DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14699#0009
APPENDIX P.
FLOATING ISLANDS.
Floating islands have not yet been made the subject of any monograph1.
But examples of them are given by Sen. not. quaestt. 3. 25. 7 ff., Plin. nat. hist.
2. 209, and the anonymous author dc aqttis mirabilibus 37 ff. (formerly identified
with Sotion (Phot. bib/, p. 145 b 28 ff. Bekker) and printed under that name by
A. Westermann nAI'AA030rPA*0I Brunsvigae 1839 p. 183 ff., but better edited
as Paradoxographi Florenlini anonymi opuscuhim de aqtris mirabilibus by
H. Oehler Tubingae 1913 and cited as such in W. Christ Gcschichte der
griechischen LitUratur* Miinchen 1920 ii. 420 f.). Fact and fable are so blended
in their accounts that individual cases call for separate consideration:
(1) Aiolos Hippotades lived on a floating island (Od. 10. 3 -n-XoiTrj eyi vijcrca
as explained by Aristarchos ap. schol. H.M.Q.T.V. Od. 10. 3, Apollon. lex. Horn.
p. 132, 18 f., Eustath. in Od. p. 1644, 51 ff., cp. Hesych. s.v. n\a>r^, Phot. lex.
s.v. ttXmtoj', Favorin. lex. p. 1523, 18 f., Souid. s.v. ttXcot^ vfjo-os, Zonar. lex. s.v.
ttXoitt], and W. W. Merry ad loc), which was perhaps originally regarded as an
island of souls {supra p. 109). On it see further K. Tiimpel in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. i. 1032 ff.
(2) The Homeric Planktai were beetling rocks against which the waves
broke. No birds could pass them in safety. Even the doves that brought
ambrosia to Zeus always lost one of their number, and another had to be sent
by him in its stead. Never yet had any ship escaped these rocks, for billows of
salt water and blasts of destructive fire overwhelmed ships and crews alike. The
Argo alone, on its voyage from Aietes, -had passed them, being sent past in
safety by Hera for Iason's sake [Od. 12. 59—72, 23. 327). There is no question
here of clashing rocks, between which Odysseus must go (schol. Pind. Pytli.
4- 370). The poet, anxious to eliminate incredible marvels (supra ii. 989), has
substituted napa for 81a (62 napcp^erai, 69 jrapeVXia, 72 napiirep^ffv) and left us
to suppose that the danger lay in being dashed against the rocks, not in being
crushed between them. Nevertheless the name nXa-yxrai' used of them by the
blessed gods (61) implies that they were originally conceived as 'Wandering'
rocks, and the sinister phrase riXXrf re ral ra>v alev a<juupfirat Xif 7rcYpj/ (64) looks
like a reminiscence of the clashing motif.
The Kyaneai (first in Soph. Ant. 966 or Hdt. 4. 85) or Symplegades (first in
Eur. Med. 431) of the Argonauts' adventure were two living rocks which rushed
together, rolling faster than the winds (Pind. Pyth. 4. 208 ff.). As early as s. v B.C.,
if not earlier, they were located on the Thracian Bosporos (Soph. Ant. 966 f. and
Hdt. 4. 85) at the entrance to the Euxine (Eur. I.T. 124f.), where they formed
1 Unless we concede the name to such articles as those by Mary Johnston ' Floating
islands, ancient and modern' in the Classical Weekly 1925—1926 xix. 58, L. R. Shero
The Vadimonian Lake and floating islands of Equatorial Africa ' ib. 1933—1934 xxvii.
51 f; J. W. Spaeth ' More floating islands' ib. p. 78, R. M. Geer ' Floating islands once
m°re ib. p. 1 j2 or to sucij chapters as those of A. Breusing ' Nautisches zu Homeros.
6; TTAflTHI 6NI NHCfll ' in the Jahrb. f. class. Philol. 1886 xxxii. 85—92 and
E- Hawks The Book of Natural Wonders London 1932 pp. 192—198 ('Disappearing
Islands').
C III. 62
FLOATING ISLANDS.
Floating islands have not yet been made the subject of any monograph1.
But examples of them are given by Sen. not. quaestt. 3. 25. 7 ff., Plin. nat. hist.
2. 209, and the anonymous author dc aqttis mirabilibus 37 ff. (formerly identified
with Sotion (Phot. bib/, p. 145 b 28 ff. Bekker) and printed under that name by
A. Westermann nAI'AA030rPA*0I Brunsvigae 1839 p. 183 ff., but better edited
as Paradoxographi Florenlini anonymi opuscuhim de aqtris mirabilibus by
H. Oehler Tubingae 1913 and cited as such in W. Christ Gcschichte der
griechischen LitUratur* Miinchen 1920 ii. 420 f.). Fact and fable are so blended
in their accounts that individual cases call for separate consideration:
(1) Aiolos Hippotades lived on a floating island (Od. 10. 3 -n-XoiTrj eyi vijcrca
as explained by Aristarchos ap. schol. H.M.Q.T.V. Od. 10. 3, Apollon. lex. Horn.
p. 132, 18 f., Eustath. in Od. p. 1644, 51 ff., cp. Hesych. s.v. n\a>r^, Phot. lex.
s.v. ttXmtoj', Favorin. lex. p. 1523, 18 f., Souid. s.v. ttXcot^ vfjo-os, Zonar. lex. s.v.
ttXoitt], and W. W. Merry ad loc), which was perhaps originally regarded as an
island of souls {supra p. 109). On it see further K. Tiimpel in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. i. 1032 ff.
(2) The Homeric Planktai were beetling rocks against which the waves
broke. No birds could pass them in safety. Even the doves that brought
ambrosia to Zeus always lost one of their number, and another had to be sent
by him in its stead. Never yet had any ship escaped these rocks, for billows of
salt water and blasts of destructive fire overwhelmed ships and crews alike. The
Argo alone, on its voyage from Aietes, -had passed them, being sent past in
safety by Hera for Iason's sake [Od. 12. 59—72, 23. 327). There is no question
here of clashing rocks, between which Odysseus must go (schol. Pind. Pytli.
4- 370). The poet, anxious to eliminate incredible marvels (supra ii. 989), has
substituted napa for 81a (62 napcp^erai, 69 jrapeVXia, 72 napiirep^ffv) and left us
to suppose that the danger lay in being dashed against the rocks, not in being
crushed between them. Nevertheless the name nXa-yxrai' used of them by the
blessed gods (61) implies that they were originally conceived as 'Wandering'
rocks, and the sinister phrase riXXrf re ral ra>v alev a<juupfirat Xif 7rcYpj/ (64) looks
like a reminiscence of the clashing motif.
The Kyaneai (first in Soph. Ant. 966 or Hdt. 4. 85) or Symplegades (first in
Eur. Med. 431) of the Argonauts' adventure were two living rocks which rushed
together, rolling faster than the winds (Pind. Pyth. 4. 208 ff.). As early as s. v B.C.,
if not earlier, they were located on the Thracian Bosporos (Soph. Ant. 966 f. and
Hdt. 4. 85) at the entrance to the Euxine (Eur. I.T. 124f.), where they formed
1 Unless we concede the name to such articles as those by Mary Johnston ' Floating
islands, ancient and modern' in the Classical Weekly 1925—1926 xix. 58, L. R. Shero
The Vadimonian Lake and floating islands of Equatorial Africa ' ib. 1933—1934 xxvii.
51 f; J. W. Spaeth ' More floating islands' ib. p. 78, R. M. Geer ' Floating islands once
m°re ib. p. 1 j2 or to sucij chapters as those of A. Breusing ' Nautisches zu Homeros.
6; TTAflTHI 6NI NHCfll ' in the Jahrb. f. class. Philol. 1886 xxxii. 85—92 and
E- Hawks The Book of Natural Wonders London 1932 pp. 192—198 ('Disappearing
Islands').
C III. 62