Book 1
2.18
Such are the sentiments of Polybius; and in many respects they are correct enough; but when he discusses the voyage beyond the ocean, and enters on minute calculations of the proportion borne by the distance to the number of days, he is greatly mistaken. He alleges perpetually the words of the poet, Nine days by cruel storms thence was I borne; but at the same time he takes no notice of this expression, which is his as well, And now borne sea-ward from the river stream Of the Oceanus;But when the ship left the stream of the river ocean. Odyss. xii. l.Odyss. xii. l. and this, In the island of Ogygia, the centre of the sea,Vide Odyssey i. 50.Odyssey i. 50. and that the daughter of AtlasCalypso. dwells there. And the following concerning the Phaeacians, Remote amid the billowy deep, we hold Our dwelling, utmost of all human kind, And free from mixture with a foreign race.And we dwell at a distance, the farthest in the sea of many waves, nor does any other of mortals mingle with us. Odyssey vi. 204.Odyssey vi. 204.
