Читать книгу Legendary Islands of the Atlantic: A Study of Medieval Geography онлайн

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No breeze drives the ship forward, so dead is the sluggish wind of this idle sea. He [Himilco] also adds that there is much seaweed among the waves, and that it often holds the ship back like bushes. Nevertheless, he says that the sea has no great depth, and that the surface of the earth is barely covered by a little water. The monsters of the sea move continually hither and thither, and the wild beasts swim among the sluggish and slowly creeping ships.33

Avienus also has the following:

Farther to the west from these Pillars there is boundless sea. Himilco relates that ... none has sailed ships over these waters, because propelling winds are lacking ... likewise because darkness screens the light of day with a sort of clothing, and because a fog always conceals the sea.34

Fig. 1—Map of the Sargasso Sea showing its relation to the Azores, to illustrate its possible bearing on the medieval belief in the existence of lands or islands beyond. Scale 1:72,000,000. (The map is also intended to help in locating the various existing islands of the North Atlantic.)