Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/286

 25-i ffiSTORY OF GREECi. whom was Tim sous, though they considered the ocean as an out- er sea, and no longer admitted the existence of the old Homeric ocean-stream, yet imagined a story for the return-voyage of the Argonauts somewhat resembling the old tale of Hesiod and HekatJEUs. They alleged that the Argo, after entering into the Palus Maiotis, had followed the upward course of the river Ta< nais ; that she had then been carried overland and launched in a river which had its mouth in the ocean or great outer sea. When in the ocean, she had coasted along the north and west of Europe until she reached Gades and the Strait of Gibraltar, where she entered into the Mediterranean, and there visited the many places specified in the fable. Of this long voyage, in the outer sea to the north and west of Europe, many traces were affirmed to exist along the coast of the ocean. 1 There was again a third version, according to which the Argonauts came back as they went, through the Thracian Bosporus and the Hellespont. In this way geographical plausibility was indeed maintained, but a large portion of the fabulous matter was thrown overboard. 2 Such were the various attempts made to reconcile the Argo- nautic legend with enlarged geographical knowledge and improv- ed historical criticism. The problem remained unsolved, but the Schol. ; Strabo, i. p. 46-57 ; Aristot. Mirabil. Auscult. c. 105. Altars were shown in the Adriatic, which had been erected both by Jason and by Medea (ib). Aristotle believed in the forked course of the Ister, with one embochurc in the Euxine and another in the Adriatic : he notices certain fishes called rpt- tai, who entered the river (like the Argonauts) from the Euxine, went up it as far as the point of bifurcation and descended into the Adriatic (Histor. Animal, viii. 15). Compare Ukert, Geographic der Gricch. undRomer. vol. iii. p. 145-147, about the supposed course of the Istcr. 1 Diodor. iv. 56 ; Timaeus, Fragm. 53. Goller. Skymnns the geographer also adopted this opinion (Schol. Apoll. Rhod. 284-287). The psendo-Or- phens in the poem called Argonautica seems to give a jumble of all the dif- ferent stories. 2 Diodor. iv. 49. This was the tale both of Sophokles and of Kallimachns (Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 2?4). Sec the Dissertation of Ukert, Beylage iv. vol. i. part 2. p. 320 of his Geographic der Gricchen nnd RSmer, which treats of the Argonautic voy- age at some length ; also J. H. Voss, Alte Weltkunde Qber die Gestalt dei Erdc, published in the second volume of the Kritische Blatter, pp. 162, 314- 326 ; and Forbiger, Handbuch der Ahen Geographie-Einlcitung, p. 8.