Eschylus); and the rest of the fleet was completely dispersed; while, on the other side, only forty Grecian galleys are said to have been sunk or destroyed; but most of the crews saved themselves by swimming on board the other ships, or on the neighbouring shore of Salamis. Three-deckers and great guns have done much in modern times to dye the sea with human blood; but truly the ancients, in their grotesque galleys, effected enough of slaughter, one would think, to satisfy the thirst of the most sanguinary son of Mars! CHAPTER VI. EARLY VOYAGES. THE idea of the ancients as to the shape of the earth was what we would now style peculiar, but we cannot deny that it was perfectly natural. He They thought that the world was flat, and who would blame them for thinking so? Homer was of this belief. He placed the fabled regions of Elysium and Tartarus beneath the earth, and supposed that the vaulted heavens rested on the summits of the highest mountains. deemed the land of the Ethiopians the most distant part of the habitable globe, and the highest peak of the range of the Atlas mountains, in Africa, he deified, describing it as a giant supporting the canopy of the heavens on his shoulders. Colchos, on the Black Sea, was believed to be an ocean-city, in which was the Palace of the Sun! Here the fabled coursers of that luminary rested during the night. This was Homer's eastern confine of the globe. Rhodope, or the Riphean Mountains, formed his northern limit; and the region beyond this was peopled by his fanciful and teeming brain by a race of creatures who lived in perfect felicity in the recesses of their sheltered valleys. They were represented as exempt from all ills, physical or moral; from sickness, the changes of the seasons, and even from death itself. In order to counterbalance this creation, he brought into being a race of Cimmerians, whom he Eschylus); and the rest of the fleet was completely dispersed; while, on the other side, only forty Grecian galleys are said to have been sunk or destroyed; but most of the crews saved themselves by swimming on board the other ships, or on the neighbouring shore of Salamis. Three-deckers and great guns have done much in modern times to dye the sea with human blood; but truly the ancients, in their grotesque galleys, effected enough of slaughter, one would think, to satisfy the thirst of the most sanguinary son of Mars! CHAPTER VI. EARLY VOYAGES. THE idea of the ancients as to the shape of the earth was what we would now style peculiar, but we cannot deny that it was perfectly natural. He They thought that the world was flat, and who would blame them for thinking so? Homer was of this belief. He placed the fabled regions of Elysium and Tartarus beneath the earth, and supposed that the vaulted heavens rested on the summits of the highest mountains. deemed the land of the Ethiopians the most distant part of the habitable globe, and the highest peak of the range of the Atlas mountains, in Africa, he deified, describing it as a giant supporting the canopy of the heavens on his shoulders. Colchos, on the Black Sea, was believed to be an ocean-city, in which was the Palace of the Sun! the fabled coursers of that luminary rested during the night. This was Homer's eastern confine of the globe. Here Rhodope, or the Riphean Mountains, formed his northern limit; and the region beyond this was peopled by his fanciful and teeming brain by a race of creatures who lived in perfect felicity in the recesses of their sheltered valleys. They were represented as exempt from all ills, physical or moral; from sickness, the changes of the seasons, and even from death itself. In order to counterbalance this creation, he brought into being a race of Cimmerians, whom he placed near the mouth of the Sea of Azof, and doomed them to perpetual darkness. Although a blind beggar, Homer was undoubtedly an original and mentally prolific fellow. He made quite a minute and interesting geographical sketch of the old world, which had only one fault, that of being somewhat incorrect. The Cyclops, a race of giants who had but one eye, were placed in Sicily; the Arimaspians (also oneeyed) inhabited the frontiers of India; and the Pigmies or Dwarfs were supposed by him to dwell in Africa, India, and the southern parts of the world. Moreover, he peopled the earth and sea with monsters of frightful form and size, as well as with hideous giants, such as Polyphemus, who watched poor mariners in order to destroy them, and thereafter roast and devour their flesh. But we ought not to suppose that Homer invented all this. Doubtless the bold mariners who were driven to distant and unknown lands, and returned to tell of the wonders they had seen, furnished him with the groundwork of all that he so graphically related, and with a poet's license enlarged upon. Homer's idea of the earth, as far as it can be gathered from his writings, was that it was a flat disc, surrounded by the river Ocean, and that it was about 600 miles in diameter. A century later, Hesiod states that he believed the space between the heavens and the earth was exactly the same as that between the earth and Tartarus, the abode of darkness, beneath it. He further tells us, that if a brazen anvil were tossed from heaven, it would take exactly nine days and nine nights to reach the earth, completing its journey on the tenth day. No doubt Hesiod thought he had ventured upon a daring flight of imagination when |