PART
3 – Ch.XVI.5
(‘ERAKLEOS STELAI - The
Columns of Hercules)
XVI.
5. Erythia island or Rusava, near the columns of Hercules, called Kerne and Cerne.
The island Erythia or
Rusava, near the Columns of Hercules, also appears in antiquity under the names
Kerne
and Cerne.
The Greek
geographers had considered for a long time that the island Kerne, or Kernes,
situated in the old Ocean (Eustathius, Comentarii in Dionysium,
ad. v. 218), might have been located at the western straits of the
Mediterranean, the place where they thought the columns of Hercules must have
once existed (Hannonis Carthaginiensis,
Periplus, c. 8; Scylax, Periplus, 5.
112; Dionysius, Orbis Descriptio, v.
219; Palaephatius, Incred. c. 33 –
Cf. Geographi graeci minores, Vol. I. Ed. Didot, pag. 6-7).
But, like the
Columns of Hercules, which were never found on the western parts of the
Pliny the Old believed in the existence of this island,
but its position was an enigma for him.
He tried first to
locate it in front of the
[1. According to Pliny, as well as to other authors of
the antiquity, the island Cerne was
inhabited by Ethiopians. But, what
sort of Ethiopians? This is a geographical question, about which a lot has been
written.
Homer mentions two ethnic groups of
Ethiopians. Some of these dwelt in the east, while others dwelt near Oceanos potamos, the place where,
according to the old traditions, the sun set.
These latter
Ethiopians are also called esperioi, westerners, or from the western
regions (Strabo, II. 5. 15), the most extreme people known to the
Greeks, virtuous and saintly. The
western Ethiopians, or from near Oceanos potamos, are the men favored by gods.
According to Stephanos Byzantinos
they (Aithiops) were the first to revere the gods, the first who used
laws; and the founders of their civilisation had been Mithras and Phlegyas.
Jove and all the gods attend their solemn banquets, when they sacrifice
hundreds (hecatombs) of bulls and lambs (Homer,
Odyss. I. 23; Iliad,
With the poet Pindar, these latter Ethiopians appear
under the name of Hyperboreans
(Pyth. X. 30 seqq), and with Dionysius
Periegetus, under the name of Macrobii,
meaning the long lived people.
Hesiod places geographically the Ethiopians with the Ligyiens and the Ippomolgian
Scythians (Fragm. 132). According to Eschyl
(Prom. vinct. 808. 809) they dwelt near the gold rich Arimaspians, and according to Dionysius
Periegetus they lived in the
beautiful valleys of Kernes / Cerne (v. 218 seqq), or near Erythia,
close to the Atlas mountain (Ibid. v. 558-560; Avienus, v. 738 seqq).
According to Scylax they were the most handsome and tall
among all the known peoples. They dressed in multicoloured clothes, had beards
and long hair, were skilful riders, archers and fighters. The Phoenician
merchants sold them bottles and earthenware. They ate meat, drank milk and
produced a lot of wine, which the Phoenicians bought from them.
But, because of the
geographical confusion with the Ethiopians of Africa, the texts of the ancient
authors about the Ethiopians from the Oceanos potamos are full of errors and interpolations. Today it is
difficult to understand the origin of the
name Ethiopians, given to the inhabitants of that region close to the
The Ethiopians from
near the Columns of Hercules were shown in the old geographical descriptions as
a people rich in gold (Mela, III. 9; Herodotus, III. 145, IV. 196).
It is worth mentioning
here that a part of the Romanians of Transylvania, namely those who work in the
gold mines, are ironically called Topi,
which seems to be an echo of the old Greek name of Aithiopes. In the same
region appears also the name Cris (chryseios),
in Greek form, of the three principal rivers of the mountains rich in gold of
Transilvania]
Finally, in another
place in his natural history, Pliny
considers the island Cerne to be situated close to
The Orphic
literature throws an important light on this state of confusion of the old
geographical ideas regarding the location of the island Cerne. In the epic poem
titled “Argonautica”, attributed to Orpheus, whose geographical background
hails from very remote times, is mentioned the island called ‘Iernis [2], situated in the big river Oceanos, at the straits of Riphaei mountains, upstream from those
rocks, perilous for navigation (Ed. Schneider, 1803, v. 1166. 1181. 1123).
[2.
Those who have considered the island Iernis
as identical to
From the form of its name
and its geographical position, the island Iernis
from Orpheus’ Argonautica is one and the same with Kerne or Cerne of Eratosthenes, and this is
entirely identical with the famous
[3. According to Diodorus Siculus (III. 54. 4), the
island Cerne was near the mountain Atlas, close to the Amazons, therefore also in the northern
region. And according to Palaephat
(Incred. c. 33), Phorcys, the father
of the Gorgons, of the Hesperides and of the dragon who guarded the gold apples
near Atlas mountain, was a native of the island Cerne].
According to the
old geographical descriptions, Erythia, exactly like Cerne, is the first island
near the Columns of Hercules, situated in the mountain strait, beyond the
perilous strip of rocks which spread through the river bed from one bank to the
other.
The name of the
island Cerne derives incontestably
from the nearby town. On the territory of Rusava or Old Orsova, at the place
where the famous river Cerna pours
its furious waters into the Danube, there was situated during Roman times the
town called Tierna, Tsierna, Dierna, Zernes
(Ulpian, The Peutingerian Tabula,
lib. I. De censibus; Ptolemy, III.
8. 10) [4]
[4. It must be noted
that in Greek dialects the letter Th represents often Z.
The town Therne of old
The island Cerne figures with Herodotus (lib. IV. c. 195. 196) under the name of Kyraunis (Cyraunis). It was situated
near the Columns of Hercules. It was ruled by the Carthagenese merchants. It
was 200 stades long and narrow, full with olive trees and grape vines. It had
therefore the same shape which the island Rusava presents even today [5].
[5. According to Cornelius Nepos (Pliny, VI. 36), Cerne island
was no longer than 2000 steps in circumference (2958.52m). And according to Draghicescu (Dunarea de la gura Tisei
pana la mare, p.53), the actual length
of the island Ada-Kaleh or Rusava, is about 1800 steps and its width about 400 steps].
The river Cerna had
a particular celebrity in antiquity, and it still has today in Romanian
legends.
The strong ridge of
the Carpathians, which precipitates from NE towards the Danube and separates
the basin of Valahia from that of Transylvania, had in old geographical
literature the name of Keraunia, Ceraunia (Eustathius,
Comm. in Dion. v. 389) without doubt called so after Cerna, the main river of this mountain group [6]
[6. The mountains Ceraunia or Ceraunii, which the old geographers characterize with a “cursus brevissimus undis” and as “montes opaci” (Virgil, Aen. III. 506-508), were also placed near the shores of
Epir and at the northern end of the
To these Ceraunia mountains, which made
navigation on the upper part of Istru so difficult, refer the following verses
written by Ovid at Tomis: “If I
could still pass with my sails in a
straight line, beyond the Ceraunia
mountains, then I could be advised to avoid those wild rocks. But today I am a marooned man, and what use could
be now to me, who swim among the waves, to know the way by which I should have
sailed my boat” [7].
[7. In his poem “De bello Getico” (v. 237 seqq), Claudian mentions the Iron Gates, which opened to the Getae, the inhospitable rocks from Cerna (Cyrnus),
and the strait which boiled with foam, or “Cazane” (TN – Cauldrons), as the people call them. But the location
of those places, difficult for communications with the rest of