Imaginary worlds of old Greece

The Greek of Antiquity very early imagined remote, fantastic or utopian countries. Hérodote entrusts that the ends of the ground received what there is moreover in vain and of rarer. The Greeks thus allot to these worlds mythical (or semi-mythical) of the idealized characteristics. The remote situation of these regions explains this broad share left with the myth.

The Mediterranean of the Odyssey

The Odyssée is certainly in itself and as a whole a legendary account located in legendary times. But part of this unit is consisted an account made by Ulysses - Ulysses who praises itself to be a skilful liar - and whose Homère does not say nowhere that it is authentic: it could just as easily be a new trick of the hero. However, with this account, one leaves the the real Mediterranean to pass in another world, phenomenon which one can note in good of other legends where one sees the characters passing a magic border to enter a universe different from ours. The Mediterranean of the account odysséen is obviously another sea , where one does not find the grounds that one knows to him, even if one has several times tempted to locate such or such passage of this account in such or such real place (e.g. the Cyclops in Sardinia, the Lestrygons with Bonifacio). This Mediterranean contains a series of islands that do not live men but monsters or women of supernatural nature, magicians or goddesses. One can enumerate:

  • countries of monsters: Cyclops, Lestrygons, Charybde, Scylla, Sirens;
  • islands of magicians or magicians: Lotophages, Circé;
  • country of deaths.

Atlantis

See also: Atlantis

Although some estimate that this island (or continent) really existed, the evocation that makes of it Plato in two of his dialogs constitutes a Mythe, i.e. an imaginary construction.

Hyperborée

See also: Hyperborée

In Greek mythology, Hyperborée is a mythical continent located at the septentrional borders of the inhabited world. Hyperborée is the native soil of Léto, mother of Apollon.

Mythical India

Before the conquests of Alexandre Large the at fourth century BC the Indian world is still unexplored by the Greeks; only the Perse S have contacts with this civilization. The “discovery” of India by Alexandre remains in the memories as the meeting of the history and the myth. If the forwarding of Alexandre stops with the steps of India, in the area of the Penjab, the plain of the Gange and the plate of the Dekkan remain as for them unknown Greeks.

Member of the forwarding of Alexandre, Onésicrite left, via the Géographie of Strabon, a description of India where Miss the myth and history. It would have seen there, inter alia, of Sères (i.e. of the Chinese) which would live two hundred years. He describes, with more authenticity, the ascetics Gymnosophiste S and the worship of the beauty at the people of Cathéens. The Indians of Onésicrite are large and beautiful beings, of a health and an exceptional longevity, equipped with many virtues. It allots to them qualities which are already those of other distant and semi-mythical people, like the Hyperboréens or the inhabitants of Thulé (the north of the Scandinavia is discovered by Pythéas towards 350).

Following this idealized description of real regions nevertheless, the imaginary Greek allots to the Indians extraordinary characteristics, as the account filled of fables of Iamboulos shows it.

Aquitaine, Thulé and it beyond Thulé

Antoine Diogène (second century BC?) tell in a work entitled the wonders of beyond Thulé of the voyages in regions as remote as improbable (towards extreme north, to the Moon and even until in… Aquitaine).

Panchaïe

In what seems to be a novel entitled Hiera Anagraphê (“Inscription or crowned Chronicle”, Évhémère (towards 300 before J. - C.) brings back a voyage towards the Far East which leads to the island of Panchaïe. Its heroes, inter alia adventures, there discover an inscription written by Zeus and learn thus that the gods were at the origin of the men whose life inspired the Mythologie. Thus, Zeus was a large conqueror, with the attacks if striking down that it was imagined that it controlled the lightning; Aphrodite was a courtesan of Cyprus of an exceptional beauty; Déméter was a princess who was removed by a rich person trading (from where her name, Pluton, “the rich person” and who supplied Athens at one time of famine, which was worth to him to be divinized.

The Happy Island

Iamboulos (towards 250 or 130 before J. - C.?) claims to have sailed of Arabia towards India and to have unloaded in this marvellous island. It is populated human beings of a great beauty, but showing physical characteristics which distinguish them from ordinary humanity. In particular, their language very long and is divided into two parts, so that they are able to hold two conversations at the same time.

The Moon and the Island of the Happy one

Lucien de Samosate (2nd century a. J. - C.), in its True story , brings back a tour which carried out its narrator on the Moon, then on the islands of the Happy where live after their death of the famous men of the past.

See too

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