Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/314

 HEBCUtlS COLUMNAE. between the Cobtnmt «n Europe And the Cobtfnnt in Libjftif nuing the plural by a kind of attmction, for, when he describes them more particnhirly, he ■peaks of each in the singular. (Scylax, pp. 1, 51, ed. Hudson; ppw 1, 120, 126, ed. Qronov.) From these testimonies, as well as from the numerous allusions of otlier writers, it appears that the common opinion had become pretty well established from the time of Herodotus. (Gomp. Poljb. iii. 35; Diod. Sic. iv. 18; Dion. Per. 64, 454, and Eustath. ad loe. Palaeph. 52; Philoetr. VU. ApoUon, v. 1, 5, &c) The same thing is evident from numerous passages of Stxabo, who, in the course of a very interesting discussion on the whole subject-, accounts for the various positions assigned to the Pillars as follows (iii. pp. 169 — 172). An oracle had commanded the Tyrians to found a colony at the Pilhirs of Hercules. -The settlers sent out for this purpose, on arriving at the Straits, thought they had reached the term both of the inhabited world, and of the expedition of Hercules; and, taking the rocks of Calpe and Abyla for the Pillars of which they were in search, they landed at a spot within the Straits, where stood, in Strabo s time, the city of the Exitani [Saxetandm] ; but, finding the sacrifices inauspicious, they returned. Another party, sent out some time afterwards, pro- ceeded 1500 stadia beyond the Straits, as far as an island sacred to Hercules, opposite to the spot on the Iberian coast where the city of Onoba afterwards stood; but, again finding the sacrifices inauspicious, these also returned home. A third attempt had for its result the foundation of Gades. Hence it came to pass that some sought the Pillars in the headlands of the Struts, others at Gades, and others at some place even beyond Gades in the Ocean. The general opinion was in fiivour of Calpe and Abyla; but some, smong whom was Artemidorus, took the Pillars to be the small islands near each, of which one was called the Itland of Hera^ by which he seems to mean the islands off C. Trd^falffar^ the ancient Ju- nonis Prom., which headland the authors of this opinion seem to have confounded with CaJpe^ (Comp. the Note to Groskurd's translation, L c.) Some even tiansferred the celebrated rocks called Planetae and Symplegades to the Straits, and identified them with the Pillars of Hercules. Scymnus Ghius, who, like Artemidorus, took the Pillars for islands, places them far within the Straits, at Mabkaca, near the city of the Exitani, above mentioned. (Vv. 142 — 145). 2. As to vfhat the pillars were believed to be, Strabo also gives some interesting information. Some took them for rocky headlands, otliers for islands; the former rising up from the land, the latter out of the sea, like gigantic columns. But othera, regard- ing the custom previonsly referred to, or even taking the word ffrricu literally, looked for cities, or arti- ficial mounds, or columns, or statues, erected either by Hercules himself, to mark the term of his con- quests, or dedicated by Phoenician navigators to this their tutelary deity, to record the extent of their discoveries. (Gomp. Hesych. t.v. trriiKat ti<rr6fMvs.) This literal interpretation, he tells us, prevailed among the Iberians and Libyans, who denied that there was anything at the Straits resembling columns, but pointed out, as the Pillars of Hercules, the bronze columns in the temple of the god at Gades, on which the expenses of building the temple were inscribed. He adds that this opinion was held by Poseidonius, in opposition to the Greeks in general, who considered the pilhira to mean promontories. Strabo's refutation of this opinion is an interesting HKRCULIS POBTUS. 10iS5 etfort of ancient criticism. (Cooip. Strab. i. pp. 21, 32, 47, 49, 51, 52, 56, 58, 64. ii. pp. 67, 68, 71, 78, 79, 84, 86, 89, 90, 93, 101, 105, 108, &c.&c) Not only the nature, but also the immi^, of the Pillanwas disputed; the common opinion making them ttDOf while othere gave the nimiber as one, or three, orjfow, (Hesych. L c) 3. The true reaeon of the name must-be sought for in the fiict that Melcarth, whom the Greeks identified with Heracles, was the tutelary god of th6 Phoenicians, as well as in the Greek legends respect- ing Hercules: how far those legends originated in the Phoenician worship, this is not the place to in- quire. The view generally taken by the Greeks may be collected from the passages of Stnbo just quoted. But the later writers sought for an interpretation from their physical views of the legends of HerculeSi One story was that he tore asunder the rocks which had before entirely divided the Mediterranean Sea from the ocean. (Mela, i. 5. § 8, ii. 6. § 6.) Pliny assigns both reasons (iii. prooem. " Abila Africae, Europae Calpe, laborum fferculis meta: quam ob causam indigenae oolumnas ejus Dei vocant, ere* duntque perfossas exclusa antea admisisse maria, et rerum naturae mutasse fadem.'*) The interesting speculati<Nis of the ancients, respecting the physical changes resulting from the supposed disruption, es- pecially the opinion, discussed by Strabo, that th^ Mediterranean had previously been connected with the Bed Sea, and that the Jttkuuu of Suez was formed by the lowering of the Mediterranean through its new outlet, belong rather to other places in this work [ERrrH&ABCM Marb, Mabb Ikterhum] : but it may be worth while to point out here that Mela {L c) indicates just the opposite opinion, namely, that the Mediterranean was elevated by the influx of the Atlantic; and the same idea is conveyed by Pliny*s phrase of *' admisiste maria.** Another legend was that Hercules forced the two rocks into temporary union to make a bridge for the safe con- veyance of the herds of Geryon to Libya (Avien. Ora 3fariL 326); and another, that he narrowed the Strait, so as to shut out the sea-monstera which had previously made their way in from the Ocean and infested the Mediterranean (Diod. Sic. iv. 18). It only remains to notice that one of the principal paralleb of httitude, by which Eratosthenes and other ancient geqgraphere divided the earth inte KklfAurOy was drawn through the Pillars, passing also through the Straits of Messina, Athens, Rhodes, and the Taurus, to Thinae. (Strab. ii. pp. 67, 68, 79, &C. &c.; Schwartz, Dim. de Columme JBer* culit, Altorf, 1 749, 4to; Goeselin, Hech. Mur la Geogr^ SysL dee Ane. tome iv. jip, 1 — 10, Paris, 1813; Humboldt, Kritieche Uniertuckungen, voL i. pp. 45^, foil; Ukert, vol. ii. pp. 248, b. foU.) [P. S.] HFRCULIS INSULA. [Carthago Nova: Onoba]. HE'KCULISLIBURNI POBTUS [Libi;r»um.] HE'BCULIS MONOECI POKTU& [Monob- CU8.] HEltCULIS POBTUS. 1. A small port on the coast of Etruria, im the S. side of the promon- tory of Monte Arffentaro, [Argentarius Moh&] 2. (& 'HpaKous Aifi^v, Strab. vL p. 256; Portns Hereulis, Piin. iii. 5. s. 10), a port on the W. coast of Bruttium, placed by Pliny between Hipponium and the mouth of the Metaurus. Strabo tdts us that it was between Hipponium and the Portus Hereulis that the coast began to curve round towards the Sicilian Strait. Hence, it is probable that the name waa