and Ovid (Met. vii. 267, Oceani mare). It should have been stated earlier that Polybius calls it the Outer and Great Sea (iii. 37. §§ 10, 11, τήν έξω καί μεγάλην προσαγορευμένην); and in another passage be says that it was called by some Ώκεανός, by others, τό Άτλαντικόν πέλαγος (xvi. 29. § 6). Of the geophraphers subsequent to Strabo, Mela states that the inhabited earth is entirely surrounded by the Ocean, from which it receives four seas, one from the N., two from the S., and the fourth from the W. (i. 1), meaning the same four gulfs which are specified by Strabo (see above). After describing the shores of the Mediterranean, he proceeds to speak of the sea without the Straits, under the name of Oceanus, as ingens infinitumque pelagus, and he particularly describes the phenomena of the tides; and then adds, that the sea which lies to the right of those sailing out of the Straits and washes the shore of Baetica, is called aequor Atlanticum (iii. 1). Elsewhere he speaks of the sea on the W. of Europe and Africa by the general name of Oceanus (ii. 6), and by the special names of Atlanticum Mare (i. 3, 4, iii. 10), and Atlanticus Oceanus (i. 5). Pliny speaks of it as mare Atlanticum, ab aliis magnum (iii. 5. s. 10). Ptolemy distinguishes the Atlantic from the other outer seas or (as he generally calls than) oceans, by the name of the Western Ocean (ό δυτικός ώκεανός, ii- 5. § 3), and makes it the W. boundary of Europe and Libya, except in the S. part of the latter continent, where he supposes the unknown land to stretch out to the W. (vii 5. § 2, viii. 4. § 2, 13. § 2). Agathemerus (ii. 14) says that the Great Sea (ή μεγάλη ζάλασσα) surrounding the whole inhabited world is called by the common name of Ocean, and has different names according to the different regions ; and, after speaking of the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Seas, he adds, that the sea <n the west, from which our sea (ή καθ ήμάς ζάλασσα, the Mediterranean) is filled, is called the Western Ocean (Έσπέριος Ώκεανός) and, κατ εξοχήν, the Atlantic Sea (Άτλαντικον πέλαγος). In another passage (ii. 4) he says that Lusitania lies adjacent to the Western Ocean (πρός τώ δυσμικώ Ώκεανώ), and that Tarraconensis extends from the Ocean and the Outer Sea to the Mediterranean; but whether we should understand this as making a precise distinction between the Outer Sea, as on the W. of Spain, and the Ocean, as further N., is not quite clear. According to Dionysius Periegetes, the earth is surrounded on every side by the "stream of unwearied Ocean." (of course a mere phrase borrowed from the early poets), which, being one, has many names applied to it; of which, the part on the west is called Άτλας έσπέριος, which the commentators explain as two adjectives in opposition (vi. 27—42; comp. Eustath. Comm. and Bernhardy, Annot. ad loc; also comp. Priscian, Perieg. 37, foll., and 72, where he uses the phrase Atlantis ab unda; Avien. Descr. Orb. 19, 77, foll., gurgitis Hesperii aequoris Hesperii tractus, 398, Atlantei vis aequoris, 409, Hesperii aequoris undam). At v. 335 he speaks of the Iberian people as γείτων Ώκεανοίο πρός έσπέρον. Agathemerus, Dionysius, and the imitators of the latter, Priscian and Avienus, describe the four great gulfs of the Outer Sea in nearly the same manner as Strabo and Mela. Avienus (Or. Marit. pp. 80, foll.) distinguishes from the all-surrounding Ocean the sea between the |
Suidas defines the term Άτλαντικά πελάγη as including both the Western and Eastern Oceans (Έσπέριος Ωκεανόςς καί Έώος), and all unnavigable seas; and the Atlantic Sea he explains as the Ocean (Άτλαντις ζάλαττα δ Ώκεανός). It is enough to refer to such variations of the name as Atlanteus Oceanus (Claud. Nupt Hon. et Mar. 280, Prob. et Olyb. Cons. 35), and Atlanteus Gurges (Stat. Achill. i. 223); and to passages in which particular reference is made to the connection between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the Straits, which are sometimes called the mouth of the Atlantic Sea, or of the Ocean (τό τής ζαλάττης τής Άτλαντικής στόμα, Scymn. Ch. 138; Oceani Ostium, Cic. Leg. Manil. 12; Strab. iii. p. 139). Bespecting the progress of discovery in the Atlantic, allusion has been made above to the early enterprizes of the Phoenicians; but the first detailed account is that of the voyage of Hanno, who was sent out from Carthage, about B.C. 500, with a considerable fleet, to explore the W. coast of Africa, and to found colonies upon it. Of his narrative of his voyage, we still possess a Greek translation. The identification , of his positions is attended with some difficulty; but it can be made out that he advanced as fax S. as the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia. [Libya: Dict. of Biog. art. Hanno.] Pliny's statement, that Hanno reached Arabia, is a fair example of the exaggerations prevalent on these matters, and of the caution with which the stories of the circumnavigation of Africa should be examined. (ii. 67.) About the same time the Carthaginians sent out another expedition, under Himilco, to explore the Atlantic N. of the Straits. (Plin. l. c.) Himilco's narrative has not come down to us; but we learn some of its contents from the Ora Maritima of Avienus. (108, foll., 375, foll.) He discovered the British islands, which he placed at the distance of four months' voyage from the Straits; and he appears to have given a formidable description of the dangers of the navigation of the ocean, from sudden calms, from the thick sluggish nature of the water, from the sea-weed and even marine shrubs which entangled the ship, the shoals over which it could scarcely float, and the sea-monsters which surrounded the voyager as he slowly made his way through all these difficulties. Such exaggerated statements would meet with ready credence on account of the prevalent belief that the outer ocean was unnavigable, owing, as the early poets and philosophers supposed, to its being covert with perpetual clouds and darkness (Hesiod ap. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 258, 283; Pind. Nem. iii. 79; Eurip. Herod. 744); and it is thought, with much' probability, that these exaggerations were purposely diffused by the Carthaginians, to deter the mariners of other nations from dividing with themselves the navigation of the ocean. At all events, these stories are often repeated by the Greek writers (Herod, ii. 102; Aristot. Meteor. ii. 1, 13, Mir. |
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