Benutzer:Friedrich Degenhardt/Inseln der Seligen

Die Inseln der Seligen (auch: [Glückliche Inseln] (altgriechisch μακάρων νῆσοι, makárôn nêsoi) sind in der Antike mythische Inseln am westlischen Ende des Okeanos (Atlantik). In diesem irdischen Paradies ohne Winter wohnten die Helden der grieschischen Mythologie. Die verwandte Idee von Brasil oder anderen Inseln in der keltischen Mythologie werden teilweise identifiziert mit der griechischen Wahrnehmung von Inseln im westlichen Mittelmeer: Sizilien, die äolischen Inseln, die ägäischen Inseln. Später wurden die Inseln auf den westlichen Ozean nahe dem Fluss Oceanus, der alles umfließt versetzt; Madeira, kanarische Inseln, Azoren, Capverden, Bermude und die Kleineren Antillen wurden teilweise als mögliche Inseln benannt.

Legende

Nach der griechischen Mythologie...

According to Greek mythology, the islands were reserved for those who had chosen to be reincarnated thrice, and managed to be judged as especially pure enough to gain entrance to the Elysian Fields all three times. A feature of the fortunate islands is the connection with the god Cronus; the cult of Cronus had spread and connected to Sicily, in particular in the area near Agrigento where it was revered and in some areas associated with the cult of the Phoenician god Baal.Vorlage:Citation needed

Accounts

Flavius Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana (v.2) says, "And they also say that the Islands of the Blessed are to be fixed by the limits of Libya where they rise towards the uninhabited promontory." In this geography Libya was considered to extend westwards through Mauretania "as far as the mouth of the river Salex, some nine hundred stadia, and beyond that point a further distance which no one can compute, because when you have passed this river Libya is a desert which no longer supports a population."

Plutarch, who refers to the "fortunate isles" several times in his writings, locates them firmly in the Atlantic in his vita of Sertorius. Sertorius, when struggling against a chaotic civil war in the closing years of the Roman Republic, had tidings from mariners of certain islands a few days' sail from Hispania: Vorlage:Cquote

It was from these men that Sertorius learned facts so beguiling that he made it his life's ambition to find the islands and retire there. Vorlage:Cquote

Pliny the Elder's Natural History adds to the obligate description— that they "abound in fruit and birds of every kind"— the unexpected detail "These islands, however, are greatly annoyed by the putrefying bodies of monsters, which are constantly thrown up by the sea".

Ptolemy used these islands as the reference for the measurement of geographical longitude and they continued to play the role of defining the prime meridian through the Middle Ages. Modern geography names these islands as Macaronesia.

Lucio Russo in L' America dimenticata puts forward the bold hypothesis (supported by means of statistical methods) that the Fortunate Isles were actually the Lesser Antilles and that Hipparchus knew their longitude with remarkable precision.

See also

• Greek mythology in popular culture
• Hesperides
• Snake Island (Black Sea), "Isle of the Blessed" in Greek legend.
• Annwn
• Brittia
• Elysium
• Mag Mell
• Tír na nÓg
• Avalon, The Isle of the Blessed
• Aman, the "blessed realm" of Tolkien's works.
• Buyan
• Macaronesia
• Vinland
• Great Ireland
• Saint Brendan's Island