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Authors: Mark Adams
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the transition from oral transmission to written records took place. At that time the Mycenaeans ruled the Aegean Sea and traded widely in the area between Sardinia, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Levant before their empire collapsed mysteriously during the late twelfth century BC. Exploration of the western Mediterranean beyond Sicily and Sardinia seems to have been spearheaded by Phoenician traders who passed through the Pillars of Heracles at Gibraltar sometime between 1100 BC (according to legend) and 800 BC (according to archaeological evidence). There they founded the trading colony of Gades mentioned by Plato in the
Critias
, which grew into the Spanish city of Cádiz. It’s probable that sailors from Iberia had met traders from the coast of Sardinia even earlier, exchanging information along with their goods.
Little is known about early Greek attempts to explore the western Mediterranean. This gap is important to the search for Atlantis for two reasons. One, the likeliest spot for the Pillars of Heracles is the Strait of Gibraltar. If the story of Atlantis really was transmitted via Solon’s visit to Egypt, the information could have reached the priests of Saïs through the same trading network that assembled the Uluburun cargo. Two, it’s possible that Plato picked up stories from sailors in Syracuse, one of several distant lands he visited on a long journey after Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 BC for the crime ofcorrupting Athens’s youth. In the ancient Mediterranean, Syracuse was a key meeting point for East and West.
As Duane Roller points out in his fascinating book
Through the Pillars of Herakles
, the Greeks had no word for
exploration
. Expeditions were launched to gather intelligence for military or trade purposes. Such valuable proprietary information was likely to be closely guarded; the Carthaginians are reported to have drowned anyone who attempted to locate the Pillars of Heracles. Any information travelers collected came from the residents of foreign lands, whose languages would have been difficult to translate and easy to misunderstand. Information passed along orally was transmitted in the form of stories. Thus accounts of fantastic voyages across the “wine-dark sea” to distant lands such as those in the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
might combine essential geographic data with supernatural elements.
In the
Odyssey
, Odysseus is trying to reach his home city of Ithaca (which, like many of the Greek places Homer names, actually existed) when he is blown for nine days to the land of the lotus-eaters. Here the inhabitants lived on the sweet fruits of a flowering plant “so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home.” Homer may have been describing the Tunisian island of Djerba, where date palms grew plentifully and still do.
The pioneering Greek geographer Pytheas sailed shortly after Plato’s death on a journey that took him to the British Isles and beyond. He reported traveling so far north that the sun never set; claimed to have seen impassable frozen seas; and six days beyond Scotland discovered a mysterious distant island named Thule, which may have been Norway or Iceland. Christopher Columbus later claimed to have stopped in Thule on his way to encountering the New World.
Pytheas was widely disbelieved when he returned home. Later historians cast doubt on his claims, those of Thule especially. The eminent Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who believed that Plato’s Atlantis was a true story, accused Pytheas of having liedoutright about Thule’s existence. More than a century later, the respected historian Pausanias wrote credulously about the satyrs who lived in distant lands. “In modern times it is perhaps easier to be more dismissive of promiscuous red-haired men with tails than a frozen ocean,” Duane Roller notes, “yet in antiquity the former was believed rather than the latter.”
We do have a few snippets of information that indicate some Greek
Critias
, which grew into the Spanish city of Cádiz. It’s probable that sailors from Iberia had met traders from the coast of Sardinia even earlier, exchanging information along with their goods.
Little is known about early Greek attempts to explore the western Mediterranean. This gap is important to the search for Atlantis for two reasons. One, the likeliest spot for the Pillars of Heracles is the Strait of Gibraltar. If the story of Atlantis really was transmitted via Solon’s visit to Egypt, the information could have reached the priests of Saïs through the same trading network that assembled the Uluburun cargo. Two, it’s possible that Plato picked up stories from sailors in Syracuse, one of several distant lands he visited on a long journey after Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 BC for the crime ofcorrupting Athens’s youth. In the ancient Mediterranean, Syracuse was a key meeting point for East and West.
As Duane Roller points out in his fascinating book
Through the Pillars of Herakles
, the Greeks had no word for
exploration
. Expeditions were launched to gather intelligence for military or trade purposes. Such valuable proprietary information was likely to be closely guarded; the Carthaginians are reported to have drowned anyone who attempted to locate the Pillars of Heracles. Any information travelers collected came from the residents of foreign lands, whose languages would have been difficult to translate and easy to misunderstand. Information passed along orally was transmitted in the form of stories. Thus accounts of fantastic voyages across the “wine-dark sea” to distant lands such as those in the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
might combine essential geographic data with supernatural elements.
In the
Odyssey
, Odysseus is trying to reach his home city of Ithaca (which, like many of the Greek places Homer names, actually existed) when he is blown for nine days to the land of the lotus-eaters. Here the inhabitants lived on the sweet fruits of a flowering plant “so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home.” Homer may have been describing the Tunisian island of Djerba, where date palms grew plentifully and still do.
The pioneering Greek geographer Pytheas sailed shortly after Plato’s death on a journey that took him to the British Isles and beyond. He reported traveling so far north that the sun never set; claimed to have seen impassable frozen seas; and six days beyond Scotland discovered a mysterious distant island named Thule, which may have been Norway or Iceland. Christopher Columbus later claimed to have stopped in Thule on his way to encountering the New World.
Pytheas was widely disbelieved when he returned home. Later historians cast doubt on his claims, those of Thule especially. The eminent Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who believed that Plato’s Atlantis was a true story, accused Pytheas of having liedoutright about Thule’s existence. More than a century later, the respected historian Pausanias wrote credulously about the satyrs who lived in distant lands. “In modern times it is perhaps easier to be more dismissive of promiscuous red-haired men with tails than a frozen ocean,” Duane Roller notes, “yet in antiquity the former was believed rather than the latter.”
We do have a few snippets of information that indicate some Greek
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