Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. EARLY GREEK ROMANCES ABOUT BRITAIN. Imaginary travels based on discoveries of Pytheas.—Their confusion with records of real travel.—Beginning of scepticism on the subject.—Criticism by Dicaearchus.—The acceptance of Pytheas by Eratosthenes.—Euhemerus the rationalist : his account of Panchaia—Argument based on his fictions.—Reply of Eratosthenes.—Criticisms by Polybius and Strabo. Geographical romances.—Plato's use of the Carthaginian traditions.—Atlantis.—Origin of the stories of monstrous men.—"The wonders beyond Thule."—The epitome of Photius.—Plot of the romance.—Stories of Thule —Of the Germans and the Hercynian Forest—Stories about Britain.—The legend of Saturn and Briareus—Demetrius the grammarian.—Story preserved by Pro- copius.—Island of Brittia.—The conductors of the dead.—The communism of Thule.—The King of the Hebrides—His legend.—Modern variations.—Evan the Third and his law.—Mediaeval use of the legend.—The romance of " The Hyperboreans."—Description by Lelewel.—Stories of the Arctic Ocean.—Britain described as " Elixoia."—The Circular Temple.—The Boread kings.—Solar legends —A description of the Hyperborean customs.—The suicides of the old men.—Historical weight of the legend.—Family-cliffs and family-clubs.—Barbarous practices of northern nations.—Mention of other romances.—" The Attacosi."—The description of the Fortunate Islands by Jamblulus—His accounts of strange kinds of men. —Fictions rejected by Tacitus. IT is proposed to deal in this chapter with certain romances and volumes of imaginary travel which were based on the discoveries of Pytheas soon after his return from the North. It was a time of excitement and scientific activity. The story of the new world was received with a general enthusiasm ; and the popularity of the subject soon ...