[
6]
He tells us also, that the Ethiopians are far removed, and
bounded by the ocean: far removed,—
“
The Ethiopians, utmost of mankind,
These eastward situate, those toward the west.1
” Odyssey i. 23
Nor was he mistaken in calling them separated into two
divisions, as we shall presently show: and next to the ocean,—
“
For to the banks of the Oceanus,
Where Ethiopia holds a feast to Jove,
He journey'd yesterday.2
” Iliad i. 423
Speaking of the Bear, he implies that the most northern part
of the earth is bounded by the ocean:
“
Only star of these denied
To slake his beams in Ocean's briny baths.3
” Iliad xviii. 489; Odyssey v. 275.
Now, by the ‘Bear’ and the ‘Wain,’ he means the Arctic
Circle; otherwise he would never have said, ‘It
alone is deprived of the baths of the ocean,’ when such an
infinity of
stars is to be seen continually revolving in that part of the
hemisphere. Let no one any longer blame his ignorance for
being merely acquainted with one Bear, when there are two.
It is probable that the second was not considered a constellation until, on the Phœnicians specially designating it, and employing it in navigation, it became known as one to the Greeks.
4
Such is the case with the Hair of Berenice, and Canopus,
whose names are but of yesterday; and, as Aratus remarks,
there are numbers which have not yet received any designation. Crates, therefore, is mistaken when, endeavouring to
amend what is correct, he reads the verse thus:
“
οἷος δ᾽ ἄμμορός ἐστι λοετρῶν,”
replacing
οἴη by
οἶς, with a view to make the adjective agree
with the Arctic Circle, which is masculine; instead of the
Arctic Constellation, which is feminine. The expression of
Heraclitus is far more preferable and Homeric, who thus figuratively describes the Arctic Circle as the Bear,—‘The Bear
is the limit of the dawn and of the evening, and from the re-
gion of the Bear we have fine weather.’ Now it is not the
constellation of the Bear, but the Arctic Circle, which is the
limit of the rising and the setting stars.
By the Bear, then, which he elsewhere calls the Wain,
and describes as pursuing Orion, Homer means us to under-
stand the Arctic Circle; and by the ocean, that horizon into
which, and out of which, the stars rise and set. When he
says that the Bear turns round and is deprived of the ocean,
he was aware that the Arctic Circle [always] extended to the
sign opposite the most northern point of the horizon. Adapting the words of the poet to this view, by that part of the
earth nearest to the ocean we must understand the horizon, and
by the Arctic Circle that which extends to the signs which
seem to our senses to touch in succession the most northern
point of the horizon. Thus, according to him, this portion of
the earth is washed by the ocean. With the nations of the
North he was well acquainted, although he does not mention
them by name, and indeed at the present day there is no regular title by which they are all distinguished. He informs
us of their mode of life, describing them as ‘wanderers,’
‘noble milkers of mares,’ ‘living on cheese,’ and ‘without
wealth.’
5