- The Opposite Continent is mentioned in the Critias by Plato (424-327 BCE).
- In it he discusses the Myth of Atlantis, and the ‘Opposite Continent’, and how to reach it by the chain of six islands.
Possible Location
- It has been suggested that the ‘Opposite Continent’ may refer to the Americas.
- The chain of six islands may refer to Britannia, the Orkneys, the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, which was a route partly used by the Viking, Eric the Red to colonise Greenland in 985 CE according to the Icelandic Sagas.
Sargasso Sea
- A possible description of the Sargasso Sea also exists in a 5th century BCE document called the Periplus of Himilco.
- The Periplus was a Sea Guide for Sailors in the Ancient World.
- Himilco led a Punic expedition along the Atlantic coasts of Western Europe, Spain, Portugal and France, which he described in his Periplus.
- The Periplus also described a part of the Atlantic as being covered in seaweed, possibly an early description of the Sargasso Sea.
- He was quoted by Rufus Festus Avienus in his ‘Ora Maritima’, written in the fourth century CE, but which is now lost.
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