Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Where Was the Garden of Eden?
If the Atlantis myth persisted for centuries, fueling speculation and superstition, it was only typical of the
human fondness for mixing reason and faith. All of the geographic myths of the ancient cultures were tied
to the entire philosophical or religious system of these societies and are best illustrated in their creation
myths. Every society has a creation story because all people want an explanation for their beginnings. Usu-
ally those beginnings are tied to some special status for the group. It is easy to proclaim your superiority
when you can tell people you are a product of divine intervention.
The creation myth with the greatest impact on Western civilization has been the biblical story of the
Garden of Eden.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East;
and there he put the man he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav'ilah, where
there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the
second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of
the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphra'tes.
The biblical version of creation found in Genesis, with its earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden, from
which Adam and Eve are eventually expelled (“He drove out the man; and at the east end of the garden he
placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”),
was the source of inquiry, speculation, and searching for much of early Christian-era history.
While modern Christians debate the degree to which the biblical version of history should be literally
accepted, for European Christians of the Middle Ages there was no doubt. Scripture was simply the di-
vinely inspired word of God, about which there could be no legitimate question. To treat these accounts
with even the slightest uncertainty was heresy, frequently a deadly career choice.
With that in mind, geographic studies in medieval Europe moved away from the Greek tradition of
expanding scientific and geographic knowledge to an age of faith obsession with explaining the world
through biblical lessons. Unfortunately, some of the inspiration for these holy-minded men came from
less-than-scriptural sources. One reason was the existence of a far more appealing version of world geo-
graphy, produced by such influential writers as Pliny the Elder (
AD
23-79), Lucian of Samosata (circa
AD
120-190), and Gaius Julius Solinus (active circa
AD
250).
Pliny's
Natural History
was of very dubious scientific merit, but his ideas about the world were a main-
stay of mapmakers for centuries to come. Although a dry compiler of known places, Pliny became down-
right enthralling when he got to describing the world beyond his own experience and firsthand knowledge.
Among the marvelous places and people he said existed were the people of the Ear Islands, which were
situated off the coast of Germany, a tribe of fishermen whose ears were so large that they covered their
bodies. These large appendages offered the benefit of enabling the All-ears to hear fish under the sea. On
Evil-eye Island, near the North Pole, the women were possessed of a stare that could bewitch or even
kill. Pliny warned travelers of Hyperborea, an island with cliffs shaped like women, which came to life at
night to destroy ships. In this land near Scotland, the sun rises and sets only once a year. Although sorrow
