Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/52

 STRABO. BOOK i. is generally considered a scientific treatise, notwithstanding what Eratosthenes may say, when he bids us not to judge poems by the standard of intellect, nor yet look to them for history. It is most probable that the line " Nine days by cruel storms thence was I borne Athwart the fishy deep," 1 should be understood of merely a short distance, (for cruel storms do not blow in a right, course,) and not of being carried beyond the ocean, as if impelled by favourable winds. " And," says Polybius, "allowing the distance from Malea 2 to the Pillars to be 22,500 stadia, and supposing the rate of passage was the same throughout the nine days, the voyage must have been accomplished at the speed of 2500 stadia per diem : now who has ever recorded that the passage from Lycia or Rhodes to Alexandria, a distance of 4000 stadia, has been made in two days ? To those who demand how it was that Ulysses, though he journeyed thrice to Sicily, never once na- vigated the Strait, we reply that, long after his time, voyagers always sedulously avoided that route." 18. Such are the sentiments of Polybius; and in many respects they are correct enough ; but when he discusses the voyage beyond the ocean, and enters on minute calculations of the proportion borne by the distance to the number of days, he is greatly mistaken. He alleges perpetually the words of the poet, "Nine days by cruel storms thence was I borne ;" but at the same time he takes no notice of this expression, which is his as well, " And now borne sea-ward from the river stream Of the Ocean us;" 3 and this, " In the island of Ogygia, the centre of the sea," 4 1 And from thence I was carried for nine days over the fishy sea by baleful winds. Odyssey ix. 82. 2 Cape Maleo off the Morea. The distance from this point to Gibraltar is now estimated at 28 34'. The 22,500 stadia of Polybius would equal 32o 8' 34". He was therefore out in his calculation by 3 34' 34". 3 But when the ship left the stream of the river ocean. Odyss. xii. 1. 4 Vide Odyssey i. 50.