The Sea [antikvár]

PREFACEWHAT is the origin of the superstitious beliefs to which the seafaring man is even to-day still clinging? It may be attributed to three sources, viz.: Firstly, the interpretation and explanation of numerous phenomena actually observed, but the cause of which the early mariner was still ignorant of; secondly, the inclination of man to look for the causes of events in mystical depths and supernatural reasons; and thirdly, the love of travellers to exaggerate and to tell adventures which in reality they had never experienced.Numerous stories told by early mariners were subsequently handed down from generation to generation and formed a portion, if not the bulk, of early mythologies. Such, for instance, is the journey of the Argonauts and the legend of the floating rocks which destroy ships. The entire Odyssey is practically nothing else than a collection of sea-stories current among the Greeks at the time of Homer and collected by the latter. The stories of Circe changing into swine the companions of Ulysses and of the sirens who allure men by their9