Note 460 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.

Footnote 460: Strabo, in arguing against this theory of bad lands, etc., as obstacles to ocean navigation—a theory which seems to be at least as old as Hipparchus—has a passage which finely expresses the loneliness of the sea:—Οἵτε γὰρ περιπλεῖν ἐπιχειρήσαντες, εἶτα ἀναστρέψαντες, οὐχ ὑπὸ ἠπείρου τινὸς ἀντιπιπτούσης καὶ κωλυούσης, τὸν ἐπέκεινα πλοῦν ἀνακρουσθῆναι φασὶν, ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ ἀπορίας καὶ ἐρημίας, οὐδὲν ἧττον τῆς θαλάττης ἐχούσης τὸν πόρον (lib. i. cap. i. § 8). When one thinks of this ἀπορία and ἐρημία, one fancies oneself far out on the Atlantic, alone in an open boat on a cloudy night, bewildered and hopeless.[Back to Main Text]