ERYTHEIA/GADES/CADIZ

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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5




6.   More than that, it is reasonable for place where a landmark is to take on the same appellation, and especially after time has once destroyed the landmark that has been set up. For instance, the Altars of the Philaeni no longer remain, yet the place has taken on the appellation. In India, too, there are no pillars, it is said, either of Heracles or of Dionysus to be seen standing, and, of course, when certain of the places there were spoken of or pointed out to the Macedonians,166 they believed to be Pillars those places only in which they found some sign of the stories told about Dionysus or of those about Heracles. So, in the case of Gades, too, one might not disbelieve that the first visitors used, so to speak, "hand-wrought" landmarks — altars or towers or pillars — setting them up in the most conspicuous of the farthermost places they came to (and the most conspicuous places for denoting both the ends and beginnings of regions are the straits, the mountains there situated,167 and the isles), and that when the hand-wrought monuments had disappeared, their name was transferred to the places — whether you mean thereby the isles, or the capes that form the strait. For this is a distinction now hard to make — I mean to which of the two we should attach the appellation — because the term "Pillars" suits both. I say "suits" because both are situated in places of a sort that clearly suggest the ends; and it is on the strength of this fact that the strait has been called a "mouth," — not only this strait, but several others as well: that is, as you sail in, the mouth is the beginning, and, as you sail out, the end. Accordingly, it would not be foolish for one to liken to pillars the isles at the mouth, since they have p143the attributes of being both sharp of outline and conspicuous as signs; and so, in the same way, it would not be foolish to liken to pillars the mountains that are situated at the strait, since they present just such a prominent appearance as do columns or pillars. And in this way Pindar would be right in speaking of the "gates of Gades," if the pillars were conceived of as at the mouth; for the mouths of straits are like gates. But Gades is not situated in such a geographical position as to denote an end; rather it lies at about the centre of a long coastline that forms a bay. And the argument that refers those pillars which are in the temple of Heracles at Gades to the Pillars of Heracles is less reasonable still, as it appears to me. For it is plausible that the fame of the name "Pillars of Heracles" prevailed because the name originated, not with merchants, but rather with commanders, just as in the case of the Indian pillars; and besides that, "the inscription"168 which they speak of, since it does not set forth the dedication of a reproduction169 but instead a summary of expense, bears witness against the argument; for the Heracleian pillars should be reminders of Heracles' mighty doings, not of the expenses of the Phoenicians.

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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5




7.   Polybius says that there is a spring in the Heracleium170 at Gades, with a descent of only a few steps to the water (which is good to drink), and that the spring behaves inversely to the flux and reflux of the sea, since it fails at the time of the flood-tides and fills up at the time of the ebb-tides. And he alleges as the cause of this that the air p145which is expelled from the depths of the earth to the surface, if the surface be covered by the waters at the time of the overflows of the sea, is shut off from its proper exit there, and turning back into the interior blocks up the passages of the spring and thus causes a failure of water, whereas if the surface be bared of waters again the air passes straight forward and thus sets free the veins of the spring, so that it gushes forth abundantly. As for Artemidorus, although he speaks out against Polybius and at the same time puts forth a cause of his own, and also recalls the opinion of Silanus the historian, he does not seem to me to have stated anything worth recording, since both he himself and Silanus are, you might say, laymen with respect to these matters. But Poseidonius, although he calls the story of this spring false, says that there are two wells171 in the Heracleium and a third in the city; and, of the two wells in the Heracleium, if you draw water continuously from the smaller it actually fails in the same hour, and if you leave off drawing the water, it fills up again; whereas you may draw water all day long from the larger (though it is diminished thereby, of course, just as all other wells are), and it fills up by night if you no longer draw from it, but since the ebb-tide often occurs at the particular time of the well's fullness, the natives have believed anew in the inverse-behaviour. Now not only has Poseidonius told us that the story has been believed, but I too, since it is told over and over again among the paradoxes,172 have been taught the story. And I p147have been hearing that there are still other wells, some in the gardens in front of the city, and others within the city, but that on account of the impurity of the water reservoirs of cistern-water are prevalent in the city. Whether, however, any of these wells proves the truth of the supposition of the inverse-behaviour, I do not know. But as for the causes alleged — if it be true that the case is as reported — we should, regarding the problem as a difficult one, welcome them. For it is reasonable to suppose that the cause is what Polybius says it is; and it is reasonable to suppose also that some of the veins of the spring, if soaked from the outside, become relaxed and thus afford their water an outflow at the sides, instead of forcing it up along the old channel into the spring (the veins are necessarily soaked when the tidal wave has washed over the land). Yet if, as Artemidorus says, the case with the flood-tides and with the ebb-tides is like inhalation and exhalation,173 then, of the flowing waters, he says, there might be some which by certain passages (whose mouths, of course, we call fountains or springs) naturally have their outflow to the surface, and by certain other passages are drawn in together to the depths of the sea; that is, in helping raise the sea174 to flood-tide when the exhalation, as it were, takes place, they abandon their proper channel, and then retreat to their proper channel again when the sea itself takes its retreat.

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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5





8.   I do not know how Poseidonius, who in other instances has represented the Phoenicians as clever p149people, can here charge them with foolishness rather than shrewdness. In the first place, a day and night is measured by the revolution of the sun, which, at one time, is below the earth, but, at another, shines above the earth. And yet Poseidonius says that the movement of the ocean is subject to periods like those of the heavenly bodies, since, behaving in accord with the moon, the movement exhibits first the diurnal, secondly the monthly, and thirdly the yearly period; for when the moon rises above the horizon to the extent of a zodiacal sign,175 the sea begins to swell, and perceptibly invades the land until the moon is in the meridian; but when the heavenly body begins to decline, the sea retreats again, little by little, until the moon rises a zodiacal sign above her setting; than remains stationary until such time as the moon reaches the setting itself, and, still more than that, until such time as the moon, moving on below the earth, should be a sign distant from the horizon; then invades the land again until the moon reaches the meridian below the earth; then retreats until the moon, moving round towards her risings, is a sign distant from the horizon; but remains stationary again until the moon is elevated a sign above the earth, and then it again invades the land. This, he continues, is the diurnal period. As for the monthly period, he says the flux and reflux become greatest about the time of the conjunction,176 and then diminish until half-moon;177 and, again, they increase until the full moon and diminish again until the waning half-moon;178 and then, until the p151conjunction, the increases take place again, and the increases are further increased in respect both to duration and to speed.179 As for the annual periods, he says that he learned of them from the people at Gades, who told him that both the retreat and the invasion grew greatest at the time of the summer solstice. And from this he himself surmises that they are diminished from that solstice up to the equinox,180 increased up to the winter solstice, then diminished up to the spring equinox, and then increased up to the summer solstice. But if these periods repeat themselves every separate day and night, the sea invading the land twice and also retreating twice during the combined time of day and night, in regular order both within the day-time and within the night-time, how is it possible for the filling up of the well to occur "often" at the time of the ebb-tides181 but for the failure not also to occur often? or often, but not equally often? or even equally often indeed, but for the people of Gades to have been incapable of observing these phenomena that were taking place every day, and yet to have been capable of observing the annual periods from what occurred only once a year? Furthermore, that Poseidonius really believes these people, is clear from the surmise which he adds to their story, namely, that the diminutions, and, in turn, the increases, take place from one solstice on to the other, and also that recurrences take place from the latter solstice back to the former. Moreover, that other p153supposition of Poseidonius is not reasonable either, namely, that, although they were an observant people, they did not see the phenomena that occurred and yet believed in the things that did not occur.182

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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5




9.  Be that as it may, he says that Seleucus — the Seleucus183 from the region of the Erythraean Sea -  speaks of a certain irregularity in these phenomena, or regularity, according to the differences of the signs of the zodiac; that is, if the moon is in the equinoctial signs, the behaviour of the tides is regular, but, in the solstitial signs, irregular, in respect both to amount and to speed, while, in each of the other signs, the relation184 is in proportion to the nearness of the moon's approach.185 But although he himself spent several days in the Heracleium at Gades at the summer solstice, about the time of the full moon, as he says, he was unable to discern those annual differences in the tides; about the time of the conjunction, however, during that month, he observed at Ilipa a great variation in the back-water of the Baetis, that is, as compared with the previous variations, in the course of which the water did not wet the banks so much as half-way up, whereas at the time in question the water overflowed to such an extent that the soldiers186 got their supply of water on the spot (and Ilipa is about p155seven hundred stadia distant from the sea). And, he continues, although the plains near the sea were covered as far as thirty187 stadia inland, to such a depth that islands were enclosed by the flood-tide,188 still the altitude of the foundations, but the foundation of the temple in the Heracleïum and that of the mole which lies in front of the port of Gades, was, by his own measurement, as he says, not covered as high up as ten cubits; and further, if one should add the double of this figure for the additional increases which at times have taken place, one might thus present to the imagination the aspect which is produced in the plains by the magnitude of the flood-tide. This behaviour of the tides, then, according to his account, is general along the whole circuit of the ocean-coast, whereas the behaviour of the Iberus River is "novel, and peculiar," he says, to that river, namely: it floods the country in some places, even independently of rains or snows, when the north winds blow to excess; and the lake through which the river flows is the cause of this, since the lake-water is by the winds driven out of the lake along with the river-water.

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10.   Poseidonius also tells of a tree189 in Gades which has branches that bend to the ground, and oftentimes has leaves (they are sword-like) a cubit in length but only four fingers in breadth. And near New Carthage, he says, there is a tree whose thorns yield a bark190 out of which most beautiful woven stuffs are made. Now I too know a tree191 in Egypt which is like that in Gades so far as the bending p157down of the branches is concerned, but unlike it in respect to the leaves and also in that it has no fruit (he says the tree in Gades has fruit). Thorn-stuffs are woven in Cappadocia also; it is no tree, however, that produces the bark-yielding thorn, but only a sort of herb that keeps close to the ground. In regard to the tree at Gades, this additional circumstance is told: if a branch is broken, milk flows from it, while if a root is cut, a red liquid oozes forth. Concerning Gades, then, I have said enough.

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11.   The Cassiterides are ten in number, and they lie near each other in the high sea to the north of the port of the Artabrians. One of them is desert, but the rest are inhabited by people who wear black cloaks, go clad in tunics that reach to their feet, wear belts around their breasts, walk around with canes, and resemble the goddesses of vengeance in tragedies. They live off their herds, leading for the most part a nomadic life. As they have mines of tin and lead, they give these metals and the hides from their cattle to the sea-traders in exchange for pottery, salt and copper utensils. Now in former times it was the Phoenicians alone who carried on this commerce (that is, from Gades), for they kept the voyage hidden from every one else. And when once the Romans were closely following a certain ship-captain in order that they too might learn the markets in question, out of jealousy the ship-captain purposely drove his ship out of its course into shoal water; and after he had lured the followers into the same ruin, he himself escaped by a piece of wreckage and received from the State the value of the cargo he had lost. Still, by trying many times, the Romans learned all about the p159voyage. After Publius Crassus crossed over to these people and saw that the metals were being dug from only a slight depth, and that the men there were peaceable, he forthwith laid abundant information before all who wished to traffic over this sea, albeit a wider sea than that which separates Britain from the continent. So much, then, for Iberia and the islands that lie off its coast.





STRABO - Book III Chapter 5

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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5


THE EDITOR'S NOTES



133 Diodorus Siculus (5.17) says the islands were "by the Greeks called 'Gymnesiae,' on account of the fact that the inhabitants went 'unclad' (γθμνοὺς τῆς ἐσθῆτος) in the summer-time (so Livy, Epit. 60), "both by the natives and the Romans 'Baliarides,' from the fact that they hurl (βάλλειν) big stones with their slings the best of all mankind" (so Livy, l.c., who adds, "or else from Baleus, companion of Hercules"). Strabo elsewhere (14.2.10) makes Baliarides of Phoenician origin.

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134 Cp. vol. I, page 101, and footnote 1.

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135 That is, for a shield.

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136 But cp. Diodorus Siculus, who says (5.18): "Their equipment for fighting is three slings (so also Florus 3.8 = 1.43 in Rossbach's ed.); and, of these, they keep one round the head, another round the belly, and a third in the hands."

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137 The works of Philetas of Cos are lost. This "Hermeneia," meaning "Interpretation" (?), is otherwise unknown. The reference may be to a poem of Philetas which, according to Parthenius (Erotica 2), was entitled "Hermes." However, the entire reference has every appearance of being merely a gloss on "black-tufted rush," as was first suggested by Casaubon.

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138 So Diodorus 5.18 and Florus 3.8.

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139 3.2.6.

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140 "The Pillars" was used in various senses in ancient times (cp. §5 below), but the more common conception in Strabo's time appears to have been that of Calpe (the Rock of Gibraltar) and Abilyx (Ximiera, i.e. "Ape Mountain," in Africa. The two isles here referred to as near the Pillars cannot be identified; there are no islands in the strait at Calpe. Scymnus (142‑145) puts the Pillar-isles near Maenaca (now Almuñecarº), but he says nothing about "Hera's Island." Perhaps the isles at Trafalgar — a cape, called by Mela (2.6.9) the Promontory of Juno, on which there was a temple of Hera (Ptolemaeus 2.4.5) — were once regarded as the Pillars. From this, as Gosselin and Groskurd think, the Promontory of Juno became confused with Calpe; hence a Hera's Island at Calpe, and also, Groskurd adds, the invention of a corresponding isle at Abilyx. Cp. the reference to Artemidorus in §5 below, and see the discussion of Bérard, Les Phéniciens et l'Odyssée, vol. I, pp264 ff.

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141 3.1.8.

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142 Cp. 5.1.7.

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143 In 19 B.C., for his victory over the Garamantes and other African peoples.

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144 "New" (City).

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145 "Twin" (City).

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146 Hardly the islet

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146 Hardly the islet of Trocadero, Tozer thinks (Selections, p110), although the description of the islet by Pliny (H. N. IV.36) might suit Trocadero. Both Gosselin and Tozer conjecture that the isle there mentioned by Strabo has disappeared, or rather that all that is left of it is the dangerous reef of rocks off Cadiz to the north.

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147 The Portus Gaditanus of the Romans, now known as Puerto Real.

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148 This strait is now called the River of St. Peter.

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149 Roman miles.

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150 Of Heracles.

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151 Strabo means the longitudinal distance between the two extremities of the island. For his definition of "length," see 2.1.32 (vol. I, p321). Strabo thought that the length of the island ran about east and west, but it really runs about north-north‑west to south-south‑east.

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152 Cp. 3.2.11.

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153 Cp. Pliny 4.36.

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154 That is, by both Tyrians and Iberians. We are left to assume that the interior of the island was peopled by Tyrians alone.

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155 In speaking of the Pillars or the Strait, Strabo always means "east of" by "inside" and "west of" by "outside."

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156 Gosselin would emend to "five hundred," thus making the limit of the second expedition the cape of Trafalgar and its islets, which are 250 stadia east of Gades, since Gades is 750 stadia (3.1. from Calpe. But Onoba (Huelva), near which this unidentified island is, is near the mouth of the Odiel River, sixty miles west of Gades.

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157 The passage referred to is otherwise unknown to us.

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158 That is, the account that associates the Pillars of Heracles with the bronze pillars.

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159 Cp. the proverbial "Punic faith."

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160 See 6.15.

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161 See 1.1.17.

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162 See 17.3.20, where Strabo gives the place a different position, namely, on the coast of the Greater Syrtis, i.e. on the Gulf of Sidra. These altars were said to have been erected at the boundary between the Carthaginian Empire and Cyrenaica by the Carthaginian in honour of the two Philaeni brothers, who, in order to settle the boundary favourably for Carthage, had given themselves up to be buried alive in the sand at the boundary (Sallust Jugurtha 79). Pliny (5.4) says that the altars were of sands, thus implying that the altars were merely the sand-heaps over the two bodies.

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163 The Aeolians and Dorians (see 8.1.2).

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164 Plutarch (Theseus 25) also quotes the couplet, and says that the pillar was set up by Theseus. Strabo gives a fuller account in 9.1.6‑7.

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165 Alexander set up twelve altars in honour of the twelve gods (Diodorus Siculus 17.95).

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166 On the occasion of Alexander's Indian campaign.

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167 Specifically Strabo has in mind Calpe and Abilyx.

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168 On the bronze pillars (§ 5).

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169 That is, the dedication to Heracles of a reproduction (in bronze) of the original pillars, with a record of his achievements.

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170 The Heracleium includes both the temple and the sacred precinct of Heracles (cp. § 9 below).

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171 Polybius has said that there was "a spring in the Heracleium"; Poseidonius says "two wells"; but Pliny (2.100) says, "At Gades, which is very near the temple of Heracles, there is a spring, enclosed like a well," to which he ascribes the phenomenon of the inverse-behaviour.

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172 The paradoxes constituted an important part of the teachings of the Stoics; and Strabo was a Stoic.

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173 Strabo considered Athenodorus and Poseidonius the best authorities on the ocean and the tides (1.1.9). He has already compared the sea to animated beings (1.3.. And it was a popular doctrine among the Greek and Roman philosophers that the universe was an animal; and in this way they accounted for the tides (Pomponius Mela 3.1).

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174 See the argument of Strato the physicist and the discussion

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174 See the argument of Strato the physicist and the discussion of Strabo in 1.3.4‑5.

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175 That is, 30°.

Thayer's Note: Yes, but only sort of: 30° along the ecliptic. Since outside the equatorial zone, the ecliptic is never perpendicular to the horizon, but tilted — and in temperate latitudes quite low — the Moon, having traveled the extent of one zodiacal sign of 30 degrees, will be much lower than 30° above the horizon. It would have been more accurate, and more to the point, to footnote this as a space of time (roughly 2 hours) rather than angular elevation.

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176 That is, when the sun and moon meet or pass each other in the same degree of the zodiac; and hence at the time of the new moon.

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177 The first quarter.

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178 The third quarter.

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179 That is, from the time of the third quarter on to that of the new moon, the interval of time between high-tide and high-tide (or low-tide and low-tide) increases, the same being also true of the velocity.

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180 The autumnal equinox.

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181 This assertion is attributed by Strabo to Poseidonius, not to the Phoenicians (cp. § 7 above).

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182 At the beginning of § 8 Strabo sets out, rather captiously, to prove inconsistency and injustice on the part of Poseidonius. The latter had accused the Phoenicians (the people of Gades) of having the foolish notion about the "reverse-behaviour," of being incapable of seeing the daily phenomena, and of believing in things that did not occur; nevertheless, Strabo means, Poseidonius bases his own remarks about the tides upon what he had learned from the people of Gades, for example, that "the retreat and the invasion grew greatest at the time of the summer solstice." Of course, Strabo denies neither Poseidonius's account of the tides, nor the relation that Poseidonius says exists between the tides and the motion of the moon, both of which, so far as they go, are substantially correct. Cp. Pliny, 2.99.

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183 The Chaldaean astronomer (1.1.9 and 16.1.6).

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184 That is, the comparative regularity or irregularity of the tides.

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185 That is, to the equinoctial or the solstitial signs. It is clear from this passage that Seleucus had solved the law which governs the diurnal inequality of the tide in Indian Ocean.

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186 That is, the Roman soldiers who were stationed at Ilipa.

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187 Some of the MSS. read "fifty."

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188 See 3.2.4.

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189 Perhaps the Dracaena Draco.

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190 Strabo apparently means the fibre ("bark") in the leaf-sheaths ("thorns") of the European dwarf fan-palm (Chamaerops humilis). This fibre is called "African hair," and a fabric like haircloth is still made from it.

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191 Clearly a tree of the genus Salix (willow family).


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STRABO - Book III Chapter 5