¶1] IX. After this, last of all, I shall ascend to the mountain summits. Iulius Solinus, speaking of Thessaly, reports this of Mount Olympus: The sights of Olympus teach us that it was not rashly celebrated by Homer. First, its noble heights are so lofty that the neighbouring inhabitants call its peaks heaven. There is an altar on the summit dedicated to Jupiter, and if sacrificial offerings are placed on the altar, they are not blown away by the strong winds nor dissolved by the rain, but after the lapse of a year they are found as they were left; and whatever is once consecrated there to the god is kept safe from all storms and the corruption of the winds.
¶2] In the fourteenth volume of the Etymologiae this is said: Athos is a mountain of Macedonia, higher than the clouds and so lofty that its shadow stretches to the island of Lemnos, which is seventy-seven miles distant.
¶3] Iulius Solinus in the Collectanea tells us this of Mount Atlas: Mount Atlas rises from the midst of a waste of sands, and ascending to near the circle of the moon hides its head beyond the clouds; on the side extending towards the ocean, to which it gives its name, it has flowing waters, bristling woods, rugged rocks, and desert, bare and grassless wastes; on the side which faces Africa it is rich in wild fruits, and shaded by tall trees, heavily scented, whose foliage is like that of the cypress, and clothed in a down as fine as Chinese silk.
¶4] On this side grows abundant euphorbia, whose sap improves the eyesight, and is an excellent antidote to poison. The summit is always snow-clad. Quadrupeds, serpents, wild beasts and elephants have their home on the heights. In the day the whole mountain is silent and frightening in its remoteness; at night it gleams with fires and everywhere resounds with choirs of Goat-Pans; the sounds of the flute and the beat of cymbals are also heard.
¶5] Of this mountain Isidorus wrote in the fourteenth book of his
¶6] Iulius Solinus pointed out here two contrary things, as it were, of Atlas: That it raises its head beyond the clouds on the ocean side, and that the summit is always covered with snow. If the summit is always snowcovered it cannot always be higher than the clouds, while, if its altitude always exceeds that of the clouds, not only can it not be hidden but not even touched by the snow. For snow, hail, rain, thunder, and thunderbolts do not rise from the clouds but always descend from the clouds.
¶7] In hinting that the mountain rises to the vicinity of the circle of the moon, and raises its head beyond the clouds on the ocean side, he is clearly informing us that with some pinnacles Atlas rises over the clouds, around whose sides I believe the snow lies like a wreath.
¶8] And since Isidorus did not say that it rises quite high above the clouds, I believe that it hardly goes beyond them. And while Iulius wrote that its summit is always snow-covered, yet it is shown that in some regions below the peaks, lower than those mentioned, it is always covered with snow.
¶9] And these two regions Virgil indicates in the fourth book of the Aeneid, in these words: With the aid of this (wand), he (Hermes) drives on the winds and flies across the wild clouds, and in his flight he sees the crest and lofty sides of grim Atlas, who holds up heaven on his peak; Atlas, whose pine-clad head is ever ringed by gloomy clouds and beaten on by wind and rain. The old man's shoulders are cloaked in snow, streams too pour headlong down his chin, and his beard bristles, stiff with ice.
¶10] I believe that in the third line of the above passage he was speaking of the highest summits, while in the succeeding lines I think he was referring to the lower peaks.
¶11] Plinius Secundus gives an account of the highest mountain in Thessaly in the second book of his Natural History. The most learned Dicaearchus measured the mountains by royal commission, and among these he described Pelion as the highest, being a mile and a quarter in height. I have read that the Alps are fifty miles in height, but I do not remember in what book I found it.
¶12] Although Priscian in his Periegesis teaches us that the Pyrenees in Spain are very high indeed in this verse: The Pyrenees whose topmost peak touches the sky; yet the Spanish bishop Isidorus in the fourteenth book mentioned shows in these words that Mount Solurius is higher than the Pyrenees: Solurius is so called from its singularity, because it alone is thought to be higher than all the mountains of Spain.
¶13] I, Dicuil, having made my excerpts from these authorities, shall now write a few hexameters on the six high mountains. Lofty Athos, Atlas, and Olympus tower above the clouds, and so their three high summits are parched with dust. But Olympus is higher than the other two mountains, while Atlas is lower than the other two; that is why a wreath of snow surrounds its lofty head. The middle mountain holds its head aloft to heaven, and throws a shadow of seven miles eleven times. Olympus guards its offerings for the god for a whole year, keeping them unspotted on its highest peak. We do not read of other mountains being higher than the winds. The burning southern sun scorches high Atlas; it is the northern cold which burns both the others. The Africans own Atlas, the Argives Athos, the Greeks Olympus. High Atlas guards the sands of the west, the ancestral land of Alexander the Great keeps the others. They are cold at the summit, burned by the sun at the base, a serene air bathes all the middle space, where Atlas with its triple range pours forth its winding rivers, to east and west, to north and south. Mount Pelion, raising its head a mile and a quarter, hides it among the clouds. The Alps pierce fifty miles aloft. Though Solurius rises to heaven with its topmost peak, I have not read how many miles make its measure. These mountains are respectively in Thessaly, Italy, and Spain.
After eight hundred and twenty-five years finished of the high lord of earth, and heaven, and the dark prison, when the wheaten seed has been sown in the country earth, at night on ending their labours the oxen are granted rest.