Natural History 4.88-95

This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from Pliny the Elder's Latin Natural History.

The source-unit belongs to the Scythian shelf because it preserves Roman geographic testimony about the Pontus, Maeotis, Scythian and Sarmatian peoples, Taurica, Achilles' island and racecourse, Hylaea, or the northern ocean.

The English was made from inspected Latin text in The Latin Library. The page claims only an independent source-language rendering from the named witness.

Translation

Soon come the Riphaean mountains and, from the continual fall of snow, the region called Pterophoros from the likeness of feathers: a part of the world condemned by nature, sunk in dense darkness and given over to no work except frost and the cold storehouses of the north wind.

Behind those mountains and beyond the north wind is a fortunate people, if we believe it, whom they call the Hyperboreans. They live to a long age and are celebrated by fabulous wonders. There, it is believed, are the hinges of the world and the furthest circuits of the stars, with six months of light and one day of the sun facing the other way; not, as the unskilled have said, from the spring equinox to autumn. For them the sun rises once in the year at the solstice and sets once in winter. The region is sunny, of happy temper, free from every harmful breath.

Their homes are woods and sacred groves, and the worship of the gods is performed individually and in groups. Discord is unknown, and so is every sickness. Death comes only from fullness of life, when after feasting and the luxury of old age they leap from a certain rock into the sea. This kind of burial is most blessed.

Nor is it permitted to doubt this nation: so many authorities report that they used to send the first fruits of crops to Apollo at Delos, whom they especially worshipped. Maidens carried them, honored by the hospitality of peoples for several years, until, when good faith was violated in the nearest lands of the inhabitants, they began to lay down those sacred things at the borders of the next people, and those people carried them to their neighbors, and so all the way to Delos. Later even this custom passed away. The length of Sarmatia, Scythia, Taurica, and the whole tract from the river Borysthenes was given by Marcus Agrippa as nine hundred and eighty miles, and the breadth as seven hundred and sixteen.

I judge measurement uncertain in this part of the earth.

Then we must go out beyond these places, so that the other parts of Europe may be described, and after crossing the Riphaean mountains the shore of the northern ocean must be followed on the left until Gades is reached. Several unnamed islands are reported in that region. Of these, one called Baunonia lies a day's sailing from Scythia, and Timaeus reports that in spring amber is cast up on it by the waves. The rest of the shores are uncertain. The report of the northern ocean is marked by tradition.

Hecataeus calls that ocean Amalchium from the river Parapanisus, where it washes Scythia; in the language of that people, the name means frozen.

Philemon says that the Cimbri call it Morimarusa, that is, the Dead Sea, as far as the promontory Rusbeas, and beyond that Cronium. Xenophon of Lampsacus says that three days' sailing from the Scythian shore there is an island of immense size called Balcia, which Pytheas names Basilia. The Oeonae are also reported, whose inhabitants live on birds' eggs and oats; others where people are born with horses' feet and are called Hippopodes; and others of the Phanesii, whose otherwise naked bodies are covered all over by their own enormous ears.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from the Latin text of Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4.75-95, as presented by The Latin Library. The English is independently derived from the Latin; names and numerals are preserved cautiously where Pliny's geography is difficult.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: mox Ripaei montes

Latin source text from Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4.75-95, The Latin Library. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

mox Ripaei montes et adsiduo nivis casu pinnarum similitudine Pterophoros appellata regio, pars mundi damnata a rerum natura et densa mersa caligine neque in alio quam rigoris opere gelidisque Aquilonis conceptaculis.

Pone eos montes ultraque Aquilonem gens felix, si credimus, quos Hyperboreos appellavere, annoso degit aevo, fabulosis celebrata miraculis. ibi creduntur esse cardines mundi extremique siderum ambitus semenstri luce [et una die] solis adversi, non, ut imperiti dixere, ab aequinoctio verno in autmnum: semel in anno solstitio oriuntur iis soles brumaque semel occidunt. regio aprica, felici temperie, omni adflatu noxio carens.

domus iis nemora lucique, et deorum cutus viritim gregatimque, discordia ignota et aegritudo omnis. mors non nisi satietate vitae epulatis delibutoque senio luxu e quadam rupe in mare salientibus; hoc genus sepulturae beatissimum.

nec licet dubitare de genete ea: tot auctores produnt frugum primitias solitos Delum mittere Apollini, quem praecipue colunt. virgines ferebant eas, hospitiis gentium per annos aliquot venerabiles, donec violata fide in proximis accolarum finibus deponere sacra ea instituere iique ad conterminos deferre atque ita Delum usque. mox et hoc ipsum exolevit. Sarmatiae, Scythiae, Tauricae omnisque a Borysthene amne tractus longitudo DCCCCLXXX, latitudo DCCXVI a M. Agrippa tradita est.

ego incertam in hac terrarum parte mensuram arbitror.

Exeundum deinde est, ut extera Europae dicantur, transgressisque Ripaeos montes litus oceani septentrionalis in laeva, donec perveniatur Gadis, legendum. insulae complures sine nominibus eo situ traduntur, ex quibus ante Scythiam quae appellatur Baunonia unam abesse diei cursu, in quam veris tempore fluctibus electrum eiciatur, Timaeus prodidit. reliqua litora incerta. signata fama septentrionalis oceani.

Amalchium eum Hecataeus appellat a Parapaniso amne, qua Scythiam adluit, quod nomen eius gentis lingua significat congelatum.

Philemon Morimarusam a Cimbris vocari, hoc est mortuum mare, inde usque ad promunturium Rusbeas, ultra deinde Cronium. Xenophon Lampsacenus a litore Scytharum tridui navigatione insulam esse inmensae magnitudinis Balciam tradit, eandem Pytheas Basiliam nominat. feruntur et Oeonae, in quibus ovis avium et avenis incolae vivant, aliae, in quibus equinis pedibus homines nascantur, Hippopodes appellati, Phanesiorum aliae, in quibus nuda alioqui corpora praegrandes ipsorum aures tota contegant.

Source Colophon

The Latin source was checked in The Latin Library: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.nh4.html. This page presents a coherent excerpt from the larger Book 4 Scythian and northern-ocean passage.

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