hys,
teper rheiste biote pelei anthropoisin;
ou niphetos, out' ar cheimon polys oute pot' ombros,
all' aiei Zephyroio ligy pneiontas aetas
Okeanos aniesin anapsychein anthropous.]
_Odyssey_, iv. 563.

Since Horace's time (_Epod._ vi. 41-66) the Canary islands have
been a favourite theme for poets. It was here that Tasso placed
the loves of Rinaldo and Armida, in the delicious garden where

Vezzosi augelli infra le verde fronde
Temprano a prova lascivette note.
Mormora l' aura, e fa le foglie e l' onde
Garrir, che variamente ella percote.
_Gerusalemme Liberata_, xvi. 12.]

[Illustration: Pomponius Mela's World, cir. A. D. 50.]

[Sidenote: Views of Pomponius Mela, cir. A. D. 50.]

The extent of the knowledge which the ancients thus had of western
Africa is well illustrated in the map representing the geographical
theories of Pomponius Mela, whose book was written about A. D. 50. Of
the eastern coast and the interior Mela knew less than Ptolemy a
century later, but of the Atlantic coast he knew more than Ptolemy. The
fact that the former geographer was a native of Spain and the latter a
native of Egypt no doubt had something to do with this. Mela had
profited by the Carthaginian discoveries. His general conception of the
earth was substantially that of Eratosthenes. It was what has been
styled the "oceanic" theory, in contrast with the "continental" theory
of Ptolemy. In the unvisited regions on all sides of the known world
Eratosthenes imagined vast oceans, Ptolemy imagined vast deserts or
impenetrable swamps. The former doctrine was of course much more
favourable to maritime enterprise than the latter. The works of Ptolemy
exercised over the mediaeval mind an almost despotic sway, which, in
spite of their many merits, was in some respects a hindrance to
progress; so that, inasmuch as the splendid work of Strabo, the most
eminent follower of Eratosthenes, was unknown to mediaeval Europe until
about 1450, it was fortunate that the Latin treatise of Mela was
generally read and highly esteemed. People in those days were such
uncritical readers that very likely the antagonism between Ptolemy and
Mela may have failed to excite comment,[359] especially in view of the
lack of suitable maps such as emphasize that antagonism