Although the mariners’ compass had not yet been invented, the ancient sailors did not, as appears to be generally supposed, creep timidly from headland to headland along the shore, but traversed boldly the open sea, directing their course by the constellations, more particularly that of the greater bear. In this practice the Arabs of Phœnicia led the way as in most other early improvements connected with seamanship.
It is sometimes believed that, in very remote ages, mankind possessed no names for the winds,[[1714]] because as they had not yet addicted themselves to navigation, it concerned them very little to observe how or which way they blew. Possibly, however, we somewhat exaggerate the heedlessness and ignorance of the remoter generations of men who must have been singularly obtuse in their intellect if they could not tell whether the wind blew up or down a valley, or on the back or front of their houses, and had failed to designate the several currents of the atmosphere by distinct appellations, whereby to distinguish them when they had occasion to speak of their effects. About the period of the Trojan war some inventive genius sprang up who gave a name to the north and the south winds, and already in the time of Homer the Greeks had contrived to have four points to their compass, at least the poet speaks but of the four cardinal winds, Boreas, the north; Euros, the east; Notos, the south, and Zephyros, the west. To these other four were afterwards added, and at the same time some change was introduced into the ancient nomenclature, the north-east was called Cæcias;[[1715]] the south-east, Euros; the name of the east being changed to Apeliotes; the south-west, Libs; the north-west, Argestes, and sometimes Olympias,[[1716]] or Iapyx, or Sciron; which, however, according to Pliny differed from the Argestes, and was peculiar to Athens. These are the winds represented on the tower of Andronicos Cyrrhestes at Athens, spoken of by Varro, Vitruvius,[[1717]] and many modern travellers. Pliny,[[1718]] Galen, and Aulus Gellius differ from Aristotle in confining the name of Aparctias to the north wind, and giving that of Boreas to the north-east, or Aquilo of the Romans.[[1719]]
Winds blowing from the northern points of the compass are most frequent in Greece. Aristotle[[1720]] remarks, that Boreas is strong at its commencement, but feeble towards its close; and that of the south wind, the reverse is true.[[1721]] It may, moreover, be added, that the north wind was not only the most common, but also the dryest and most severe, though sometimes accompanied by lightning, and hail, and snow. The same wind brought rain on the Hellespont, and at Cyrenè. The Cæcias commonly prevailed about the vernal equinox, and, in Attica and the islands, was a rainy wind;[[1722]] the Apetiotes was a humid but soft wind felt chiefly in the morning.[[1723]] The Euros, which, as Gœttling[[1724]] observes, is the Scirocco of the Italians, prevails about the winter solstice, and at first is warm and dry, but afterwards by blowing long over the sea becomes moist, and brings rain, particularly in Lesbos.[[1725]] Aristotle, however, speaks of the Notos as the chief rainy wind in this island,[[1726]] and observes what I have myself verified in the Delta, that during the Simoom objects appear greater than their natural size.[[1727]] The Notos blows chiefly about the end of autumn in Greece, as I found it also on the Nile immediately after the winter solstice, and at the commencement of spring.[[1728]] It likewise prevails during the dog-days[[1729]] (ἐπὶ κυνὶ). Naturally moist and warm, it was at first weak, but grew powerful as it drew towards its end, when it covered the sky with clouds and ended in rain.[[1730]] South winds blowing from the sea, by which they were cooled, were considered favourable to vegetation particularly in the Thriasian plain in Attica, lying between the Sciros and the Cephissos. These same winds were supposed to be cold in Libya; I think erroneously, since the south winds are warm in Egypt. The Libs is moist and cloudy, though less so than the Cæcias; but the clouds which it brings are quickly dispersed; it blows chiefly about Cnidos and Rhodes.[[1731]]
The Zephyr[[1732]] which prevails in the spring, at mid-summer and in autumn is felt chiefly in the evening and never in the morning. According to Aristotle it is the gentlest wind that blows.[[1733]] Theophrastus, however, remarks, that it is cold in some countries, though less so than Boreas;[[1734]] but in the opinion of Hippocrates, it is most of all winds charged with rain.[[1735]] The Argestos is no less dry and serene than the Aparctias, though it sometimes brings thunder-clouds and hail.[[1736]] This wind is remarkably cold at Chalcis in Eubœa. When about the winter solstice it happens to blow, it dries up and withers the trees more than long continued heats and droughts.[[1737]] At Rhodes and at Cnidos it is usually accompanied by heavy clouds.[[1738]]
The Etesian winds which commence immediately after the summer solstice, and continue through the dog-days, are in reality northern winds, but occasionally point obliquely both towards the west and towards the east. They prevail chiefly at night;[[1739]] and are sometimes exceedingly powerful on the coast of Egypt.[[1740]] Another class of Etesian winds prevailed earlier in the year, beginning about twenty days after the winter solstice. These are weaker, more variable, and of briefer duration than the real Etesian winds, and I will add, from my own experience, cover the sky with dark clouds, and blow extremely cold even along the shores of Marmarica and Cyrenè. In ancient Greece they obtained the name of Ornithiæ—“the Bird Winds”—because they announced the return of the birds.[[1741]] Or, according to another version of the matter, because they were so cold as to strike dead various kinds of birds during their flight, and strew the earth with their bodies.[[1742]]
During the winter months these cold and piercing winds blow with so much fury over the land-locked seas and islands of Greece, that among the ancients all navigation was suspended during the brumal season. In proof of the violence of these aërial currents, which may almost be said to set steadily in one direction through a great portion of the year, it may be observed, that in several of the islands neither vines nor fig-trees can be trained upright, but are blown down and compelled to creep along the rocks.[[1743]] An example of the strength of the gales which sometimes also prevail on the Hellenic continent is recorded in history; during the retreat of Cleombrotos out of Bœotia, his army being overtaken by a storm as it was traversing the mountain passes leading from Creusis to Ægosthena along the shore of the sea, numerous sumpter asses were blown with their ladings over the precipices; even the shields and arms were in many cases whirled from the hands of the soldiers and precipitated into the waves below; and to prevent similar misfortune the rest of the army turned their bucklers upside down and filled them with stones, while they pushed forward, divested of defensive armour, into the Megaris, a friendly country, from which they afterwards returned and fetched off their shields.[[1744]]
In cases of shipwreck the protection afforded to crews and merchandise depended in most cases, perhaps, on the character and progress of civilisation of the people on whose shore the accident happened. On the coast of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of Salmydessos, where the whole maritime population appear to have been confirmed wreckers, numerous pillars were set up along the beach to mark the limits within which each little community might claim whatever booty was drifted in by the sea. Previous to this arrangement, the barbarians used frequently to come to blows in the eager pursuit of this inhuman calling, and in these brawls many lives were lost. Afterwards they appear to have carried on their war against distressed mariners with perfect harmony and equanimity.[[1745]] But among the Rhodians, an enterprising mercantile people, the amount of salvage was regulated by a law which, together with the rest of their commercial code, was afterwards adopted by the Romans.
If gold, or silver, or any other article, be brought up from the depth of eight cubits, the person who saves it shall receive one-third. If from fifteen cubits, the person who saves it shall, on account of the depth, receive one-half. If goods are cast up by the waves towards the shore, and found sunk at the depth of one cubit, the person who carries them out safe shall receive a tenth part.[[1746]] It was customary, moreover, in old times, to keep a number of divers on board ships for the purpose of descending to loosen the anchors when they chanced to take too firm a hold in the sand, as also to recover goods which had been thrown overboard in times of danger.[[1747]]
On various headlands and promontories of the ancient world beacon-fires were habitually kindled to guide the course of the ships into port; and for these, in after ages, light-houses, adorned with every beauty of architecture, and carried to a vast height, were substituted. Of these the most remarkable was that erected for Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Sostratos, the Cnidian, whose name, by permission of the king, was inscribed upon the structure.[[1748]] By one author it is described as four hundred and fifty feet high, and equal in dimensions at the base to one of the great pyramids of Memphis. In form it may possibly have resembled the Haram el Kedâb, which consists of a series of square towers from the basement upwards, diminishing in size, and appearing to spring up out of each other. With this the language of Strabo[[1749]] very well agrees, since he tells us, it was a building consisting of numerous stages. On the summit bright fires were kept perpetually burning, so that on that low shore, where there is no hill or mountain for many days’ journey, the Pharos was ever the first object which presented itself to mariners at sea, where its light, we are told, was visible at the distance of a hundred miles. Occasionally, however, from its great size and brilliance, it was mistaken for the moon, as this planet itself, rising behind the dome and towers of a great capital, has suggested to distant beholders the idea of a conflagration.[[1750]]