Ancient Navigators Series
This post is part of a series on the Ancient Roman and Greek historians and geographers knowledge about America.
In Aristotle's de Mirabilibus Auscultationibus (Latin for: "of marvelous things heard") reported an incredible story:
"84. In the sea outside the Pillars of Heracles they say that a desert island was found by the Carthaginians, having woods of all kinds and navigable rivers, remarkable for all other kinds of fruits, and a few days' voyage away; as the Carthaginians frequented it often owing to its prosperity, and some even lived there,the chief of the Carthaginians announced that they would punish with death any who proposed to sail there, and that they massacred all the inhabitants, that they might not tell the story, and that a crowd might not resort to the island, and get possession of it, and take away the prosperity of the Carthaginians."
(Source)
There is no island beyond Gibraltar (Pillars of Heracles) with "navigable rivers", you would have to cross the Atlantic and reach America to find a river. Not in the Canaries, or Azores, or Madeira, neither in Cabo Verde Islands. Only in America.
For the record, Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, his knowledge spanned many sciences and subjects from history to geography, economics to arts. His works are mostly lost, and have survived as quotes in surviving (yet later) texts. He was a disciple of Plato (the guy who invented or described Atlantis).
The text also mentions another strange land in the Atlantic:
"36 They say that Phoenicians who live in what is called Gades (Cadiz, Spain) , on sailing outside the Pillars of Heracles with an east wind for four days, came at once some desert lands, full of rushes and seaweed, which were not submerged when the tide ebbed, but were covered when the tide was full, upon which were found a quantity of tunny-fish, of incredible size and weight when brought to shore; pickling these and putting them into jars they brought them to Carthage. These alone the Carthaginians do not export, but owing to their value as food they consume them themselves."
Was this spot they reached after sailing for four days in America or along the coast of Africa?
The map above (source) shows the two distinct populations of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic, they breed separately, but feed together, they migrate from their spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean, and span the north-central Atlantic. It is possible that fishermen taken by sea currents could have discovered Cabral's "Volta do Mar" route to America.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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