Aeschylus -- Translations into English; Mythology, Greek -- Drama
In the _Theogony_ of Hesiod (v. 509), Prometheus and Atlas appear as
the sons of two sisters. As other Titans were thought of as buried
under volcanoes, so this one was identified with the mountain which
had been seen by travellers to Western Africa, or in the seas beyond
it, rising like a column to support the vault of heaven. In Herodotos
(iv. 174) and all later writers, the name is given to the chain of
mountains in Lybia, as being the “pillar of the firmament;” but
Humboldt and others identify it with the lonely peak of Teneriffe, as
seen by Phœnikian or Hellenic voyagers. Teneriffe, too, like most of
the other Titan mountains, was at one time volcanic. Homer (_Odyss._
i. 53) represents him as holding the pillars which separate heaven
from earth; Hesiod (_Theogon._ v. 517) as himself standing near the
Hesperides (this too points to Teneriffe), sustaining the heavens with
his head and shoulders.
Footnote 157:
The volcanic character of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability
to earthquakes which has marked nearly every period of its history,
led men to connect it also with the traditions of the Titans, some
accordingly placing the home of Typhon in Phrygia, some near Sardis,
some, as here, in Kilikia. Hesiod (_Theogon._ v. 820) describes Typhon
(or Typhoeus) as a serpent-monster hissing out fire; Pindar (_Pyth._
i. 30, viii. 21) as lying with his head and breast crushed beneath the
weight of Ætna, and his feet extending to Cumæ.
Footnote 158:
The words point probably to an eruption, then fresh in men's memories,
which had happened B.C. 476.
Footnote 159:
By some editors this speech from “No, not so,” to “thou know'st how,”
is assigned to Okeanos.
Footnote 160:
These are, of course, the Amazons, who were believed to have come
through Thrakè from the Tauric Chersonesos, and had left traces of
their name and habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus.
Footnote 161:
Beyond the plains of Skythia, and the lake Mæotis (the sea of Azov)
there would be the great river Okeanos, which was believed to flow
round the earth.
Footnote 162:
Sarmatia has been conjectured instead of Arabia. No Greek author
sanctions the extension of the latter name to so remote a region as
that north of the Caspian.
Footnote 163:
The Greek leaves the object of the sympathy undefined, but it seems
better to refer it to that which Atlas receives from the waste of
waters around, and the dark world beneath, than to the pity shown to
Prometheus. This has already been dwelt on in line 421.
Footnote 164:
The passage that follows has for modern palæontologists the interest
of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society,
and the condition of mankind during what has been called the “Stone”
period. Comp. Lucretius, v. 955-984.
Footnote 165:
Comp. Mr. Blakesley's note on Herod. ii. 4, as showing that here there
was the greater risk of faulty observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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