Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 247 views

    Fortunate Isles

    Uploaded by

    Valentin Matei
    The Fortunate Isles were semi-legendary islands in Greek mythology located in the Atlantic Ocean that were depicted as an earthly paradise inhabited by heroes. Their location was unclear in ancient times but were thought to lie near the encircling River Oceanus. Later, islands like the Canaries and Azores were sometimes cited as possible matches. According to Greek legend, the islands were reserved for those judged especially pure after being reincarnated three times.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Fortunate Isles

    Uploaded by

    Valentin Matei
    247 views3 pages
    The Fortunate Isles were semi-legendary islands in Greek mythology located in the Atlantic Ocean that were depicted as an earthly paradise inhabited by heroes. Their location was unclear in ancient times but were thought to lie near the encircling River Oceanus. Later, islands like the Canaries and Azores were sometimes cited as possible matches. According to Greek legend, the islands were reserved for those judged especially pure after being reincarnated three times.

    Original Description:

    Mythology

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The Fortunate Isles were semi-legendary islands in Greek mythology located in the Atlantic Ocean that were depicted as an earthly paradise inhabited by heroes. Their location was unclear in ancient times but were thought to lie near the encircling River Oceanus. Later, islands like the Canaries and Azores were sometimes cited as possible matches. According to Greek legend, the islands were reserved for those judged especially pure after being reincarnated three times.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    247 views3 pages

    Fortunate Isles

    Uploaded by

    Valentin Matei
    The Fortunate Isles were semi-legendary islands in Greek mythology located in the Atlantic Ocean that were depicted as an earthly paradise inhabited by heroes. Their location was unclear in ancient times but were thought to lie near the encircling River Oceanus. Later, islands like the Canaries and Azores were sometimes cited as possible matches. According to Greek legend, the islands were reserved for those judged especially pure after being reincarnated three times.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    Fortunate Isles

    The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blessed[1] (Greek:


    , makrn nsoi) were semi-legendary
    islands in the Atlantic Ocean, variously treated as a simple
    geographical location and as a winterless earthly paradise
    inhabited by the heroes of Greek mythology. The related idea of Brasil and other islands in Celtic mythology are sometimes conated with the Greek place. These
    boundaries were dierent in the ancient world, then it
    is the western Mediterranean to the island of Sicily, the
    Aeolian Islands, the Aegadian Islands or other smaller islands of Sicily. Later these islands were thought to lie
    in the Western Ocean near the encircling River Oceanus;
    Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores, Cape Verde, Bermuda
    and Lesser Antilles have sometimes been cited as possible matches.

    It was from these men that Sertorius learned facts so beguiling that he made it his lifes ambition to nd the islands and retire there.
    Pliny the Elder's Natural History adds to the obligate
    description that they abound in fruit and birds of every
    kind the unexpected detail These islands, however,
    are greatly annoyed by the putrefying bodies of monsters,
    which are constantly thrown up by the sea.
    Ptolemy used these islands as the reference for the measurement of geographical longitude and they continued to
    play the role of dening the prime meridian through the
    Middle Ages.[3] Modern geography names these islands
    as Macaronesia.
    Lucio Russo in L' America dimenticata[4] puts forward the
    bold hypothesis that the Fortunate Isles were actually the
    Lesser Antilles and that Hipparchus knew their longitude
    with remarkable precision.

    Legend

    According to Greek mythology, the islands were reserved


    for those who had chosen to be reincarnated thrice, and
    managed to be judged as especially pure enough to gain
    entrance to the Elysian Fields all three times. Feature
    of the fortunate islands is the connection with the god
    Cronus; the cult of Cronus had spread and connected to
    Sicily, in particular in the area near Agrigento where it
    was revered and in some areas associated with the cult of
    the phoenician god Baal.

    3 See also
    Greek mythology in popular culture
    Hesperides
    Snake Island (Black Sea), Isle of the Blessed in
    Greek legend.
    Annwn

    Brittia

    Accounts

    Elysium
    Flavius Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana (v.2)
    says, And they also say that the Islands of the Blessed are
    to be xed by the limits of Libya where they rise towards
    the uninhabited promontory. In this geography Libya
    was considered to extend westwards through Mauretania
    as far as the mouth of the river Salex, some nine hundred
    stadia, and beyond that point a further distance which
    no one can compute, because when you have passed this
    river Libya is a desert which no longer supports a population.

    Mag Mell
    Tr na ng
    Avalon, The Isle of the Blessed
    Aman, the blessed realm of Tolkien's works.
    Buyan
    Macaronesia

    Plutarch, who refers to the fortunate isles several times


    in his writings, locates them rmly in the Atlantic in his
    vita of Sertorius. Sertorius, when struggling against a
    chaotic civil war in the closing years of the Roman Republic, had tidings from mariners of certain islands a few
    days sail from Hispania:

    Vinland
    Great Ireland
    Avalon
    1

    4 NOTES

    Notes

    [1] Variously also rendered as the Fortunate Islands, the Islands of the Blessed, the Isles of the Blest, and the Islands of the Blest.
    [2] Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, ch. viii.
    [3] Wright, John Kirtland (1923). Notes on the Knowledge
    of Latitudes and Longitudes in the Middle Ages. Isis 5
    (1): 7598. doi:10.1086/358121. JSTOR 223599.
    [4] Lucio Russo, L' America dimenticata. I rapporti tra le
    civilt e un errore di Tolomeo (2013)

    Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

    5.1

    Text

    Fortunate Isles Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortunate%20Isles?oldid=655121054 Contributors: Error, Renato Caniatti, Wetman,


    Finlay McWalter, Merovingian, Gtrmp, Macrakis, Dbachmann, Paul August, Bender235, Aecis, Mjk2357, QuartierLatin1968, Moilleadir, Mairi, BillC, Pictureuploader, Cuchullain, Ygmarchi, Peter G Werner, Pigman, Theelf29, GeeJo, JoanneB, Michael%Sappir, McCharles, Lambiam, Kuru, Chipmunk15, Cydebot, SteveMcCluskey, Goldenrowley, Narssarssuaq, WANAX, Nevermore27, 100110100, NoychoH, Captain panda, M-le-mot-dit, Deor, YKWSG, Goustien, Kerrio, Foofbun, Alexthekiwi, Tseno Maximov, Catalographer, Editor2020,
    Kaldar, Addbot, CBHA, AndersBot, SpBot, Lightbot, AnomieBOT, Mintrick, LlywelynII, Omnipaedista, Haon 2.0, Suslindisambiguator,
    ClueBot NG, Joefromrandb, The Gaon, DrPhen and Anonymous: 39

    5.2

    Images

    File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0


    Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

    5.3

    Content license

    Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

    You might also like

    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy