26 GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOMERIC PERIOD. [CHAP,
with the fame of the wealth of Thebes—" Egyptian Thebes, where
the treasure-houses are stored fullest—Thebes of the hundred
gates, whence sally forth two hundred warriors through each with
horses and chariots1." Beyond this, on the borders of the Ocean
stream, dwell the Aethiopians, a c blameless' people, whom the
Gods themselves visit, and partake of their feasts2. This de-
scription would lead us to regard them as a semi-mythical race;
but their name, the 'burnt-faced' or 'swarthy7 men8, proves that
the Greeks were already aware of a dark-skinned nation inhabiting
the far South.
In the Odyssey the geographical horizon is somewhat more
widely extended, as might be expected in a poem
odyuep. which is rather later in date, and has for its subject
a story of travel. Communication with the East
has now become more frequent, and Egypt is several times
mentioned. Menelaus, when, on his return journey from Troy,
he was driven by a storm from the shores of Crete to that country,
spent eight years in wandering to and fro along the coasts of
Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Libya; and the presents which he
brought home with him thence to Greece imply that he was hos-
pitably received*. The Nile, however, is known as yet by no
distinctive name, but only as the 'river Aegyptus5'; and the
island of Pharos, which was destined in the future from its oppor-
tune position near the coast to shelter the harbours of Alexandria,
is described as being a day's sail from land. " There is an island,"
Menelaus says, " in the wash of the waves over against Egypt,
and men call it Pharos, within one day's voyage of a hollow ship,
when shrill winds blow fair in her wake0," The region called
Libya, which the same hero visits, and of which the poet says,
"there the ewes yean thrice within the full circle of a year; there
neither lord nor shepherd lacketh aught of cheese or flesh or of
sweet milk, but ever the flocks yield store of milk continual7," is
the Cyrenaica, which was especially renowned for its fertility.
1 //• 9. 381—4- * //. i. 423; 33. 206.
8 Azores from atdu ty.
4 Od. 3. 300; 4. 81—5, 128, 617.
6 AZ7iiirToio, hnrertos Trora/AOto, Od. 4. 477.
' Od. 4. 354-7- 7 Od. 4. 86-9.