DOI chapter:
Chapter V: To the West of Naples
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0202
Naples
translates into the Atri^lex halinum peculiar to the
Mediterranean coasts and probably unknown to Greece.
Its flower is pale, the root clinging and difficult to
unearth. Monsieur Berard tried in vain to pull up
even the smallest of its roots. “ Les dieux seuls, qui
peuvent tout, en sont capables.”
But the writer’s comparison of the “ floating isle ”
with the island of Stromboli, because the latter threw
up masses of debris from its crater, which floated about
the seas, seems somewhat fantastic.
Though the idea that this land genuinely stimulated
the descriptions in Homer is not by any means a new
one, I believe that Monsieur Berard is the first to find
a connection between its peculiar features and the
characters themselves in the Odyssey. The links
between the strange physiognomy of this country and
its equally strange names are most entertaining. Inland
we see the extinct crater of the Solfatara, which is as the
round eye of the Cyclops, from the lids and eyebrows
of which the vapour of the burning pupil mounted.
Then, too, not far off may be seen Mount Gaurus, a
transcription in Greek of the Semitic word signifying
blind. The Gaurus was the blind eye !
The whole scenery is dotted with round eyes like a
photograph of the moon—eyes, long blind, that once
must have flashed with living fire ! These extinct ruins
of Nature are in keeping with the almost defiant works
of the Roman decadence which for a brief period amazed
the world. While the rude forces of the lower world
held their own inland, the Romans ever behaved as if
96
translates into the Atri^lex halinum peculiar to the
Mediterranean coasts and probably unknown to Greece.
Its flower is pale, the root clinging and difficult to
unearth. Monsieur Berard tried in vain to pull up
even the smallest of its roots. “ Les dieux seuls, qui
peuvent tout, en sont capables.”
But the writer’s comparison of the “ floating isle ”
with the island of Stromboli, because the latter threw
up masses of debris from its crater, which floated about
the seas, seems somewhat fantastic.
Though the idea that this land genuinely stimulated
the descriptions in Homer is not by any means a new
one, I believe that Monsieur Berard is the first to find
a connection between its peculiar features and the
characters themselves in the Odyssey. The links
between the strange physiognomy of this country and
its equally strange names are most entertaining. Inland
we see the extinct crater of the Solfatara, which is as the
round eye of the Cyclops, from the lids and eyebrows
of which the vapour of the burning pupil mounted.
Then, too, not far off may be seen Mount Gaurus, a
transcription in Greek of the Semitic word signifying
blind. The Gaurus was the blind eye !
The whole scenery is dotted with round eyes like a
photograph of the moon—eyes, long blind, that once
must have flashed with living fire ! These extinct ruins
of Nature are in keeping with the almost defiant works
of the Roman decadence which for a brief period amazed
the world. While the rude forces of the lower world
held their own inland, the Romans ever behaved as if
96