CHAP. 36. (31.)—ISLANDS OF THE ÆTHIOPIAN SEA.
We learn from Ephorus, as well as Eudoxus and Timosthenes, that there are great numbers of islands scattered all
over this sea; Clitarchus says that king Alexander was informed of an island so rich that the inhabitants gave a talent
of gold for a horse, and of another[1] upon which there was
found a sacred mountain, shaded with a grove, the trees of
which emitted odours of wondrous sweetness; this last was
situate over against the Persian Gulf. Cerne[2] is the name
of an island situate opposite to Æthiopia, the size of which
has not been ascertained, nor yet its distance from the main
land: it is said that its inhabitants are exclusively Æthiopians. Ephorus states that those who sail from the Red
Sea into the Æthiopian Ocean cannot get beyond the Columnæ[3] there, some little islands so called. Polybius says
that Cerne is situate at the extremity of Mauritania, over
against Mount Atlas, and at a distance of eight stadia from
the land; while Cornelius Nepos states that it lies very
nearly in the same meridian as Carthage, at a distance from the
mainland of ten miles, and that it is not more than two miles
in circumference. It is said also that there is another island
situate over against Mount Atlas, being itself known by the
name of Atlantis.[4] Five days' sail beyond it there are deserts,
as far as the Æthiopian Hesperiæ and the promontory, which
we have mentioned as being called Hesperu Ceras, a point at
which the face of the land first takes a turn towards the west
and the Atlantic Sea. Facing this promontory are also said
to be the islands called the Gorgades,[5] the former abodes of
the Gorgons, two days' sail from the mainland, according to
Xenophon of Lampsacus. Hanno, a general of the Carthaginians, penetrated as far as these regions, and brought back
an account that the bodies of the women were covered with
hair, but that the men, through their swiftness of foot, made
their escape; in proof of which singularity in their skin,
and as evidence of a fact so miraculous, he placed the skins[6]
of two of these females in the temple of Juno, which were
to be seen there until the capture of Carthage. Beyond these
even, are said to be the two islands of the Hesperides; but
so uncertain are all the accounts relative to this subject, that
Statius Sebosus says that it is forty days' sail, past the coast
of the Atlas range, from the islands of the Gorgons to those
of the Hesperides, and one day's sail from these to the
Hesperu Ceras. Nor have we any more certain information
relative to the islands of Mauritania. We only know, as a
fact well-ascertained, that some few were discovered by Juba
over against the country of the Autololes, upon which he established a manufactory of Gætulian purple.[7]
1. Marcus says that these islands are those called the "Two Sisters,"
situate to the west of the Isle of Socotra, on the coast of Africa. They
are called by Ptolemy, Cocionati.
2. The position of this island has been much discussed by geographers,
as being intimately connected with the subject of Hanno's voyage to the
south of Africa. Gosselin, who carries that voyage no further south than
Cape Non, in about 28° north lat., identifies Cerne with Fedallah, on the
coast of Fez, which, however, is probably much too far to the north. Major
Rennell places it as far south as Arguin, a little to the south of the southern
Cape Blanco, in about 20° 5? North latitude. Heeren, Mannert, and others,
adopt the intermediate portion of Agadir, or Souta Cruz, on the coast of
Morocco, just below Cape Ghir, the termination of the main chain of the
Atlas. If we are to trust to Pliny's statement, it is pretty clear that nothing
certain was known about it in his day.
3. The "Pillars." Marcus thinks that these were some small islands
near the Isle of Socotra.
4. Hardouin says that this is not the Atlantis rendered so famous by
Plato, whose story is distantly referred to in B. ii. c. 92 of this work. It
is difficult to say whether the Atlantis of Plato had any existence at all,
except in the imagination.
5. Medusa and her sisters, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. The
identity of their supposed islands seems not to have been ascertained. For
the poetical aspect of their story, see Ovid's Met., B. iv.
6. It is not improbable that these were the skins of a species of uran-
outang, or large monkey.
7. The Purpurariæ, or "Purple Islands," probably the Madeira group.