Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/53

 CHAP. ii. 19. INTRODUCTION. 39 and that the daughter of Atlas 1 dwells there. And the follow- ing concerning the PliaeaciafTs. " Remote amid the billowy deep, we hold Our dwelling, utmost of all human kind, And free from mixture with a foreign race." 2 These passages clearly refer to the Atlantic Ocean, 3 but though so plainly expressed, Polybius slily manages to overlook them. iHere he is altogether wrong, though quite correct about the wandering of Ulysses having taken place round Sicily and Italy, a fact which Homer establishes himself. Otherwise, what poet or writer could have persuaded the Neapolitans to assert that they possessed the tomb of Parthe- nope 4 the Siren, or the inhabitants of Cuma3, DicaBarchia, 5 and Vesuvius [to bear their testimony] to Pyriphlegethoii, the Marsh of Acherusia, 6 to the oracle of the dead which was near Aornus, 7 and to Baius and Misenus, 8 the companions of Ulys- ses. The same is the case with the Sirenussae, and the Strait of Messina, and Scylla, and Charybdis, and JEolus, all which things should neither be examined into too rigorously, nor yet [despised] as groundless and without foundation, alike re- mote from truth ancl historic value. 19. Eratosthenes seems to have had something like this view of the case himself, when he says, " Any one would be- lieve that the poet intended the western regions as the scene of Ulysses' wanderings, but that he has departed from fact, sometimes through want of perfect information, at other times because he wished to give to scenes a more terrific and mar- vellous appearance than they actually possessed." So far this is true, but his idea of the object which the poet had in 1 Calypso. 2 And we dwell at a distance, the farthest in the sea of many waves, nor does any other of mortals mingle with us. Odyssey vi. 204. 3 Gosselin has satisfactorily demonstrated that Strabo is wrong in sup- posing that these passages relate to the Atlantic Ocean, and most of our readers will come at once themselves to the same conclusion. Those, however, who wish for proofs, may refer to the French translation, vol. i. p. 51, n. 5 Puteoli, now Pozzuolo, in Campania. 6 Mare Morto, south of Bai'a, and near to the ruins of Mycene. 7 Aornus or Avernus : this lake, which lies about one mile north of Bai'a, still retains its ancient appellation. 8 Vide Virgil, ^neid vi. 162.
 * The ancient name of the city of Naples.