THE VOYAGE OP H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
8 
V>t withstanding the m\ thical and poetical elements in Homer, there are some details 
\ ; iv, Hi. g We find in his works the conception held by the Greeks of his time 
, m nu land : nd sea. The earth is represented as a large disc with slightly elevated 
; :h n m, an immense external river with rapid currents and unknown boundaries. 
1 1 n r does not admit that the ocean was a sea ; the expression in his verses con- 
w\.' tl idea < 1 1 a river. In the middle of the disc surrounded by the ocean is placed 
t .1 . Sea and its archipelagoes. All springs, streams, rivers, seas, and indeed all 
\ > on tin earth were the offspring of the ocean, but the poet gives no indication 
i ; n ; irded t he internal sea as being in communication with the great ocean river. 
I; i- d mbtful whether, at this period, the Greeks had even heard, through the 
1' < i 1 1 :ans, of the Erythraean Sea or of the external sea to the westward of the Pillars 
of Hercules, and they themselves had certainly never navigated these waters. It 
I- - r "lv necessary to add that they were absolutely ignorant of the northern and 
southern oceanic regions. 
In tin i o inogr.iphical conception of Homer the external borders of the ocean river 
. ! a - a -up] mt to the transparent celestial vault. Everything seems to indicate that 
di. inceptions of tin world were derived by the Greeks from oriental sources, and 
tl i* It us, clothed by their poets in harmonious and mythical form, were perpetuated 
m -v tlm people down to the time of Hecatoeus. The poems of Homer abound in 
1: h. descriptions of the sea ; from the sea the poet copiously borrows his com- 
j • i : : i.- and metaphors. This shows that the Greeks were familiar with the varied 
m • . f ! lie s- a, and how much its grand phenomena struck their imaginations. It is 
i! ■ ..iv- :!. poetic element which fixes their attention. Homer gives not a single 
■_ plm .il detail relative to the ;ea. He had not even a special name for the ocean, 
in\ ni'ji" than the Greeks and the Piomans during succeeding centuries had for the 
Mediterranean. (See Plate I.) 
n tin time of Homer there are indications that sailors guided their ships, 
. lid.- _■ th night, b) observing the constellations, 1 and, also, that the poet possessed very 
d> tm'‘ notions regarding winds favourable to navigation; thus when he speaks of 
1 — 1 Hiding at Thrinakia, where he was detained for a month by contrary winds, 
iloin.T designates all the winds in a clear and characteristic manner. The whirlpools of 
th . :■ real .-.-a- piny a great idle in the heroic expeditions — viz., those about Scylla and 
< v I : < ert.iin that the perils of those formidable points have been exaggerated 
f i r 1 1 • ■ - of the poets. Yet the foundation of these, legends reposes upon 
?’.• ] ' ■ 'menu pr -ented by the sen in the neighbourhood of the Strait of Messina, 
h and currents from two sens meet in a narrow channel. 2 The ancient 
* Od/Mcjr, v. 277. 
Tli ii 1 !' ' i, of these d angers (iv. 24). Admiral Smyth (Mediterranean, pp. 178-182) 
• ‘hr ' - n n ivu-.itir,.* tin- trail an -ueh iw to give rise to tlie dangerous reputation ascribed to 
thra bj the anrivnt* (tec Lunhury. op. cii., voL i p. 61). 
