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ἀφανές. The reference is clearly to a definite person, i. e. Hecataeus. H. means that the theory of the circumambient ocean is, as we should say, outside the region of science. It was based on various kinds of evidence: (1) Homer, Il. xviii. 607-8, speaks of Ocean as encircling the shield of Achilles. The theory may have been Phoenician in origin (Tozer, A. G. p. 21), but (2) it suited the Greek notion of symmetry; Delphi was the centre of the earth, and the Ocean supplied a natural circumference. (3) Facts were supposed to confirm it; the Greeks knew of water in the furthest west and south, and the Caspian was supposed to be an arm on the North Ocean; cf. i. 202. 4 n. for H.'s rejection of this view. Berger, pp. 36, 41, asserts that H. is wrong in deriving the theory of the Ionian physicists from Homer; but his assertion is neither proved nor probable. H. rightly rejects the theory of the circumambient ocean as unsupported by evidence. For a similar rejection of a priori geography cf. iv. 36. 2 n.
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