HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Chryse and Argyre ( and ) were a pair of legendary islands, located in the Indian Ocean and said to be made of gold (''chrysos'' in Greek) and silver (''argyros''). In Book 6, chapter 23 of his '' Natural History'', concerning the regions near the
Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir ...
, Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) wrote that "Beyond the mouth of the Indus are the islands of Chryse and Argyre, abounding in metals, I believe; but as to what some persons have stated, that their soil consists of gold and silver, I am not so willing to believe that." Some five or six centuries later, in section XIV.vi.11 of his encyclopedic ''
Etymologies Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...
'',
Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
(c. 560–636) repeated much the same information: "Chryse and Argyre are islands situated in the Indian Ocean, so rich in metal that many people maintain these islands have a surface of gold and silver; whence their names are derived." This was almost certainly taken—like much else in the ''Etymologies'', as Isidore freely admitted—directly from the ''Natural History''. Both of these Latin works, the ''Naturalis Historia'' and especially the ''Etymologiae'', were widely read in Europe throughout the Middle Ages and this ensured the survival of the legend of the Gold and Silver Islands until the beginning of the
Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafaring ...
. As European geographers gathered more reliable information about the Indian Ocean, the purported location of Chryse and Argyre shifted farther and farther east to the fringes of the known world. By the time
Martin Behaim Martin Behaim (6 October 1459 – 29 July 1507), also known as and by various forms of , was a German textile merchant and cartographer. He served John II of Portugal as an adviser in matters of navigation and participated in a voyage to We ...
created his Erdapfel globe in 1492, the islands were thought to be near Japan, possibly because
Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
had claimed Japan itself (which he called ''
Cipangu The word ''Japan'' is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon () and Nihon (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji . During the third-century CE Three Kingdoms peri ...
'') to be rich in gold and silver; Behaim is known to have used both Pliny and Marco Polo as sources. Another proposed location was the Kingdom of
Salakanagara The Salakanagara Kingdom is the first historically recorded Indianised kingdom in Western Java. The kingdom existed between 130-362 AD. Claudius Ptolemaeus (160 AD) wrote about Java in his book, ''Geographie Hypogenesis''. He mentions the nam ...
on Java, based on the fact that Salakanagara means "island of silver" in Sanskrit. The discovery of the Americas changed everything. European explorers in search of fabled lands of gold now sailed west for
El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king ...
instead of east to Cipangu. The works of Isidore of Seville fell out of fashion and the islands of Chryse and Argyre slowly faded from the popular imagination.


Ramayana Mythology

The story of the presence of gold and silver in an island called ''Yavadvipa'' can be traced back to the story of the Ramayana, written around 8-4 BC, long before
Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
wrote ''Geographike Hyphegesis''. In the mythology written by
Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attributio ...
, it is told that Sugriwa sent his men to Yavadvipa to look for Sita, as can be found in Ramayana, Kanda Kishkindha, sarga 40, verses 30:
''yatnavanto yavadvīpam sapta rājya upaśobhitam;'' ''suvarṇa rūpyakam dvīpam suvarṇa ākara maṇḍitam.'' Translation: you strive hard in the Yavadvipa which splendorous with seven kingdoms slands that Golden-Silver islands are enwreathed with gold-mines.
The Dindorf edition of Stephanus Byzantinus (4 volumes) contains annotation from Lucas Holstenius in the second volume,
Abraham Berkelius Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...
in the third volume, and
Thomas de Pinedo Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
in the fourth volume. Berkellius state that Ἰαβαδίου (Iabadiou) come from the word "iaba" which means "barley". Biegman in ''Hikajat Tanah Hindia'' (The Tale of Hindia Land) argue that ''yava'' or ''iaba'' means "jali" (Melayu) or "job's tear" (in English). As for the word "diu", Berkelius said that for Persians and Indians there is no one who does not know that "diu" denotes dvipa (island). So ''Iabadiou'' was a transliteration of ''Yavadvipa''. But, as for Pinedo said "It was not easy for me to believe that gold and silver only belong to them".Johann Karl Eduard Buschmann to Wilhelm von Humboldt, March 28, 1833
In: Wilhelm von Humboldt: Online Edition of Linguistic Correspondence. Berlin. Version of 10/18/2021.


Aftermath

In 1877, they were recalled to life by the astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , also , ; 14 March 1835 – 4 July 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. Biography He studied at the University of Turin, graduating in 1854, and later did research at Berlin Observatory, ...
, who used the planetary opposition of that year to begin mapping the planet Mars. As an expert in ancient astronomy and geography, he was very familiar with classical legends and fabled lands and used them to name the features he could see through the telescope. He assumed that dark areas might be low flat "seas", as they are on the Moon, while "land" would be lighter. In particular, he noted several light patches that he took to be islands; he named the most striking circular one Hellas (for Greece) and two others Chryse and Argyre. It was only with the observations made from Martian orbit by Mariner 9 in 1972 that it became clear that these light areas were not islands at all, but depressions carpeted with light windblown dust. Chryse is really a low flat plain, but the name has been kept and it is now known as
Chryse Planitia Chryse Planitia (Greek, "''Golden Plain''") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis region to the west, centered at . Chryse Planitia lies partially in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, partially in t ...
, "Chryse Plain". Argyre (like Hellas) is, in fact, a broad impact crater and is now
Argyre Planitia Argyre Planitia is a plain located within the impact basin Argyre in the southern highlands of Mars. Its name comes from a map produced by Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877; it refers to Argyre, a mythical island of silver in Greek mythology. A ...
, "Argyre Plain", which in turn has given its name to one of the cartographic quadrangles of the Martian atlas.


References

{{reflist Locations in Greek mythology Mythological islands