284 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



as we know, found favour even in modern times. 

 To pass over earlier instances of this feeling, we 

 may observe, that Strabo begins his Geography by 

 saying that he agrees with Hipparchus, who had 

 declared Homer to be the first author of our geo- 

 graphical knowledge : and he does not confine the 

 application of this assertion to the various and 

 curious topographical information which the Iliad 

 and Odyssey contain, concerning the countries sur- 

 rounding the Mediterranean ; but in phrases which, 

 to most persons, might appear the mere play of 

 a poetical fancy, or a casual selection of circum- 

 stances, he finds unquestionable evidence of a 

 correct knowledge of general geographical truths. 

 Thus', when Homer speaks of the sun " rising from 

 the soft and deep-flowing ocean," of his " splendid 

 blaze plunging in the ocean ;" of the northern con- 

 stellation 



"Alone unwashen by the ocean wave;" 



and of Jupiter " who goes to the ocean to feast 

 with the blameless Ethiopians ;" Strabo is satisfied 

 from these passages that Homer knew the dry land 

 to be surrounded with water: and he reasons in 

 like manner with respect to other points of geo- 

 graphy. 



2. Character of Commentators. The spirit of 

 commentation, as has already been suggested, turns 

 to questions of taste, of metaphysics, of morals, 



3 Strabo, i. p. 5. 



