Sailing beyond Gibraltar

The story

The gates of the ocean

At the far west of the Mediterranean, Spain and Morocco draw close until they leave a narrow passage of sea: the Strait of Gibraltar. In antiquity it was called the Pillars of Hercules, because according to the myth Hercules, in his labours, had planted two pillars at the edge of the known world. Beyond lay no longer the Mediterranean, the sea that was well known, but the Atlantic Ocean, vast, unpredictable and full of mysteries. For most ancient sailors, going beyond meant risking their lives.

The Phoenicians and their Carthaginian descendants were among the few to venture out. At Cadiz, in Spain, facing right onto the Atlantic, stood the Phoenician colony of Gadir. Tradition says it was founded around 1100 BC, but archaeologists have found no layers on the site older than the 9th century BC. Gadir had a celebrated temple of Melqart, the god of Tyre whom the Greeks and Romans identified with Hercules. Some historians think the name “Pillars of Hercules” may have arisen from the columns of that very temple, but this is only a hypothesis.

Hanno's voyage

Around the 5th century BC Carthage sent an explorer named Hanno south, along the Atlantic coast of Africa. He may have belonged to a powerful Carthaginian family, the Magonids. According to the account, the fleet numbered sixty ships, and the text speaks of thirty thousand people on board, men and women, although some scholars think the real number was much lower, around five thousand. The aim was to found colonies on the north-western coast of Africa.

The account of the voyage, called a “periplus” (that is, a voyage round by sea), has reached us only in abridged Greek copies: the original in the Punic language is lost. The text breaks off suddenly, and scholars think the Carthaginians may have altered it so as not to reveal to their rivals the routes and the places of trade. It is considered the closest thing to Carthaginian “literature” that we have.

How far did Hanno get? Estimates vary widely: from southern Morocco to Gabon, in equatorial Africa. The account also speaks of hostile peoples. The most famous passage concerns an island where hairy people lived, whom the translators rendered with the word “gorillai”. Hanno killed three of them, and their skins were taken to Carthage and kept in a temple until the destruction of the city in 146 BC, according to the Roman writer Pliny. The name of the gorilla derives from this account.

Himilco's voyage

Another Carthaginian, Himilco, lived more or less at the same time, in the early 5th century BC. He may have been a relative of Hanno. He headed north: beyond the Pillars of Hercules, along the coasts of Atlantic Europe. His account too has been lost. Only short quotations remain in Pliny the Elder and in a late Latin poem, the Ora Maritima of Avienus, written in the 4th century AD.

According to Avienus, Himilco reached a “sacred island” near the Oestrymnides, lands rich in tin and lead. He says the sea was still, full of seaweed that slowed the ships, with shallow waters and monstrous animals, and that the crossing “is hardly made in four months”. Scholars suspect that Himilco exaggerated the dangers, to make his achievement greater or to discourage Greek competitors. He probably reached Brittany, perhaps the British Isles. The sacred island could be Ireland, but this is only a hypothesis. He certainly did not reach the Sargasso Sea.

Why tin

Tin is the metal that, mixed with copper, gives bronze, and Avienus says the lands of the north were rich in it. Whoever managed to get it directly secured a valuable trade. This may explain why the Carthaginians had an interest in going north.

The great voyage round Africa

In the same period there circulated an older tale, which we discuss in another card: that of the Phoenician sailors sent by the pharaoh Necho to sail round Africa. If it were true, the Phoenicians would have travelled the whole coast of the continent long before the Portuguese. Historians have no proof of it, but nor can they rule it out. The achievements of Hanno and Himilco, by contrast, are better attested, even though they have reached us in incomplete forms.