previous next


In ii. 11. 2 the Red Sea is forty days by ‘rowing’; if we assume that H. knew the real length of that sea, i.e. 1,200 miles, we have an average of thirty miles a day. Hence his figures here are too small, at any rate for length; for the Caspian is about 750 miles long and 280 wide.

ὑψηλότατον. Aristotle (350 A, Meteor. i. 13. 15) limits this by saying the Caucasus is the highest of the mountains of the East; both he and H. were ignorant of Mount Demavend, which rises to the south of the Caspian, 3,000 feet higher than the Caucasus (to over 20,000 feet).


ἐμφανέα. Cf. Xenophon (Anab. v. 4. 33, an eyewitness), who records this lowest stage of degradation among the Mossynoeci (cf. iii. 94. 2), at the south-east corner of the Caspian (cf. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1025); Theopompus (fr. 222; F. H. G. i. 315) relates it also of the Etruscans. But among modern savages it is, to say the least, very rare (Crawley, Mystic Rose, p. 180).

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: