Ancient Navigators Series
Plutarch was a Greek Historian, Philosopher, Author who lived during the peak of the Roman Empire (46-122 AD) in his biography of Sertorius written in 75 AD, gives us a biography of Quintus Sertorius (c.123-72 BC), a Roman military commander and official who rebelled against the Roman Senate during a civil war period, and took over Spain, which he ruled for eight years until he was murdered.
Continuing the series of posts on ancient transatlantic voyages, I came across this bio, and some interesting points mentioned in it. Below is a quote from Plutarch's text (Online here), where Sertorius it about to engage an enemy in the Atlantic Ocean, but his ships are disbanded across the Ocean. In it, he mentions "islands" in the Atlantic:
"...Sertorius made ready to fight him by sea, although his ships were not built for strength, but for lightness and swift sailing; but a violent west wind raised such a sea that many of them were run aground and shipwrecked, and he himself, with a few vessels, being kept from putting further out to sea by the fury of the weather, and from landing by the power of his enemies, were tossed about painfully for ten days together, amidst the boisterous and adverse waves.
He escaped with difficulty, and after the wind ceased, ran for certain desert islands scattered in those seas, affording no water, and after passing a night there, making out to sea again, he went through the straits of Cadiz, and sailing outward, keeping the Spanish shore on his right hand, landed a little above the mouth of the river Baetis, where it falls into the Atlantic Sea, and gives the name to that part of Spain. Here he met with seamen recently arrived from the Atlantic islands, two in number, divided from one another only by a narrow channel, and distant from the coast of Africa ten thousand furlongs [My comment: 2000 km or 1,250 miles]. These are called the Islands of the Blest; rain falls there seldom, and in moderate showers, but for the most part they have gentle breezes, bringing along with them soft dews, which render the soil not only rich for ploughing and planting, but so abundantly fruitful that it produces spontaneously an abundance of delicate fruits, sufficient to feed the inhabitants, who may here enjoy all things without trouble or labour. The seasons of the year are temperate, and the transitions from one to another so moderate that the air is almost always serene and pleasant. The rough northerly and easterly winds which blow from the coasts of Europe and Africa, dissipated in the vast open space, utterly lose their force before they reach the islands. The soft western and southerly winds which breathe upon them sometimes produce gentle sprinkling showers, which they convey along with them from the sea, but more usually bring days of moist, bright weather, cooling and gently fertilizing the soil, so that the firm belief prevails, even among the barbarians, that this is the seat of the blessed and that these are the Elysian Fields celebrated by Homer."
Blest
The Elysian fields were the paradise, the resting place for the dead. And the two "Blest" Ilses or "Blessed", also known as "Fortunate" Islands were the same.
The Greek geographer Strabo (~64 BC - ~24 AD) mentions them as follows "the Islands of the Blessed they speak of, which we know are still pointed out to us not far distant from the extremities of Maurusia, and opposite to Gades." (Geography, 3.2.13) Placing them close to Cadiz (Madeira See this interesting resource on Blest, online.
Roman geographer and naturalist Pliny the Elder also wrote about them:
"CHAP 37 32 THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS
There are some authors who think that beyond these [beyond the islands of Purple, along the coast of Mauritania] are the Fortunate Islands and some others the number of which Sebosus gives as well as the distances informing us that Juno is an island seven hundred and fifty miles distant from He states also that Pluvialia and Capraria are the same distance from Junonia to the west and that in Pluvialia the only fresh water to be obtained is rain water then states that at a distance of two hundred and fifty miles from these opposite the left of Mauritania and situate in the of the sun at the eighth hour are the Fortunate one of which from its undulating surface has the name of Invallis and another that of Planasia from the peculiarity of its appearance He states also that the circumference of Invallis is three hundred miles and that trees grow a height of one hundred and fourteen feet. Relative to the Fortunate Islands Juba has ascertained the following facts that they are situate to the south in nearly a westerly direction and at a distance from the Purple of six hundred and twenty five miles the sailing being for two hundred and fifty miles due west and then three and seventy five towards the east. He states that the first is called Ombrios and that it presents no traces of whatever that among the mountains there is a lake and some trees which bear a strong resemblance to giant fennel and from which water is extracted that drawn those that are black is of a bitter taste but that produced the white ones is agreeable and good for drinking. He states also that a second island has the name of Junonia but it contains nothing beyond a small temple of stone also that in its vicinity there is another but smaller island of the same name and then another called Capraria which is in fested by multitudes of huge lizards. According to the same author in sight of these islands is Ninguaria which has received that name from its perpetual snows this island abounds also in fogs. The one next to it is Canaria it contains vast multitudes of dogs of very large size two of which were brought home to Juba there are some traces of buildings to be seen here. While all these islands abound in fruit and birds of every kind this one produces in great numbers the date palm which bears the caryota also pine nuts. Honey too abounds here and in the rivers papyrus and the fish called silurus are found. These islands however are greatly annoyed by the putrefying bodies of monsters which are constantly thrown up by the sea."
Once again, close to Mauritania and in the Atlantic, Pliny even names the "Canary" Island. Note however, that he mentions rivers, withy papyrus and fish. There are no rivers in any of the islands of the Atlantic Ocean (excluding the British Isles), this means that these islands were part of a continent, either Africa or America.
The "giant fennel" plants are interesting, since fennel is a plant found in Eurasia and the Mediterranean, however, in North America, including Mexico, there is a native species known as osha (Ligusticum porteri) as well as Lomatium species that have flowers similar to fennel.
The small stone temple on the Isle of Junonia shows that either the natives (not mentioned in the text) or previous voyagers built it. Was it a Greek, Roman, Carthaginian temple? Or was it some temple on the coast of Yucatan?
Most scholars place these islands in the Canary Islands, however, while discussing their placement in Ptolemy's map drawn by the Greek astronomer and geographer Ptolemy (100-170 AD), where they appear roughly 13°N, 0° E, Robert Hues in his "A learned treatise of Globes..." (1638), (see p. 96) considers that they are in fact the Cape Verde Islands, further south along the coast of Africa (but, these also lack rivers).
Closing Comments
These texts show that the ancient Romans and Greek were aware of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, but lacking the adequate instruments, could not place them accurately on a map. It is likely that Sertorious discovered some islands and believed they were the Fortunate Isles, he probably visited the Azores, or even sailed across the Atlantic. However, we will never know for sure.
Below is a part of Ptolemy's map showing the Fortunate Islands (red arrow).
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
No comments:
Post a Comment