Text, translated from the 1601 Latin, 1603 Latin, 1606 English, 1608/1612 Italian, 1609/1612 Spanish/Latin 1624LParergon/1641 Spanish [but text in Latin] editions:
224.1{1601L{THE PEREGRINATION of VLYSSES
224.2. The manifold wandering voyages of Ulysses (Errores [rovings] is what Ausonius in various places calls them) were from all antiquity so famous and renowned among all men that the peregrination of Ulysses grew into a bye-word to be used proverbially for any hard and difficult journey that any man might undertake, as Apuleius in the second book of his Golden Ass states. Therefore, for the benefit and study of the readers and students of that history, and at the earnest request of various learned men, my friends, I have thought it right to describe on the basis of ancient historians the twenty {voyages of Ulysses this famous captain who, as Tzetzes writes, with twelve ships set out from TROY {1606E only{(or as the Greek call it, Ilium) a city of Troia or Troas, a province of Asia Minor, continually wandering up and down}1606E only} until at last he came to his homeland ITHACA, {1606E only{an island in the Ionian sea where he was born, now called, as Sophianus and others state, Valle di Compare or Teachi, as Porcacchius says, but by the Turks called Phiachi, as mentioned by Leunclaw}1606E only}.
224.3. Therefore, after the ten year siege, the taking and the sacking of Troy by the Greeks, Vlysses or Odysseus {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon have instead, in Greek lettering{Odusseus}1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon} as they call him, having the intention to go back home to his own country, embarked himself and his company, went out to sea, and arrived within a few days on the coast of the CICONES, {1606E only{a people of Thracia in Europe}1606E only}, the chief city of which, ISMARVS (Zimarus is what Dictys Cretensis calls it) he sacked and spoiled. This city, as Suidas, Hesychius and Tzetzes testify, was called MARONEA, {1606E{and Marogna as Sophianus and Niger both state decisively, or Marolia, as Leunclaw writes}1606E only}.
224.4. In Hyginus' fables it is erroneously called Marathonia. And that this should be amended, and written as Maronea is very clear, because the wine with which Ulysses later was to make the great deceiver Polyphemus drunk was fetched from there, as he writes, and Euripides confirms this to be true in his Cyclops. Moreover, Vinum Maroneum, the wine of Maronea was in the old days highly esteemed, and was as famous as any sort whatsoever. Therefore, after the sacking of this city, where as Suidas reports, Hecuba, ended her days in the sea, at a place usually called by the name of CYNOSSEMA, he was assaulted by the Cicones, a sturdy and rough kind of people inhabiting {1606E only{the mountains of}1606E only} Thracia, and because of that, he was forced after great losses and slaughter of his men, to hoist sail and put off to sea again.
224.5. And directing his course towards MALEA {1606E only{(Cabo Malio, or St. Michæls wings)}1606E only{, a foreland of the Peloponnesos, the weather growing very foul, he was sorely troubled, and his ships were rent and torn most grievously, as Homerus testifies. But it is probable that he first went to DELOS {1606E only{(Sdiles), an island in the archipelago lying directly on his way}1606E only}, about which they write that in front of the altar of Apollo, Ulysses saw a tall and slender palm tree grow, about which Cicero says in his book of laws that it could still be seen in his days. And it is likely that it was the same [tree] which Plinius reports had remained [there] in his time from the days of Apollo. Homerus and Pausanias also talk about this palm tree.
224.6. From Malea he came to the isle of CYTHERA {1606E & 1608/1612I only{(Cerigo)}1608/1612I only} in the Ionian sea, not far from the coast of the Pelopponesus}1606E only}, and from there he went to the LOTOPHAGI. The Lotophagi, {1606E only{a kind of people who live especially on the fruit of the lotus tree}1606E only} are by historiographers located in Africa, and then here and there in various different places of it. But about those Lotophagi to whom the consorts of our Vlysses came, I am in agreement with Isaac Tzetzes that they lived near Hyperia, a city in Sicily, or {1606 only{that they were near neighbours to}1606E only} Camarina, {1606E only{a city there, still known by the name of Camarana}1606E only}. I cannot be persuaded that these Lotophagi have to be looked for in Africa, seeing that it is apparent even from Homerus himself that the next day they went from the Lotophagi to the CYCLOPES, which, if they were coming from Africa, {1606E only{so far removed from Sicily}1606E only}, they could by no means have accomplished.
224.7. About this I have Ausonius in his Periocha {1624LParergon/1641S{book 9}1624LParergon/1641S} on my side, who says there that these Lotophagi lived quite next to the isle of the Cyclopes. Now almost all authors who have written about this matter agree that some of his consorts, much delighted [as they were] with the sweetness and pleasant taste of the fruit of the lotus tree, stayed here and would by no means ever want to return. This I thought fitting, gentle reader, to warn you about, lest you should in vain expect to find any part of Africa on our map here.
224.8. Moreover I read in Pausanias that Ulysses on his journey built the ATHENÆVM, that is, the chapel of Minerva in Arcadia. From Cythera just mentioned he went to CACRA, a harbour town in Sicily, which Tzetzes just mentioned says was named Vlyssis portus, Vlysses' port, after him, and had also once been called Engyon, {1606E only{now known by the name of Longina}1606E only}. From there he went to the ISLE of the Cyclopes, and then to the CAVE of Polyphemus, where he offered sacrifices and performed all due religious ceremonies to the gods, as Athenæus states. Now this cave, as Vibius Sequester shows, was close to the river Acis, {1606E only{now called Freddo}1606E only}. After making Polyphemus drunk with the Maronean wine just mentioned, and putting out his eye, he went to the ÆOLIÆ or, as the gods call them, the Planetæ, certain islands continually casting forth sparks of fire.
224.9. Here he was given by Æolus, the king of these islands, a bottle or bag of ox skin, in which all winds, except for Zephyrus, the West wind (or if we may believe Agatharchides, none but the North and South winds only) were contained and enclosed. For the West wind is for those that sail in a straight course from Sicily to Ithaca the best wind that can blow. With this prosperous gale of wind, they came in nine days, as Ovidius reports, within sight and neighbourhood of the isle of Ithaca, and while Ulysses was asleep, his consorts on the tenth day, as the author just mentioned says, opened the bag, about which they truly thought that it was full of gold and silver. As a result, contrary winds and storms arose, forcing them back again, returning on their course, yet, an ancient lyrical poet says it was only the bag that went back again to arrive for the second time at the ÆOLIAN ISLANDS, where, being forbidden to land by Æolus as despisers of the gods and scorners of all religion, they came to the LÆSTRYGONES, a savage people that used to eat humans, {1606E only{(like they now write about the cannibals of America)}1606E only} who attacked them as enemies near the city of Lamus and the fountain of Artacia.
224.10. From there, with one ship only (the other eleven, as Ovidius and Ausonius claim, having been sunk by the Læstrygones), he came to the isle of ÆÆA, also called Circeia; (Hyginus in his fables incorrectly calls it Æna), the place of abode where Circes lived, (called Marica after her death, as Lactantius writes), the daughter of Sol or the sun, a woman famous for her sorcery and skilful in all kinds of magic and witchcraft. Through her conduct and directions he went to the {not in 1606E{Cimmerii}not in 1606E} and AVERNVM, (Cedrenus calls it Neciopa), {1606E only{a lake in Italy now called Lago di Tripergola}1606E only}, where among the souls that are now in purgatory (apud Inferos) he spoke with his mother Anticlia and from her and through her he understood many things concerning the journey he was on.
224.11. This having been done, and coming back to Circeia, he found Elpenor to be dead, one of his consorts whom he had left with Circe, and also Tiresias, the soothsayer, as also various other worthy and brave men, all of them dead and buried. From there he returned to the SVPERI and there entered the ocean. Finally, he made a funeral and performed all ceremonies as he had promised to do for his friend Elpenor, and built him a stately tomb. So much about that matter.
224.12. About his navigation on the vast ocean many things are differently reported by different authors (such as {not in 1606E{in Strabo}not in 1606E} about Vlyssea and Vlyssipona {1608/1612I only{or Lisbon}1608/1612I only}, certain cities in Spain &c. built by our Vlysses; about an altar in Caledonia, mentioned by Solinus, an island {1606E instead{province}1606E instead} of Great Britain, which has an inscription with Greek letters, there consecrated and dedicated to some god whose gracious favour he had enjoyed during his journey; about Asciburgium, a city built by him, as Tacitus writes, on the mouth of the river Rhine, and about an altar there consecrated to his service). Yet, there are many things which strongly prove that [these stories] are altogether untrue and mere fables.
224.13. And indeed, Aulus Gellius, in the sixth chapter of his fourteenth book shows that this voyage on the ocean for a long time has been dubious, and questionable. Namely, they posed the question whether Vlysses really wandered over the main ocean, as Aristarchus would have it, or whether he never left the inner sea, (this is what Strabo and Plinius called the Mediterranean sea) as Cratetes would like to have us believe. {1624LParergon/1641S{The very wise Seneca said in his Epist. 88 [§ 7] You have no time, he says, to listen to deliberations about the question whether he [Odysseus] was thrown off course between Italy and Sicily or outside the part of the world known to us, for in an area so small, his wanderings could not have lasted so long.}1624LParergon, see § 15}. And truly, in Ausonius' Perioch there is no word about this navigation over the ocean.
224.14. Similarly, Ulysses himself, relating to his wife the summary of his entire peregrination, does not once mention the ocean. Neither does Dares Phrygius, Hyginus in his fables, or Isacius, based on Lycophron, mention any such thing. And yet, each of these men [also] make an extensive discussion of this wandering voyage. Again, those things which we find in Strabo about this matter, as he plainly confesses himself, were taken over from Possidonius, Artemidorus and Asclepiades (every one of these authors is certain to have lived many a day after Homerus) and not from Homerus himself.
224.15. {not in 1624LParergon/1641S{Similarly, the wise Seneca in the 88th epistle of his seventh {1608/1612I has instead{4th}1608/1612I instead} book of Epistles calls it Angustum iter & errorem longum, a short journey, but long in terms of the many drawbacks before it was ended}not in 1624LParergon/1641S}. But also because it was for me personally accounted for as a mere fable by the learned Ioannes Brodeus, a man of good judgement and quick assessment. I will here, from the third book of his Miscellanea write down his opinion in his own words, which {1606E only{in English}1606E only} are like this:
224.16. They, he says, who think that Ulysses ever sailed on the ocean do their best to prove this on the basis of this verse of Homerus {1606E only{in the tenth {1608/1612I has instead{11th}1608/1612I instead} book of his}1606E only}} [in Greek lettering except in 1608/1612I only:] Odyssee All opot ana dè uni di Oocheanoio pereses, {1606E only{[that is] But when thou shalt by ship have passed the ocean seas}1606E only}. Although I find Strabo to be of this opinion, yet I see no reason why I may not freely propose to the judgement of the learned what I think about this matter. When I consider the fashion and manner of building of Vlysses' ships, described by Homerus to be open, without decks or hatches, I perceive them to have been much too weak and low to withstand the storms of the main sea, which even galleys and tall ships, well and strongly built of the best timber and well seasoned are hardly able to sustain for [the worst] three months of the year.
224.17. That any man would think that Astypyrgium {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S only have instead in Greek lettering:{Asupurgion}1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S instead}{1606E only{(or Asciburgium, of which we spoke before)}1606E only} was built by Ulysses, as some people have understood from Cornelius Tacitus, is sheer madness. For if one would cross the Spanish, French and English seas, and then finally turn back through the German ocean, and if one would build [things] on the sea coast and erect altars {not in 1606E{to please the gods}not in 1606E}, he would have needed a navy of many tall ships, strongly built and well rigged, and he should not think he could do it with but one little boat, rowed to & fro with few oars. But authors of good reputation make mention of Vlyssipo {1608/1612I has instead{Lisbon}1608/1612I instead} and other of his famous monuments to be seen in Portugal. What then? I greatly doubt that anything of Ulysses' doing can there be seen or [that they] even ever existed. And if there are, I would flatly deny that they were made by this Ulysses, whose life and famous acts Homerus described. And yet it is not incredible to believe that [in the same way] as we suppose that there were many Herculeses, so there may have been in a similar way more Ulysses than one, which in my opinion seems very probable.
224.18. So far for Brodeus. To those arguments of his I add, first, that Odyssopolis {1608/1612I has instead{Lisbon}1608/1612I instead} is described by Cedrenus and in the Historia Miscella is to be near Pontus {1606E only{in Asia}1606E only}. And who is so mad to believe that this city was named after our Odysseus or {1606E only{as the Romans call him}1606E only} Ulysses? And considering that I see that Homerus himself does not mention any place where he stopped and landed in all his travels on the ocean sea, I am easily persuaded that this notable poet, not only in this verse, but also in various other places by [the word] ocean poetically means the sea. For example, near the end of the 10th {1608/1612I has instead{12th}1608/1612I instead} book of his Odyssee {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon only in Greek lettering{Oduss.}1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon only} & at the beginning of the 11th {1608/1612I has instead{next}1608/1612I instead}, {1603L{as soon as he has returned from the Inferi, Homerus immediately makes him enter the ocean}1603L}. But you will say that he entered the ocean near the place where the Cimmerij lived, as appears plainly from what he writes at the beginning {1608/1612I has instead{end}1608/1612I instead} of the 10th {1606E instead{12th}1606E instead} book of his Odyssee. True, but where, I pray you, did these Cimmerij live? Nowhere surely but in Italy, close to the isle of Circeia, & returning from there, he buries the body of Elpenor according to his promise. The body I mean, after so many months, or what is more probable after so many years, (for navigation in those days was not along the shortest route through the middle of the sea, but much further in a roundabout way, as we have shown in our Thesaurus at the word OPHIR, along the shore within sight of land) was fully corrupted, or which is more likely, reduced to dust and ashes, or quite consumed with nothing remaining.
224.19. If anyone still objects (with Ovidius in the first book of his Tristium, who says that illius pars maxima ficta laborum est: {1606E & 1608/1612I only{most of Ulysses' toil was forged in the poets brain)}1606E 1608/1612I only} that this whole history, and not just this navigation on the main ocean was but an imagined tale, then I answer that the entire story, and not this part of his navigation on the vast ocean only, is somewhat improbable, though nothing in it is impossible, but it may have been done. I have lingered at this voyage through the ocean sea lest the reader might suspect that either through negligence of ignorance it was left out of this map. Now let us, if you please, go on with our intended journey.
224.20. When Vlysses departed from the island of Ææa and took leave of his hostess Circe, by whom, having lived with her for a whole year, he got his son Telegonus, he went his way safe and sound. For Mercury had given him the herb moly (this is what the Gods call it {1624LParergon/1641S{according to Homerus)1624LParergon/1641S}, a sure antidote and protector against all kinds of enchantments and witchcraft. And sailing along the SIRENVM INSVLÆ {1606E only{(the mermaids islands)}1606E only} he built a temple for Minerva (Fanum Minervæ) in CAMPANIA {1606E only{in Italy}1606E only}, as Strabo writes.
224.21. In this area also, in LVCANIA, as the same author writes, he built the chapel of Draco (Sacellum Draconis), one of his companions on his voyage. From there he sailed along the shore and finally landed at TEMESSA, a city of the Bruttij, (Isacius based on Lycophron incorrectly writes that he landed in England, mistaking Britannos for Bruttios, {1606E only{or ignorantly confounding [Greek lettering:] Bretanoi for Bretganoi)}1606E only} as Pausanias has left recorded.
224.22. Similarly, Suidas, based on Pausanias, says the same, but he does add that here one of the sailors ravished a virgin and because of that wild act was stoned to death by the townsmen. Near this town the chapel of Politas, one of Ulysses' consorts, is described by Strabo to have been standing there. Hence it is likely, if we follow Plinius, that he came to the isles ITHACEIÆ, also called Ulysses specula, that is, Ulysses' beacon or lantern. From hence going on, and warily avoiding the dangerous [vortexes] Scylla and Charybdis, (although not altogether without the loss of some of his company), he came again to TRINACRIA, or the island of the sun (Insula Solis) twice, as Horatius says, or as Ausonius writes, often, losing his way and straying off his course, where, while he himself was asleep, some of his company {not in 1606E{so far rowing in vain, as Venusinus [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] calls it}not in 1606E} killed some sheep of Sol, the governor of that place, from his flock which, as Appianus Alexandrinus in the fifth book of his Civil wars writes, were grazing near Artemisium, {1606E only{a town in Sicily, now called Agatha as Barrius at this day thinks}1606E only}.
224.23. For this villainy and foul act committed by them, they were all cast into the water and drowned. Vlysses himself, being alone, got onto the mast of the ship, escaped, and was carried to the isle of OGYGIA, where he lived for seven years, as Homerus writes, or six years, as Ovidius has it, or ten years, as Servius would make us believe, with the nymph Calypso, by whom he got his son Auson. After all this, building a ship with his own hands, he boards and sets sail all alone, out of simple natural love for his [home] country, (preferring it above immortality which the goddess had promised him if he would stay), committing himself to the sea, but alas he feels for the second time the weight of Neptune's wrath, because, as we told before, he had put out the eye of Polyphemus, his son.
224.24. On the eighteenth (or as Ovidius writes the eighth) day after his departure, he came so near Ithaca that he might easily see the smoke coming from the chimneys, (mark his bad luck), when tempestuous winds and raging storms arose everywhere, so that his ship was overturned and he himself was thrown into the sea, but, {1606E only{as God would have it}1606E only}, he came up and instantly got hold of the ship. The nymph Leucothea (others call her Nausicaa), seeing him thus toiling and lost in the middle of the sea, had pity with him and relieved his plight instantly. She advised him to let go of the ship, to take off his clothes, and to commit himself to the sea naked. And she gives him a hair-lace with which her hair was bound up, which he tied around his waist and swam until he came to the country of the PHÆACES, (Cedrenus wrongly has Phnices) where he landed near the river Callirhoe.
224.25. The Cedrenus just mentioned writes that he was carried from there into Creta to Idomeneus, and by him conveyed from there into Corcyra to Alcinous. But let us proceed. With this hair-lace of Leucothea being tied to the ship and hanging at it (except if here Philostratus, which is normal for him, tells a tale) he swam on his own strength, using his hands as oars, through the middle of the sea. Yet, that his ship came so far and further, as Plinius has it, seems not altogether probable, because he writes that near Phalacrum, a promontory or foreland of Phæacia or Corcyra, this ship was turned into a rock, which rock according to Martianus is in form and proportions like a ship, although he there wrongly calls this foreland Phalarium instead of Phalacrum. But if anyone says that he repays one tale with another, I will not object.
224.26. From Phæacia, after having been most honourably entertained by Alcinous, king of that country, he finally came to Ithaca, his native country, the smoke of which he had many times seen, and often desired to see before. He killed the suitors who were one hundred and eight in number if one may believe Athenæus, or only thirty, as Dictys Cretensis says. He embraces and kindly greets his loving wife Penelope. And this is the end of all these wandering peregrinations in which, as Ovidius says, Iactatus dubio per duo lustra mari, {1606E only{ten years he wandered up and down in seas unknown}1606E only}, signifying that the rest of the years were spent in travels and troubles endured on land.
224.27. About which the same author Ovidius also speaks like this: Ille brevi spatio multis erravit in annis,| Inter Dulichias Iliacasq. domos. {1606E & 1608/1612I only{In travel many years he spent, his journey was not far, Between the island Zante and Troy, that famous town of war}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. Isacius writes after Lycophron that Ulysses, by the counsel of Minerva, went to TRAMPYA, a city of the Eurytanes, a people of Epyrus or Ætolia, to offer a sacrifice to the gods there. And this author adds that these people are the very same that Homerus speaks about in the eleventh {1608/1612I has instead{twelfth}1608/1612I instead} book of his Odyssee with these words: [Greek lettering, except for 1608/1612I only:] Eisoche tous aphiknai hoi ouk isasi thalassan, that is, until he came amongst those men who had never heard about the ocean sea. Again the same author states that in this city Vlysses was worshipped as a god, and that he had an oracle there. Not far from there, amongst these [same] people, Stephanus places the city of BVNIMA, first founded by Ulysses.
224.28. That he was worshipped as a god I find in a certain speech by Seneca to Serenus, and therefore it is no marvel that he should issue answers and oracles. And so as to omit none of his labours, Dares Phrygius among various other dangerous adventures writes that he landed in the harbour of MONVCHA. Cassiodorus in the twelfth {1608/1612I has instead{second}1608/1612I instead} book of his Variar. writes that the town SCYLLACIVM was also built by him. That he erected a chapel on the {not in 1606E{Northern}not in 1606E} top of mount BOREVS on the Pelopponesus to Neptune and Minerva Sospita, I find written in Pausanias' Arcadia.
224.29. Appollodorus {1624LParergon/1641S instead{Callimachus}1624LParergon/1641S instead}, cited by Strabo, writes that Ulysses on his voyage came to the isle of CANNVS but which [isle] this should be I do not know. For there are various [islands] that go by this name, as you shall find in our Thesaurus. And perhaps it is not unlikely to be true that Vlysses was tossed to and fro between various different places. Eratosthenes, according to Strabo, says that he will then find out, when he will have the chance to meet the cobbler who sewed the bag in which he carried the winds {1606E & 1608/1612I only{that Æolus gave him}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. And so much in general about the wandering voyage of this captain, and what happened to him as he passed inter Dulichias Iliasque domos, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{between the island Zante and famous Troy}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, as I repeat Ovidius' reports.
224.30. Sed perlege Odysseam omnia nosse volens, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{But read our learned Homerus' works, he tells his tale at large}1606E & 1608/1612I only}, as Ausonius advises [us] in his Epitaphs. Yet, about our Vlysses, I cannot pass over what Plutarchus has in his Morals, namely that because of the killing of the suitors, it was decreed by Neoptolemus against him that he must leave his country and was no more to be seen in Ithaca, Dulichium and Zacynthus. In his banishment he went again to Italy. But where he died is uncertain. Isacius, after Lycophron, an author often referred to by us, confirms on the authority of Theopompus that he died in GORTYNIA, a city in Tyrrhenia in Italy. Yet, Dictys Cretensis towards the end of his sixth book (which you may also find worth reading) says that he died in ITHACA.
224.31. All men mostly report generally that he was slain unexpectedly by his son Telegonus (still holding a cup in his hand, as Athenæus tells the tale) with an iron dart, headed by his mother Circe with a puffins [auk, large Atlantic bird] quill (pastinaca marina they call it) but for a different purpose, as Oppianus writes in the second book of his Halieutica, namely, to kill his enemy, not his father. Hyginus in his 127th fable records that as soon as he was dead, he was carried to the isle Ææa, to Circe, and was buried by her. There are some, as Isacius testifies, who report that Circe through her sorceries restored him again to life.
224.32. More might perhaps have been said of our Ulysses, if [more of] Cratinus Comicus, who according to Athenæus has written De Vlyssibus, would still be extant and available. Nevertheless, after this elaborate discourse on the wandering voyage of this famous captain, I think it not amiss to speak a word or two about Vlysses himself, {1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only{because I truly persuade myself that it cannot but be a matter that the reader will like very well}1606E & 1624LParergon/1641S only}. On a certain silver coin or piece of money of Caius Mamilius Limetanus who, as the report goes (according to Livius) was directly descended from Vlysses and the goddess Circe, there was stamped on one side the head of Mercury, and therefore it had, as is very probable, on the other side the seal or resemblance of Vlysses, which may easily be proved by the details and testimonies that now follow. Plutarchus in the life of Cato the Elder writes that Vlysses had a reason for going back again to the cave of Polyphemus, namely nothing else than to retrieve his cap and girdle, which he had left behind there. For this reason it is apparent that he usually wore a cap and a girdle.
224.33. Yet we read in Plinius that Nicomachus the painter first painted Vlysses with a cap upon his head. And to be painted wearing a cap was a sign and recognition of nobility, as Soranus in the life of Hippocrates plainly confirms. Similarly, Dion Prusæus in his fourteenth oration seems to suggest the same. Again, as an ancient custom of the old Romans, they were used by putting a cap on someone's head to make those that were slaves free. For which they used this expression of speech Ad pileum vocare, to call a man to the cap, for Ad libertate vocare, to make someone a free man. That this cap of Vlysses had a round shape becomes clear from these words of Saint Hieronymus: Rotundum pileolum, quale in Vlysseo conspicimus, a round cap, such as we see on the portrait of Ulysses.
224.34. I may also add this one thing, although somewhat far-fetched, that they were called Pileati, as Iornandes writes, which among the Goths indicated higher birth and nobility, or of deeper mind and experience than the common sort of people had, because they went about with their heads covered with a kind of bonnet or cap. Moreover, he carried a staff in his hand with which he supported himself when the roads were slippery, and defended himself with it against those who on his travels assaulted or molested him, as Homerus says about him in the fourteenth {1608/1612I has instead{sixteenth}1608/1612I instead} book of his Odyssee.
224.35. He also had a dog, as the same author affirms, that after twenty years of absence of his master recognised him upon his return. Now the name of this dog, as we read in the same author, was Argus. This is also confirmed as the truth by Plutarchus in his book on the tranquillity of the mind. And he adds moreover that he wept for his dog when he died. Pausanias in his Phocicis describes our Vlysses as wearing a corslet or a coat of armour on his back. Homerus in the fifteenth {1608/1612I has instead{seventeenth}1608/1612I instead} book of his Odyssee says that he was bald. Which is understandable, in his later days, when he grew in years.
224.36. For Suidas on authority of Homerus says that his hair was black and curled. Next to that, he says that he was somewhat hunch-backed or with stooping shoulders. That he bore on his shield or escutcheon a dolphin, and why, you may read in Plutarchus' book on the comparison of living creatures.
224.37. But someone might ask me why Mercury, wearing a broad-rimmed hat, with his verge or mace in his hand, was stamped on the backside of Ulysses' coin? If it is lawful for me to guess and propose my opinion, I answer: because of the special and singular love and sympathy of this god above all the rest shown at various occasions towards this brave captain. For while in his peregrination all the gods were opposed to him, only Mercury was found to favour him and to stick close to him. For only he gave him an antidote or protection against the scorceries and enchantments of the mischievous witch Circe.
224.38. And indeed we read that this god among all others was particularly used to be honoured in any kind of magical services whatever, as we may see in the fourth book of Papirius' Thebaidos. Also, he obtained permission from this god to depart, so that he might no longer be detained by the nymph Calypso &c. And perhaps there may be another reason as well, namely, that Vlysses, who is highly recommended by Homerus and other authors as a most eloquent orator, and one that could speak most wisely and to the purpose on any kind of subject, took this god Mercury (whom the gentiles appointed president of the orators, and eloquence) for his guardian and protector, thinking in this way to bind him much closer to himself.
224.39. Pausanias says that in Motya, a city in Sicily, there was a statue or image of Ulysses, but it was transported from there to Rome in Italy by Nero the emperor. So much about this brave captain, Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes, who, as the poet writes of him, saw the manners of many people, and knew many cities. About whom Ovidius speaks like this: Si minus errasset, notus minus esset Ulysses, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{if great Ulysses had not strayed, he had been less known}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. But of him I will speak no more, lest I perhaps with the grammarians be hit in the teeth by [the saying of] Diogenes, who says that while they did search diligently to know all the misfortunes and evils that befell Vlysses, they forgot their own.
224.40. And moreover that admonition of the wise Seneca, where he says: Quid proderit inquirere ubi Ulysses erraverit, quam ne nos semper erremus? {1606E & 1608/1612I only{And to what avail will it be to seek where and in which way Ulysses wandered, except to restrain us that we do not in a similar way keep wandering like he did?}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. And now it is high time to take the pen from the paper. {1606E only{I wish to refer you to Golzius and others who have elaborately and specifically discussed that matter}1606E only} {1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon only{as regards our coins, see the images below about which we have spoken, in silver. [followed in 1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S by woodcut image of two sides of a coin, the first showing god Mercurius with wings on his hat, the other showing Odysseus with cap, girdle, walking stick and dog Argus and the inscription C.MAMII LIMEAN [Caius Mamilius Limetanus]].
224.41. {1606E & 1608/1612I only{A description of the RED SEA}1608/1612I only}, now commonly called The INDIAN SEA}1606E only}. {1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S have instead{ERYTHRÆI MARIS PERIPLVS [the discovery of the Red Sea]}1601L, 1603L, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S instead}.
224.42. MARE ERYTHRÆUM or {1606E only{as the Romans call it}1606E only} MARE RVBRVM, the Red Sea, which we here offer to your view on this map, as far as we can gather from ancient writers, stretches itself from the West, as Livius writes, along the coast of Africa or Æthiopia all the way to India in the East, and beyond that, I do not know how far, as Arrianus states, after whom Ptolemæus, Plinius and Mela call it MARE INDICVM, the Indian sea. But Herodotus calls it MARE PERSICVM, the Persian Sea. Which Plinius thinks to be justified as true, where he says that the Persians dwell along the coast of the Red Sea, between the coast of Africa and the island of Taprobana [Ceylon].
224.43. Strabo, {1606E only{that worthy geographer}1606E only} calls it MARE MAGNVM, the great sea, who moreover affirms it to be part of the Atlantic sea, and that truly. A part of that sea, to wit where it touches the coast of that [part] of Æthiopia which lies beneath Egypt, Plinius calls it after the country Azania {1606E only{(which at this day some think to be called Xoa)}1606E only} MARE AZANIVM. Where it joins the bay of Arabia, it is by Ptolemæus called HIPPADIS PELAGVS, {1606E only{now called by some Archipelago di Maldivar}1606E only}. And by the same Ptolemæus it is also called BARBARICVS SINVS, {1606E only{the Barbarian Bay}1606E only}, I mean, in that place where it beats upon Æthiopia and the island of Menuthesia, {1606E only{now by seamen mostly called the island of Saint Lawrence, but by people from the area Madagascar, and by Thevetus Albagia}1606E only}.
224.44. There are two bays or gulfs, {1606E only{as the Italians and Spaniards call them}1606E only}, in this sea so much talked about in ancient histories, to wit SINVS PERSICVS, {1606E only{the Persian bay}1606E only}, and SINVS ARABICVS, {1606E only{the Arab bay}1606E only}, which some, who are unfamiliar with old writers, mostly call Mare Rubrum, the Red Sea. [This can be considered] very improper, since it is indeed only a part of that sea which is properly called the Red Sea that we spoke about. But why it was called Erythræum by the Greeks, and Rubrum, red, by the Romans, is a big question among the learned, that has not yet been answered. Some there are who consider it to have been called the Red Sea after the colour of the water. But by all recent writers, travellers, seamen and other eye witnesses of good reputation who have in our time sailed and every day do now sail through this sea, & have looked at it diligently, they all deny this and consider it to be wrong [as an explanation.
224.45. Moreover, Quintus Curtius among the ancients clearly states that it differs in no way in colour from other seas. Some there are, as Plinius writes, who think that, through reflection of the sun beams it seems to cast back such a [red] colour to the sight of the beholder. Others think it is caused by the colour of the sand or earth at its bottom; others [again] affirm it to reside in the very nature of the water. Some write that it received this name from king Erythrus, son of Perseus, whose tomb, as Quintus Curtius writes, in his time remained on a certain island in this sea, not far from the mainland (Strabo calls this island Tyrina, Plinius and Pomponius Mela [call it] Ogyris, Arrianus Oaracta) or else after a certain Persian named Erythras, as Strabo just mentioned claims.
224.46. This Erythras, as Plinius states in agreement with Strabo, first sailed in a small bark or barge through this sea and explored it. This story is also told elaborately by Agatarchides. Yet our author calls him Hippalus, who first found the course to sail through the middle of this sea. Plinius uses that name for the wind by which they make their journeys through this sea (probably this name was invented). Which wind the same author in the 13th {1608/1612I has instead{15th}1608/1612I instead}{1624LParergon/1641S instead{23rd}1624LParergon/1641S instead} chapter of his 6th book calls by the same name {1603L{as Favolius does}1603L} in Latin. Mela & Agatarchides call it a tempestuous, stormy, rough and deep sea. Plinius {not in 1606E{as also experts of our time}not in 1606E}, Philostratus, Ælianus & Athenæus give it the title of Margaritiferum, {1606E only{the pearl-bearing sea}1606E only}{1608/1612I has instead{agree with this}1608/1612I instead}.
224.47. And the same Plinius makes it [to be] Arboriferum, {1606E & 1608/1612I only{the tree-bearing sea}1606E & 1608/1612I only}. For he writes in the 25th chapter of his 13th {1608/1612I has instead{15th}1608/1612I instead} book that it is full of groves and tall woods, the tops of these high trees he claims are visible above the water, and therefore, at high tide, people are used to fasten their ships to the tops, but at ebb tide at their roots. The same author also says in the 22nd chapter of the 6th book {1606E only{of his Natural history}1606E only} that around Colaicum (which is also called Cholci) or, as Solinus writes, around Taprobana, an island not far from there, the sea is of a very greenish colour, and so full of trees that their top boughs are unbarked and brushed by the rudders or sterns of those ships that sail this way.
224.48. Moreover, that trees do grow in this sea is confirmed by Megasthenes, [who takes it] from Antigonus' de Mirabilis, which Plutarchus in his Natural questions and again in his book de facie Lunæ [about the face of the moon] confirms to be true. He names some of them specifically there, to wit olive trees, laurel trees, also called Isidis Capilli [the hair of Isis] or plocamus [reed]. This is also confirmed to be true by Strabo in the sixth book {1606E only{of his geography}1606E only}. So does Plinius just mentioned, who tells us it is a plant much like coral, without leaves. Agatarchides says that it much resembles the black rush.
224.49. Athenæus, basing himself on Philonides the physician writes that the vine was once brought from the Red Sea and planted in Greece. In the eighth chapter of the fourth book of Theophrastus' history of plants, you may read about various other kinds of trees and herbs which naturally grow in this sea. Pomponius shows that this sea had more numerous and larger monsters that live and breed in it than in any other sea in the world.
224.50. Quintus Curtius says that it is full of whales (balenæ) of such a huge size that they are in bulk equal to the greatest ships there are. Solinus {1624LParergon/1641S has instead{Plinius}1624LParergon/1641S instead} says that [just] one of them will cover two {1624LParergon/1641S instead{four}1624Parergon/1641S instead} acres of ground. {1608/1612I only{which amounts according to Varro to 480 feet in length,& as much in width}1608/1612I only}. The same author in the same place describes certain blue worms which have forelegs not less than six feet {1624LParergon/1641S instead{sixty cubits}1624LParergon/1641S instead} long. These are of such a marvellous strength that often they get hold with their claws of elephants coming there to drink, and by sheer force pull them into the sea.
224.51. {not in 1624LParergon/1641S{ Also, he tells of certain whales, physeteras he calls them, of such a huge size that when you see them they resemble great and massive columns, which many times raise themselves as high as the cross-mast, from where they spout such an abundance of water from their gullets, that often by the violence of such storms, passing vessels sailing there are sunk and cast away}not in 1624LParergon/1641S}.
224.52. Strabo has left in writing that Amazenas, the admiral of the Indian fleet, saw a whale there of fifty cubits {1606E instead{feet}1606E instead} in length. Arrianus in his Indica describes certain balænas whales of a huge and wonderful size, with three sorts of great and terrible serpents {not in 1624LParergon/1641S{which, as Solinus writes, will cover more four {1606E instead{two}1606E instead} acres of land}not in 1624LParergon/1641S}. It has been recorded by Plinius that the Hydri, certain sea monsters of twenty cubites in length, much frightened the navy of Alexander the Great, (1624LParergon/1641S{four-cornered and of such a size that a single one has the surface of a house}1624LParergon/1641S}.
224.53. {not in 1608/1612I{Also, he tells of tortoises of such a marvellous size that the shell of one of them will make a cover for a pretty house, and again, that people usually sail in these shells on the sea in the way people use boats and ships in other countries. Yes, as Agatarchides states, these tortoises serve those who dwell upon this sea coast, instead of houses, boats, dishes and food}not in 1608/1612I}.
224.54. About the island of Taprobana, {1606E only{now called as all learned people think, Samotra}1606E only}, there are certain fishes which live partly in the sea, and partly on land, of which some are like oxen, others like horses, and again some others are like other four-footed beasts, as Strabo has left recorded in his fifteenth {not in 1624LParergon/1641S{and sixteenth}not in 1624LParergon/1641S} book. So much about the name, location and nature of this Red sea, which Livius in his 45th book calls Finem terrarum, {1606E only{The outmost bound of the world}1606E only}. He who desires to know more about this sea, let him have recourse to Agatarchides and Arrianus in his Indica.
224.55. Also, let him consult Baptista Ramusio, who translated this Periplus or discovery, into the Italian tongue, and has enlarged it with a discussion, as he calls it, of his own, about the same matter. And I would wish him not to omit Stuckius, who translated this work into the Latin tongue, and has illustrated it with his most learned and laborious commentaries. Lastly, Pythagoras, {1606E only{that great and famous philosopher}1606E only}, wrote a book about the Red sea, as Athenæus writes in his 14th book {1606E only{of Deipnosophistos}1606E only}.{1608/1612I only{Finally Filippo Pigafetta, who navigated this sea, particularly the Arab gulf, which is partly described, as well as the mountain range Sinai, adding modern names to ancient ones of these countries, Egypt and Arabia}1608/1612I only}.
224.56. HANNONIS PERIPLVS [Hanno's naval discovery] {1606E only{or discovery of the Atlantic seas and coasts of Africa}1606E only}{1608/1612I only{The roundabout navigation by Hanno}1608/1612I only}.
224.57. This Periplus of Hanno, king of Carthago, was first translated from Greek into Latin by Conradus Gesnerus, a man that has received a very good reputation from all sorts of scholars, and [he] has illustrated it with his most learned and accurate commentaries. But before him, Baptista Ramusio translated it into the Italian {1606E instead{Tuscan}1606E instead} language, and has added a discussion, as he calls it. Of the ancient writers, Pomponius Mela in the second {1608/1612I has instead{13th}1608/1612I instead} chapter of his third book, & Plinius in the first chapter of the fifth book {1606E only{of his history of nature}1606E only}, calling him there a captain {1606E only{{of Carthago}1606E only}}, not king {1606E only{of Carthago}1606E only}, have made mention of this Periplus or discovery.
224.58. But he calls this discussion by the name of Commentaries, not of a Periplus. The same Plinius in the 31st{1603L, 1608/1612I instead{32nd}1603L, 1608/1612I instead} chapter of his sixth book calls him an emperor. Yet Solinus, in the last chapter of his work, following Xenophon Lampsacenus, presents him as if he had been king of the Pni. Arrianus too at the end of his Indian stories mentions this Periplus. Moreover, Plinius in the sixteenth chapter of the eighteenth book {1606E only{of his natural history}1606E only} and Ælianus in the 30th {1606E instead{50th}1606E instead} chapter of his fifth book De Animalibus makes mention of one Hanno, who was the first man in the world that dared to handle and take it upon him to tame a lion. But whether he is the same as our Hanno, I am not able to determine. For there have been many with that name, about which, if anyone wants to know more, he should consult the Commentaries of the Gesner just mentioned, which he wrote on this Periplus.
224.59. These words in {not in 1624LParergon/1641S{Plinius and}not in 1624LParergon/1641S} Martianus indeed refer to another Hanno, different from the one we have so far spoken of. Hanno, they say, at that time when the Punic empire stood in its [most] flourishing state, sailed around the coast of Mauretania {1606E instead{{Barbary}1606E instead}, and from there Southwards, all along the shore, until finally, he came to the coasts of Arabia. Moreover, those students who are desirous to know more about this Periplus or discovery may add to this collection of ours such things as Iohannes Mariana has written about it in the end of the first {1608/1612I instead{second}1608/1612I instead} book of his history of Spain.
224.60. ORBIS ARCTOVS, {1606E only{or The Northern frozen Zone}1606E only} {1608/1612I only{The circle or Northern world}1608/1612I only}.
224.61. The drawing of this we have here added both as a help, and to better beautify and proportion this map, I mean that it might be good to have something that would balance the model of Hanno's Periplus. This we entreat the diligent student of ancient geography to take in a positive sense. Perhaps [people in] succeeding times shall present to the world another picture, different from our Dutch and others here, {1606E only{and perhaps more true, as a result of the diligent and difficult travels I expect from our English nation or their consorts the Dutch}1606E only}.
224.62. For these have spared no costs, nor avoided any danger to find a passage through the Northern seas to {1606E only{China and}1606E only} India (for up to this moment no other way has been discovered to sail there except by the South, via Cabo de buona speranza, {1606E only{which is a long and most tedious journey. But about this, read those worthy labours of M. Richard Hackluyt who, to the great benefit and singular delight of all men, has published the English voyages, to the immortal praise and recommendation of our nation, and those brave captains and seamen who have undertaken and accomplished it}1606E only, which ends here}. {1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S only{although they could not keep it to themselves, yet I will tell why the water nymphs by Phaëton escaped great dangers.}1601L, 1603L, 1608/1612I, 1609/1612S/L & 1624LParergon/1641S only, which end here}.