Knowing nothing of the revolution of the earth, the succession of days and nights was accounted for by supposing the sun-god to descend into the “River Ocean,” and embark in his winged boat, which carried him swiftly around the northern part of the earth, back to his place of rising in the east.
Milton, in his “Comus,” thus translates their philosophy on the subject:
Now the gilded car of day
His golden axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantic stream;
And the slope sun his upward beam
Shoots against the dusky pole,
Pacing towards the other goal
Of his chamber in the east.