The Golden Wind

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This story is based upon a passage in the works of Poseidonios the Stoic, quoted by Strabon the geographer (II, iii, 4-5):

4. Posidonius, in speaking of those who have sailed round Africa, tells us that Herodotus was of opinion that some of those sent out by Darius [* An error for Necho II.] actually performed this enterprise; and that Heraclides of Pontus, in a certain dialogue, introduces one of the Magi presenting himself to Gelon, and declaring that he had performed this voyage; but he remarks that this wants proof. He also narrates how a certain Eudoxus of Cyzicus, sent with sacrifices and oblations to the Corean games, travelled into Egypt in the reign of Euergetes II.; and being a learned man, and much interested in the peculiarities of different countries, he made interest with the king and his ministers on the subject, but especially for exploring the Nile. It chanced that a certain Indian was brought to the king by the [coast]-guard of the Arabian Gulf. They reported that they had found him in a ship, alone, and half dead: but that they neither knew who he was, nor where he came from, as he spoke a language they could not understand. He was placed in the hands of preceptors appointed to teach him the Greek language. On acquiring which, he related how he had started from the coasts of India, but lost his course, and reached Egypt alone, all his companions having perished with hunger; but that if he were restored to his country he would point out to those sent with him by the king, the route by sea to India. Eudoxus was of the number thus sent. He set sail with a good supply of presents, and brought back with him in exchange aromatics and precious stones, some of which the Indians collect from amongst the pebbles of the rivers, others they dig out of the earth, where they have been formed by the moisture, as crystals are formed with us.

[He fancied that he had made his fortune], however, he was greatly deceived, for Euergetes took possession of the whole treasure. On the death of that prince, his widow, Cleopatra, assumed the reins of government, and Eudoxus was again despatched with a richer cargo than before. On his journey back, he was carried by the winds above Ethiopia, and being thrown on certain [unknown] regions, he conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles which they were without; receiving in exchange a supply of water, and guides for the journey. He also wrote down several words of their language, and having found the end of a prow, with a horse carved on it, which he was told formed part of the wreck of a vessel coming from the west, he took it with him, and proceeded on his homeward course. He arrived safely in Egypt, where no longer Cleopatra, but her son, ruled; but he was again stripped of every thing on the accusation of having appropriated to his own uses a large portion of the merchandise sent out.

However, he carried the prow into the market-place, and exhibited it to the pilots, who recognised it as being come from Gades. The merchants [of that place] employing large vessels, but the lesser traders small ships, which they style horses, from the figures of that animal borne on the prow, and in which they go out fishing around Maurusia, as far as the Lixus. Some of the pilots professed to recognise the prow as that of a vessel which had sailed beyond the river Lixus, but had not returned.

From this Eudoxus drew the conclusion, that it was possible to circumnavigate Libya; he therefore returned home, and having collected together the whole of his substance, set out on his travels. First he visited Dicaearchia, and then Marseilles, and afterwards traversed the whole coast as far as Gades. Declaring his enterprise everywhere as he journeyed, he gathered money sufficient to equip a great ship, and two boats, resembling those used by pirates. On board these he placed singing girls, physicians, and artisans of various kinds, and launching into open sea, was carried towards India by steady westerly winds. However, they who accompanied him becoming wearied with the voyage, steered their course towards land, but much against his will, as he dreaded the force of the ebb and flow. What he feared actually occurred. The ship grounded, but gently, so that it did not break up at once, but fell to pieces gradually, the goods and much of the timber of the ship being saved. With these he built a third vessel, closely resembling a ship of fifty oars, and continuing his voyage, came amongst a people who spoke the same language as that some words of which he had on a former occasion committed to writing. He further discovered, that they were men of the same stock as those other Ethiopians, and also resembled those of the kingdom of Bogus [* Spelled Bogos by Strabon but Bokchos or Bocchus by other ancient writers.]. However, he abandoned his [intended] voyage to India, and returned home. On his voyage back he observed an uninhabited island, well watered and wooded, and carefully noted its position. Having reached Maurusia in safety, he disposed of his vessels, and travelled by land to the court of Bogus. He recommended that sovereign to undertake an expedition thither.

This, however, was prevented on account of the fear of the [king's] advisers, lest the district should chance to expose them to treachery, by making known a route by which foreigners might come to attack them. Eudoxus, however, became aware, that although it was given out that he was himself to be sent on this proposed expedition, the real intent was to abandon him on some desert island. He therefore fled to the Roman territory, and passed thence into Iberia. Again, he equipped two vessels, one round and the other long, furnished with fifty oars, the latter framed for voyaging in the high seas, the other for coasting along the shores. He placed on board agricultural implements, seed, and builders, and hastened on the same voyage, determined, if it should prove too long, to winter on the island he had before observed, sow his seed, and having reaped the harvest, complete the expedition he had intended from the beginning.

5. "Thus far," says Posidonius, "I have followed the history of Eudoxus. What happened afterwards is probably known to the people of Gades and Iberia;" "but," says he, "all these things only demonstrate more clearly the fact, that the inhabited earth is entirely surrounded by the ocean."

Poseidonios' account contains obvious errors. For example, Kleopatra III was not out of power upon Eudoxos' second return from India; she reigned continuously, first with one son and then with the other, down to her death in—89. It is incredible that any tribe on the west coast of Africa should at this time have spoken the same language as another tribe on the east coast. And the island discovered by Eudoxos on his first African voyage was probably Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canaries; but Fuerteventura is not "well-wooded." Notwithstanding, the story as a whole may be believed, despite Strabon's own incredulity.

Plinius the Elder and Pomponius Mela cite a garbled version of this story. Plinius (II, lxvii, 169) says: "We have it on the authority of Cornelius Nepos that a certain contemporary of his named Eudoxus when flying from King Lathyrus emerged from the Arabian Gulf and sailed right around to Cadiz ..." Mela (III, ix), citing the same source, uses much of the same wording.

Poseidonios ends his tale ambiguously, without saying what finally became of Eudoxos. Probably the explorer sailed away and vanished. But it is not impossible that he returned to Gades, and I have made this assumption for the sake of the story.

Hippalos is mentioned by several ancient writers, the most informative being the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (57): "This whole voyage as above described, from Cana to Eudaemon Arabia, they used to make in small vessels, sailing close to the shores of the gulfs; and Hippalus was the pilot who by observing the location of the ports and the conditions of the sea, first discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean. For at the same time when with us the Etesian winds are blowing, on the shores of India the wind sets in from the ocean, and this southwest wind is called Hippalus from the name of him who first discovered the passage across."

Nobody states when Hippalos lived, or who he was. His date had been estimated by modern scholars at anywhere from that of Eudoxos' Indian voyages (-119 to -116) to that of writing of the Periplus (about +60). My assumption, that he was Eudoxos' first officer, is a plausible guess, which cannot be proved or disproved.

Besides Eudoxos and Hippalos, the historical characters in this story are the various Ptolemies and Kleopatras, the Judaean officers Chelkias and Ananias, the geographers Agatharchides and Artemidoros, the librarians Kydas and Ammonios, the physician Kallimachos, King Bocchus of Mauretania. King Jugurtha of Numidia, and various rulers alluded to like Mikipsa, Mithradates, and Odraka, who do not appear on stage. All others are fictitious.

Names of people and places in the Mediterranean and Iran are given Greek or Latin spellings, whichever seems appropriate. The name of the Ethiopian king, Tañyidamani, has been slightly Latinized to Tangidamani. Indian names with well-established Greek forms are given in their Greek spellings. Other Indian names are given in their ancient Indian forms, transliterated without the diacritical marks needed for accurate pronunciation. If I tried to figure out how Eudoxos would have spelled these names in Greek, the result would only have been to confuse the reader. Since Greek had no near equivalents of the Indian aspirated voiced plosives (bh, dh, gh), or the short u as in put, Eudoxos might have spelled "Buddha" as Boda, Bodda, Bodtha, Bodta, Boutta, Byttha, etc.

Eudoxos' "giant Indian mouse" is the black rat, rats not having been known in the West in classical times.

The "artemon" was a kind of foresail carried by large classical sailing ships from Hellenistic times on. It was flown from a spar at the bow, which was neither exactly a foremast nor a bowsprit, but something intermediate, standing up at an angle of about 45° to the deck.

The description of the Ptolemies' Nubian gold mines follows the account of Agatharchides, paraphrased by Diodoros (III, 12-14).

There is no evidence that Eudoxos invented the fore-and-aft sail, but he could have. Sails of this kind (either the short-luffed lug, as in the story, or the spritsail) began to appear on small coastal vessels, such as fishing boats, at just about the time of my story. See Lionel Casson's The Ancient Mariners In the West African episode, the Baga were a fishing tribe of former times, mentioned in the legends of Sierra Leone. The other tribes are fictitious. The customs attributed to the West Africans, however, are those found there by Europeans during the era of European exploration and conquest. 1500-1900. The Africans are shown in the story as more primitive than they were during the Age of Exploration, because they undoubtedly were more primitive at the time of the story. The semi-civilized kingdoms of West Africa—Ghana Mali, Ashanti, Dahomey, and the rest—did not. as far as is known, begin to arise until about the middle of the first millennium of the Christian Era, at the earliest.

The site of Hanno's Kernê has been the subject of much modern speculation. It has been located at several places, from modern Herné at the bay of Rio de Oro to the mouth of the Senegal River. This last assumption is that of Rhys Carpenter, in Beyond the Pillars of Heracles. Without wishing to take sides in this scholarly dispute, I have accepted Dr. Carpenter's theory for the purposes of my story.