Panchaia (island)
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Fictional island
Panchaia (also Panchaea Sacred History, only fragments of which survive.
Fragments preserved by followers such as the later Greek historian
Eusebius of Caesarea describe Panchaia as a rational island paradise located in the Indian Ocean. Euhemerus went there by traveling through the Red Sea and around the Arabian Peninsula; in the island's temple of Zeus Triphylius he discovered a register of the births and deaths of the gods, proving they were merely historical figures. The island is also mentioned by Lygdamus (Tib. 3.2.23), one of the Tibullan elegists, as a rich place from which he will hope for gifts to his grave.[1]
Virgil called the Island "incense bearing, rich with sands" ("totaque turiferis Panchaia pinguis harenis" Georgics 2.139).
Several islands may be probable locations, including Socotra or Bahrain.
References
- ^ Lygdamus. "Lygdami Elegiae". The Latin Library. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
Bibliography
- Brown, Truesdell S. (1946). "Euhemerus and the Historians". Harvard Theological Review. 39 (4): 259–274. .
- Pinheiro, Marilia P. Futre (2006). "Utopia and Utopias: a Study on a Literary Genre in Antiquity" (PDF). Authors, Authority and Interpreters in the Ancient Novel. Groningen: Barkhuis. pp. 147–171. ISBN 907792213X.
- Winiarczyk, Marek (2013). "The sources of the socio-economic description". The "Sacred History" of Euhemerus of Messene. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. p. 85. ISBN 978-3-11-027888-0.