DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14699#0053
Floating Islands
1015
the lakes in Italy, is said to have been inhabited and to have been planted with
trees (anon, de aquis mirabilibus [supra p. 975) 37 cVi tP/s iv 'lra\ia \lpvrjs
KaXovfiii'rjs fi€v Rrjvatcov, ovo-rjs Se to neplperpov arahlwv (p' (on its real size see
E. H. Bunbury in Smith Diet. Ceogr. i. 389 or C. Hiilsen in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-E nc. 111. 268), vrjeros ctTTiv oiKOVfj.evt] KClTa(pvTos htvhpco~lv iiptpois eTTlvri^opevrj
Km p.€Taj3alvov(ra wpos rns ru>v m'^vparuiv (popds).
(20) Lastly, at (Aquae) Salsulae in Gallia Narbonensis, the modern Salces or
Salses on the western bank of the Etaug de Leucate, was a whole plain, green
with fine slender reeds and afloat on underlying water. The centre of it, detached
from its surroundings, formed an island which could be pushed away from you
or pulled towards you. Holes made in the surface of this plain showed the sea
beneath ; whence ignorant or lying authors had stated that fish were here dug
out of the ground (Mela 2. 82 f., cp. Aristot. mir. ausc. 89, Polyb. 34. 10. 2—4,
and perhaps Liv. 42. 2, also Theophr._/J-«f. 171. 7, 11 f. Wimmer, Plin. nat. hist.
9. 176, 178, Sen. nat. quacstt. 3. 16. 5, 3. 17. 3, Iuv. 13. 65 f.). See further
E. Desjardins Ge'ographie /listoriqite et administrative de la Gaide rotnaine Paris
1876 i. 251 f., 256 f. and Keune in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i A. 2012.
It will be obvious from a survey of the foregoing passages that floating
islands as such made a deep impression on Greeks and Romans alike and were
almost always regarded with naive feelings of awe and veneration. Such
phenomena attached themselves readily to the cult of the local deity, often a
lake-goddess, and at least in one case gave rise to a popular ritual and an art-type
of remarkable beauty. We must not, however, lend an ear to the persuasions
of a latter-day mythologist, who would have us believe that the floating islands
of Greek story were originally nothing but drifting clouds (F. L. W. Schwartz
Der Ursprungder Mythologie Berlin i860 p. 69 n. 1 'es sind immer urspriinglich
die Wolkeninseln der Sage'). Earthly fact plus heavenly fancy will amply
suffice to explain the whole flotilla (see e.g. the Celtic parallels in Sir J. Rhys
Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx Oxford 1901 i. 171 f., W. C. Borlase The
Dolmens of Ireland London 1897 ii. 591, H. Giintert Kalypso Halle a. S. 1919
p. 145 {.). Doubters should visit Derwentwater and enquire for the Floating
Island near Lodore which 'appears periodically about the middle of October at
intervals of four years' (M. J. B. Baddeley The English Lake District™ London
1906 p. 130 with Append, by E. D. Jordan p. 11). It has been studied with
scrupulous exactitude by G. J. Symons The Floating Island in Derwentiuater, its
History Mystery, with notes of other dissimilar islands London 1888 pp. 1—64
(Frontisp. map of the south-east portion of Derwentwater showing the position
of three floating islands on Aug. 27, 1884, p. 19 ff. list of recorded appearances
from 1753 to 18S8 A.D., p. 23 ff. notice of other floating islands, etc.). Another
interesting case is examined by Marietta Pallis 'The Structure and History of
Plav: the Floating Fen of the Delta of the Danube' in the Linnean Society's
Journal Botany 1916 xliii. 233—290 pis. 11—25.
1015
the lakes in Italy, is said to have been inhabited and to have been planted with
trees (anon, de aquis mirabilibus [supra p. 975) 37 cVi tP/s iv 'lra\ia \lpvrjs
KaXovfiii'rjs fi€v Rrjvatcov, ovo-rjs Se to neplperpov arahlwv (p' (on its real size see
E. H. Bunbury in Smith Diet. Ceogr. i. 389 or C. Hiilsen in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-E nc. 111. 268), vrjeros ctTTiv oiKOVfj.evt] KClTa(pvTos htvhpco~lv iiptpois eTTlvri^opevrj
Km p.€Taj3alvov(ra wpos rns ru>v m'^vparuiv (popds).
(20) Lastly, at (Aquae) Salsulae in Gallia Narbonensis, the modern Salces or
Salses on the western bank of the Etaug de Leucate, was a whole plain, green
with fine slender reeds and afloat on underlying water. The centre of it, detached
from its surroundings, formed an island which could be pushed away from you
or pulled towards you. Holes made in the surface of this plain showed the sea
beneath ; whence ignorant or lying authors had stated that fish were here dug
out of the ground (Mela 2. 82 f., cp. Aristot. mir. ausc. 89, Polyb. 34. 10. 2—4,
and perhaps Liv. 42. 2, also Theophr._/J-«f. 171. 7, 11 f. Wimmer, Plin. nat. hist.
9. 176, 178, Sen. nat. quacstt. 3. 16. 5, 3. 17. 3, Iuv. 13. 65 f.). See further
E. Desjardins Ge'ographie /listoriqite et administrative de la Gaide rotnaine Paris
1876 i. 251 f., 256 f. and Keune in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i A. 2012.
It will be obvious from a survey of the foregoing passages that floating
islands as such made a deep impression on Greeks and Romans alike and were
almost always regarded with naive feelings of awe and veneration. Such
phenomena attached themselves readily to the cult of the local deity, often a
lake-goddess, and at least in one case gave rise to a popular ritual and an art-type
of remarkable beauty. We must not, however, lend an ear to the persuasions
of a latter-day mythologist, who would have us believe that the floating islands
of Greek story were originally nothing but drifting clouds (F. L. W. Schwartz
Der Ursprungder Mythologie Berlin i860 p. 69 n. 1 'es sind immer urspriinglich
die Wolkeninseln der Sage'). Earthly fact plus heavenly fancy will amply
suffice to explain the whole flotilla (see e.g. the Celtic parallels in Sir J. Rhys
Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx Oxford 1901 i. 171 f., W. C. Borlase The
Dolmens of Ireland London 1897 ii. 591, H. Giintert Kalypso Halle a. S. 1919
p. 145 {.). Doubters should visit Derwentwater and enquire for the Floating
Island near Lodore which 'appears periodically about the middle of October at
intervals of four years' (M. J. B. Baddeley The English Lake District™ London
1906 p. 130 with Append, by E. D. Jordan p. 11). It has been studied with
scrupulous exactitude by G. J. Symons The Floating Island in Derwentiuater, its
History Mystery, with notes of other dissimilar islands London 1888 pp. 1—64
(Frontisp. map of the south-east portion of Derwentwater showing the position
of three floating islands on Aug. 27, 1884, p. 19 ff. list of recorded appearances
from 1753 to 18S8 A.D., p. 23 ff. notice of other floating islands, etc.). Another
interesting case is examined by Marietta Pallis 'The Structure and History of
Plav: the Floating Fen of the Delta of the Danube' in the Linnean Society's
Journal Botany 1916 xliii. 233—290 pis. 11—25.