ausonias ibis frsenare cohortes, 

 Aut Rheni populos, aut nigrte littora Thules, 

 Aut Istrum servare Iatus,metuendaque portse 

 Limina Caspiacae." lb. iv. 4. 62. 



