Message #78134

[Bianca]

.......What quickly became clear from my own investigations into Plato's Atlantis is that the Greek philosopher
had created in his writings a flawed utopian realm based on the decline of Athens' during his own age. The city
of Atlantis was unquestionably a composite view of ancient city-ports such as Carthage in North Africa, seen
here, Syracuse in Sicily, Ecbatana in Media and probably even Athens itself.

As regards his Atlantic Island, Plato placed this, like other mythical islands of the Greek Hellenic world, in the Far West - the direction of the setting sun. It was in fact a variation of the concept of the Hesperides, the islands thought which were thought to lie beyond the Western Ocean, as is inferred by their name Hesperides, which derives from the Greek hesper, or vesper, meaning setting sun. It was the hero-god Atlas who was said to have presided over the lands in the extreme west, i.e. North West Africa, as well as the seas beyond here, in other words the Western Ocean.

Like Atlantis, the Hesperides were rumoured to exist beyond the Pillars of Hercules. For instance, Statius Sebosus, the Roman geographer of c. 100 BC, recorded that it took 40 days to sail between the Isles of Gorgades, or Gorgons, and the Hesperides. Since there is clear geographical evidence that the Gorgades were the Cape Verde islands, which lie off the west coast of Africa, then the Hesperides were even further west - in the direction of the setting sun. Yet if we consult a map we can see that the only island group which lies west of the Cape Verdes is the Caribbean. Confirmation that the Hesperides were the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rica is the knowledge that it took Christopher Columbus just 33 days to sail between the Cape Verdes and the Caribbean on his Third Voyage in 1498, just seven days short of Statius Sebosus's estimate.