MAPS AND MAP-MAKING BEFORE MERC AT OR. 4.81 



lieved to have corrected and improved the map dra^vIl by Anaximan- 

 der. Hecatfflus was, for his time, an extensive traveler. He was well 

 acquainted with Egypt and Western Asia, and embodied the informa- 

 tion he had collected in his travels in two geographical works, that 

 have not come down to us, which were of great authority for several 

 centuries after his time. 



What these early maps were we do not know, but can form a rea- 

 sonable conjecture. The earth at that time was supposed to be a flat 

 circular plain, or disk, the broadest part being from east to west, which 

 was entirely surrounded by an ocean, or great river, that washed it 

 upon all sides. In about the center of this plain Greece was supposed 

 to be situated. The great central sea of the inhabited region was the 

 Mediterranean. The farthest point known at the west was the Straits 

 of Gibraltar, then called the Pillars of Hercules. The southern part 

 comprised the north of Africa as far as the deserts ; while the region 

 north embraced the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean, and 

 an unknown hyperborean land farther to the north, with the Euxine 

 and Caspian Seas at the northeast. The farthest eastern point known 

 was about the western limit of India. This was what would then be 

 contained in a map as a representation of the earth. The sun was sup- 

 posed to pass under and around this flat plain, which was then the 

 mode of accounting for the changes of day and night. The space be- 

 neath was supposed to be a great vault, called Tartarus, the abode of 

 the spirits of the wicked among men, as the region corresponding to 

 it, above the plain, was the heaven, or abode of the gods. The un- 

 known region bej^ond the Pillars of Hercules was filled up with crea- 

 tions of the fertile imagination of the Greeks. To the northwest and 



Fig. 3.— IIipparchus, 100 b. c. 



north were the Cimmerians, a people living in perpetual darkness ; and 

 the hyperboreans, a race supposed to be exempt from toil, disease, or 

 wars, who enjoyed life for a thousand years in a state of undisturbed 

 serenity. To the west of Sicily were the enchanted islands of Circe 



VOL. XVI. — 31 



