Ὠκεανός τε πέριξ ἐν ὔδασι γαῖαν
Ἑἱλἰσσων.
Song of Orpheus.
Ὁς περικυμαίνει γαίης περιτέρμονα κύκλον. Id.
[10] Eratosthenes of Cyrene measured the terrestrial meridian by the problem worked out from the well of Syene. To predict eclipses the mechanism of the heavens must be known. They were predicted by the ancients, e.g. Thales in the seventh century before Christ, Eparcus of Mycea, in the second; Hellico of Cyzycus, and Eudemus. Anaxagoras of Clasomene narrowly escaped death for explaining their cause. Among the Romans, Sulpicius Gallus predicted an eclipse during the war against Perseus; and Drusus, by doing so, quelled an insurrection (Tacit. Annals. I. 28). Pythagoras taught publicly that the earth was a sphere, and the centre of the universe; but he communicated to the initiated its double motion round its axis and the sun. Cicero was the friend of the man who calculated the exact distance of the moon, and approached to that of the sun.
[11] “Morgante Maggiore,” Canto xxv. stanza 205-9.
[12] The proposition of Columbus was, “Buscar el levante por el ponente.” To find the east by the west. This was precisely the mistake made by the Greeks, who had gained the idea of the spherical form of the east without the knowledge of its dimensions. It was, in fact, the repetition of the words of Aristotle—
—Συνάπτειν τὰν, περὶ τὰς Ἡρακλείους στήλας, τόπον περὶ τῷ τὴν Ἰνδικήν.
[13] In the Highlands the church is still called clachan, or the stones.
[14] “Sed nulla effigies simulacrave nota deorum.”—Sil. Ital.
[15] “Castumque cubile.”—Id.