POETIC GEOGRAPHY. 



65 



as Circe, who lured but to ensnare ; of amiable goddesses, like 

 Calypso, who offered immortality in exchange for love, — wa3 

 doubtless believed by Homer, though we must make some 

 allowance for poetical licence. At any rate, the invention of 

 these fables is not to be attributed to Homer, who, at the most, 

 gave a highly-colored repetition of the terrific reports brought 

 back from those formidable coasts by the few who had beer* 

 fortunate enough to return. It was thus that an ideal and 

 poetic character was communicated to the science of geography 

 by the fables with which Homer tinged his narrative. In the 

 early ages of the world, science and poetry were twin sisters : 

 every poet was a savant, and every savant was a poet. 



As far as his ideas can be reduced to a system, the earth 

 was a flat disk, around which flowed the river Ocean. The 



THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER. 



accompanying plan will enable the reader to form an adequate 



conception of the Homeric geography. The radius of the 



territories described by Homer with any degree of precision 



was hardly three hundred miles in length. 

 5 



