The fancy of the Greeks delighted itself in wild visions of the height
of falls. In Hesiod’s _Theogony_ it is said, speaking of the fall
of the Titans into Tartarus, “if a brazen anvil were to fall from
heaven nine days and nine nights long, it would reach the earth on the
tenth.” This descent of the anvil in 777,600 seconds of time gives an
equivalent in distance of 309,424 geographical miles (allowance being
made, according to Galle’s calculation, for the considerable diminution
in force of attraction at planetary distances); therefore 1½ times the
distance of the moon from the earth. But, according to the _Iliad_,
Hephæstus fell down to Lemnos in one day; “when but a little breath was
still in him.”--_Note to Humboldt’s Cosmos_, vol. iii.