Orationes 17
Orationes 17 Imperial Aelius Aristides Greek- But of the open sea no one has yet sung in full, neither poet nor prose-writer; rather Homer speaks of the violet
- deep and the wine-dark deep, and Euripides of the purple brine, and any other writer of some such thing; and for the most part they even revile the sea, naming it salt and loud-roaring and the like. We, then, will leave aside for the present the account of the whole sea—how great and what manner of use it has for men, and for how great things the god made it—and will render to the Aegean its due and hymn it; first, that it has obtained the best of situations, as one might praise a city first for its situation. For it is set most in the middle both of the whole inhabited world and of the sea, leaving toward the north the Hellespont and the Propontis and the Pontus, and toward the south the rest of the sea; dividing Asia from Europe, where they first part after the Hellespont; and having on either shore the most renowned and most civilized races, on this side Ionia and the Aeolian land, on the other Greece. So that this alone of seas might justly be called the middle of all Greece, if one were to set down this single race of Greeks on either continent. And yet, if the banks of rivers are esteemed when they have trees and meadows, surely it is most just that the shores of the Aegean be esteemed, adorned with such races, and these among the very Greeks who dwell beside it; since the most temperate air, and the same air most tolerable through all the seasons—this too would be the superiority of the Aegean, set most about these regions. And this is plain on both accounts. For those who say that Attica is in the fairest part of the heaven, and those again who say it of Ionia, both surely agree that the best lies altogether about this region. For inasmuch as it stretches along both shores, whichever of the two one sets down as prevailing, it has that one; and if, in turn, in the other disputes, men should have to yield to one another and come to the middle, this, as I said, is what the Aegean is. So that it has obtained the fairest of airs.
- Such, then, is its situation, and in such a part of the universe; and its nature is wondrous. For its magnitude is among the first to be reckoned and is stretched out on every side, if one were to examine it accurately from beginning to end in all directions; and to one sailing round in a circuit an untold number of days will be spent. Yet it is not bared, nor, by setting the sight upon an endless expanse, does it furnish despondency and perplexity, but there are many seas of the Aegean, many gulfs, and a different aspect of sea in different places. And you might break off your voyage even in the middle of the sea, and you might meet with land and cities and places, like so many little continents girt by water, and you might become yourself the dispenser of your voyage, and before crossing the whole sea you might be carried back again, having alike accomplished your purpose. For it is not, as with Homer's sea, necessary to pass through a desert and arrive at some inhabited place, so that the way is dear to no god by reason of the desolation; but here indeed choruses of Nereids unfold their fairest footprints with the foot; because this is the most inhabited and most flourishing part of the sea, and there is as much to sail over as one wishes, and again as much to travel by land as one does not wish to sail around, but, having passed through, to put in at another shore and set out from there. For this alone of seas is no less inhabited than the very land; and it has cities so far distant from one another as the regions between would separate the cities on the mainland. So that, by the swiftness of the sea and the extent of the whole voyage, it is most fearful, but again, by its resting-places, most gentle. And moving most swiftly, it most of all also saves, preserving the divine. For it must be terrifying through strength, but saving through gentleness. And it sounds most clear-toned of seas about its own gifts and offspring; just as the poets say the Pans and Satyrs sound among the mountains and about the trees, delighting in the
- season of the year—inasmuch as it has the most musical of the gods for its own citizens and inhabitants, Apollo and Artemis, whom Zeus the father of all begat in this fairest part of the inhabited world, that they might be perfect in music, and led Leto through three other islands to Delos in the middle, in the middle of the Aegean, making Athena her guide upon the way. And the natural musicality of the sea is plain to everyone, since at the very first it sent up, like some other chorus, that of the islands, which, dividing up the sea, many and leaning toward one another, appear to sailors and passengers a sight more sacred than any dithyrambic circle, both a solace amid dangers and, when the voyage goes according to one's mind, a wondrous delight of the soul. For they are all outside and in the middle of one another, as when in the summer season, and before the west wind comes down, many fishing-boats ride at sea after their catch, and to one who has passed within, the things from the stern and from the prow and either side all alike end in an island, so that at first one is at a loss where one must even pass through. And what the rescuing boats do, this do these islands for those distressed by storm, coming to meet them as though stretching out a hand and calling them to themselves. Such are the artful contrivances of the Aegean, having mingled the land together with the sea, just as the dappled deer and the hides of leopards have their colours and circles mingled together; by which all the sea hereabouts is lit round with radiance, and the meadows on the continents fall short, full of flowers as they are, and whatever else one might conceive of this season and these embroideries—and reasonably. For all the things of the mainland are here too, in the regions between; but the beauty of this is not present to those. And as the heaven is adorned with the stars, so too the sea of the Aegean is adorned with the islands; so that one for whom there is no need even of a voyage might reasonably sail for this very thing's sake, to be carried through the Aegean;
- so much is this the fairest both of seas and of all things on earth. So that the peculiar property of fair form is even a token of the Aegean, and it begins from where, one may say, the islands begin to be, surpassing the bare sea. And the Aegean alone one cannot even call unharvested, for it is not naked nor unfruitful, but exceedingly rich in wine, productive both of grain and of all that the seasons bring forth, rich in fish and in catch, such as Homer above all said the sea of the blessed ought to be, having all uses and all pleasures and spectacles, full of harbours, full of sanctuaries, full of flutes and paeans and springs and rivers, being the nurse of Dionysus, and to the Dioscuri and the Nymphs alike dear; furnishing happy livelihoods from every kind, and to its inhabitants and merchants gainful and saving to those to whom it is gracious. And as a fair body has beginnings and endings that befit it, so this sea alone is likely to have both a beginning and an ending that are gracious. For it begins from the first row of the islands toward the south, and ends at the Hellespontine strait, which, flowing around, it makes the peninsula worth seeing. So that, as the saying is, its beauty extends from head to foot. And of its outflows and gulfs it is possible to tell neither how many they are in number nor what they are in beauty. And fearing the Aegean sea most, all men most long to cross it a second time, since indeed men cross it on the most pleasant of occasions. Contests and mysteries and the fair things of Greece fill this voyage, and it is the gatherer of the lovers of beauty and the noble from every quarter, and the fulfiller of the most pleasant spectacles, ministering the fairest things to the most illustrious of the gods. These things from us, dear saviour Aegean, let them be sung to our music. And do you, taking pleasure in them, ever save both yourself and your fellow-voyagers.