IS THE WORLD FLAT?
Still, although the men of ancient time were learning fast about the
land and sea, they were woefully ignorant. Hesiod, a Greek poet, who
lived seven hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, declared
that the world was flat, and the ocean stream or the "perfect river,"
as he called it, flowed round and round, encompassing all things.
Still, there was something beyond the water--something dim,
mysterious, unknowable. It might be the "Islands of the Blest"; it
might be the "sacred isle." One thing he asserted firmly: "Atlas
upholds the broad Heaven ... standing on earth's verge with head and
unwearied hands," while the clear-voiced Hesperides guarded their
beautiful golden apples "beyond the waters of Ocean."
"Hesperus and his daughters three
That sung about the golden tree."
But who thinks now of the weary Titan doomed for ever to support the
ancient world on his head and hands, when the atlas of to-day is brought
forth for a lesson in geography?
About this time comes a story--it may be fact or it may be fiction--that
the Phoenicians had sailed right round Africa. The voyage was arranged
by Neco, an enterprising Egyptian king, who built his ships in the
Red Sea in the year 613 B.C. The story is told by Herodotus, the Greek
traveller, many years afterwards.
"Libya," he says, "is known to be washed on all sides by the sea, except
where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Neco,
the Egyptian king, who sent a number of ships manned by Phoenicians
with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the
Straits of Gibraltar), and return to Egypt through them and by the
Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt
by way of the Erythraean Sea, and so sailed into the Southern Ocean.
When autumn came (it is supposed they left the Red Sea in August) they
went ashore, wherever that might happen to be, and, having sown a tract
of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped
it, they set sail, and thus it came to pass that two whole years went
by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars
of Hercules and made good their voyage home. On their return they
declared (I, for my part, says Herodotus, do not believe them, but
perhaps others may) that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon
their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered."
[Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN A MEDIAEVAL MAP.
Higden's Map of the World, 1360 A.D.]
To modern students, who have learnt more of Phoenician enterprise,
the story does not seem so incredible as it did to Herodotus; and a
modern poet, Edwin Arnold, has dreamed into verse a delightful account
of what this voyage may have been like.
Ithobal of Tyre, Chief Captain of the seas, standing before Neco,
Pharaoh and King, Ruler of Nile and its lands, relates the story of
his two years' voyage, of the strange things he saw, of the hardships
he endured, of the triumphant end. He tells how, with the help of
mechanics from Tarshish, Tyre, and Sidon, he built three goodly ships,
"Ocean's children," in a "windless creek" on the Red Sea, how he loaded
them with cloth and beads, "the wares wild people love," food-flour
for the ship, cakes, honey, oil, pulse, meal, dried fish and rice,
and salted goods. Then the start was made down the Red Sea, until at
last "the great ocean opened" east and south to the unknown world and
into the great nameless sea, by the coast of that "Large Land whence
none hath come" they sailed.
Ithobal had undertaken no light task; contrary winds, mutiny on board,
want of fresh water, all the hardships that confront the mariner who
pilots his crews in search of the unknown. Strange tribes met them
on the coast and asked them whither they went.
"We go as far as the sun goes
As far as the sea rolls, as far as the stars
Shine still in sky. To find for mighty Pharaoh what his world
Holds hidden."
South and ever south they sailed, "day after day and night succeeding
night, close clinging to the shore." New stars appeared, lower and
lower sank the sun, moons rose and waned, and still the coast stretched
southwards till they reached a "Cape of Storms" and found the coast
was turning north. And now occurred that strange phenomenon mentioned
by Herodotus, that while sailing westwards the sun was on their right
hand. "No man had seen that thing in Syria or in Egypt."
A year and a half had now passed away since they left home, but onward
to the north they now made their way, past the mouth of the golden
waters (Orange River), past the Congo, past the Niger, past the island
of Gorillas described by Hanno, who explored the west coast under Neco
either before or after this time, until at last the little Phoenician
ships sailed peacefully into the Mediterranean Sea.
"Here is the Ocean-Gate. Here is the Strait
Twice before seen, where goes the Middle Sea
Unto the Setting Sun and the Unknown--
No more unknown, Ithobal's ships have sailed
Around all Africa. Our task is done.
These are the Pillars, this the Midland Sea.
The road to Tyre is yonder. Every wave
Is homely. Yonder, sure, Old Nilus pours
Into this Sea, the Waters of the World,
Whose secret is his own and thine and mine."
It will ever remain one of the many disputed points in early geography
whether or not Africa was circumnavigated at this early date. If the
Phoenicians did accomplish such a feat they kept their experiences
a secret as usual, and the early maps gave a very wrong idea of South
Africa. On the other hand, we know they had good seaworthy ships in
advance of their neighbours.
[Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN THE ANGLO-SAXON
MAP OF THE WORLD, TENTH CENTURY.]
"I remember," says Xenophon, "I once went aboard a Phoenician ship,
where I observed the best example of good order that I ever met with;
and especially it was surprising to observe the vast numbers of
implements which were necessary for the management of such a small
vessel. What numbers of oars, stretchers, ship-hooks, and spikes were
there for bringing the ship in and out of the harbour! What numbers
of shrouds, cables, ropes, and other tackling for the ship! What a
vast quantity of provisions were there for the sustenance and support
of the sailors!" Captain and sailors knew where everything was stowed
away on board, and "while the captain stood upon the deck, he was
considering with himself what things might be wanting in his voyage,
what things wanted repair, and what length of time his provisions would
last; for, as he observed to me, it is no proper time, when the storm
comes upon us, to have the necessary implements to seek, or to be out
of repair, or to want them on board; for the gods are never favourable
to those who are negligent or lazy; and it is their goodness that they
do not destroy us when we are diligent."
[Illustration: A GREEK GALLEY ABOUT 500 B.C. From a vase-painting.]
There is an old story which says that one day the Greeks captured a
Phoenician ship and copied it. However this may be, the Greeks soon
became great colonisers themselves, and we have to thank a Greek
philosopher living in Miletus, on the coast of Asia Minor, for making
the first map of the ancient world. Of course, the Babylonians and
Egyptians had made maps thousands of years before this, but this
Greek--Anaximander introduced the idea of map-making to the
astonished world about the year 580 B.C. What was the map like? It
was "a bronze tablet, whereupon the whole circuit of the Earth was
engraved with all its seas and rivers."
This is all we know. But this map-making Greek was famous for another
idea in advance of his time. He used to study the heavens and the earth,
and after much study he made up his mind that the earth was round and
not flat. He taught that the world hung free in the midst of the universe,
or rather in the midst of the waters. The centre of the earth was at
Delphi. In the world of legend there was a reason for this. Two eagles
had been let loose, one from the eastern extremity of the world, the
other from the west, and they met at Delphi--hence it was assumed that
Delphi was at the centre of the world. And Delphi at this time was
such a wonderful city. On the slopes of Mount Parnassus it stood high
on a rock--on the heights stood the temple of Apollo with its immense
riches, its golden statue of the great god, and its ever-smoking fire
of wood.
[Illustration: JERUSALEM, THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD. From the Hereford
Map of the World, thirteenth century.]
In the same way, in those days of imperfect geography, as we hear of
Delphi being the centre of the Greek world, so we hear of Jerusalem
being considered the central point of the world.
"This is Jerusalem," says Ezekiel, "in the midst of the nations and
countries that are round about her." In the Mappa Mundi (thirteenth
century) in Hereford Cathedral, Jerusalem is still the centre of the
earth.
Following close on these ideas came another. It, too, came from Miletus,
now famous for its school of thought and its searchers after truth.
A _Tour of the World_ is the grand-sounding title of the work of
Hecataeus, who wrote it about 500 years B.C. It contains an account
of the coast and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and an outline of
all the lands the Greeks thought they knew. In the fragments that have
come down to us, the famous old geographer divides both his work and
the world into two parts. One part he calls Europe, the other Asia,
in which he includes Africa bounded by the river Nile. He held that
these two parts were equal. They were divided from one another by the
Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, while round
the whole flat world still flowed the everlasting ocean stream.