PART
3 – Ch.XVI.9
(‘ERAKLEOS STELAI - The
Columns of Hercules)
XVI. 9. The second Column of Hercules, called Abyla, in the
western mountains of
On the Roman coin of the metropolis of
While the first column is shown on this
coin near a pharos, therefore near a navigable body of water, the position of
the second column is indicated in a very clear fashion, by a beautiful mountain
tree; it is an oak, the characteristic species of
So, the second Column of Hercules was
somewhat further away from Oceanos potamos, inside a secular forest.
According to Herodotus, the second Column of Hercules from the magnificent temple
in
According to the ancient geographical
traditions, the second Column of Hercules was called Abyla, Abila, Abyle or Abile (Mela, lib. I. 5;
Avienus, Descr. Orb. v. 111; Pliny, lib. III; Ptolemy, IV. 1; Dionisyus
Periegetus, Geogr. Gr. Min. II. p. 228). This is a word with a Pelasgian or
Proto-Latin root, which had no other meaning than Albula (Pliny, lib. III.
5; Livy, lib. I. 3; Virgil, Aen. VIII. 330) or Alba in Latin (TN – white). As Pliny tells us (III. Proem.), the
height on which rose the column called Abyla had the name “promontorium Album”. In Romanian we have Alba, pl. Albe and Albele; and in the Romanian-Istrian
dialect aba, pl. abe and abele (Maiorescu,
Itinerar in Istria, p. 83).
This word is very much used in Romanian
topographical nomenclature, with the form of
After the old geographical notions
about the true position of the Columns of Hercules had been lost, and their
memory had been preserved only in the holy books of some very ancient times;
after the old Oceanos potamos was mistaken for the External Ocean and Libya
from the Ister for Libya from Africa (Apollodorus,
Bibl. II. 5. 11. 11; 5. 10. 9), the Greek authors transferred also on the
shores of Mauritania, the Column of Hercules named Abyla, and the mountain on
which this column stood, called by some Abylix
and promontorium Album by Pliny. But the famous geographer Artemidorus from
Therefore, this Column of Hercules, Abyla or Abula, had to be found in the same region of the old Oceanos
potamos, close to the legendary straits of this big river, from where travel
onwards, on water and on land, was met with enormous difficulties.
One of the main communication lines,
which in the pre-historical epoch connected the region of the Iron Gates with
the interior of Dacia (Transylvania), crossed from the Jiu valley into the valley of Tismana,
from where, following a route on tablelands and on tops of hills and mountains,
reached the Oslea Peak and Delul Negru (T.N. – the black hill), from where it descended to Campul lui Neg (T.N. – Neg’s Field) in
the Jiu valley in Transylvania.
This public road, of commercial and
military importance, which connected the most significant lands of
Another branch of this prehistoric line
of communication ran from Tismana, across Baia
de Arama (T.N. - The Copper
Mine), to Isvernea, to Cires, and descended to Verciorova, or the Iron Gates. This old
mountain road, cut in some places directly into rock, is called in Romanian
popular traditions “Iorgovan’s road”
(Spineanu, Dict. Geogr. Al judetului
Mehedinti, p.159) or of Hercules, and one of the most important vestiges of
this road is the majestic Pod (T.N.
– bridge) cut in live rock, near the village Ponore, between Baia de Arama and Isvernea, ancient reminder of the
works and times, which traditions attribute to Hercules.
(T.N.
– I took again the liberty to add a plan sketch of the area in question, which
is relevant for the entire CHAPTER XVI).
Near the main thoroughfare of this
Herculean road, at a 4 hours distance above Tismana (or at a distance of 78km
from the cataracts of the Danube), can be seen even today a gigantic column of
hewn rock (calcareous sandstone with mica), which presents in the sunlight a
glowing whiteness. (It is remarkable that Herodotus,
II. 44, says that the emerald column from the
This is an obscure monument, known only
to the shepherds and the nearby inhabitants, and which the popular traditions
connect to Hercules’ deeds. Today this monolith column, which once upon a time
was destined to perpetuate the memory of a big achievement of the Pelasgian
empire, is fallen to the ground, like countless menhirs from the Western
countries of
Archaic
(Pelasgian) bridge, cut in live calcareous rock, 30m
long, 3m wide, 12m high,
at the village
Ponore, Mehedinti district, on the
road between Baia de Arama and Isvernea.
(From
a 1899 photograph).
The same
bridge in the sketch published by Captain
N. Filip
(Studiu
de geografie militara asupra Olteniei, 1886, p. 116)
I twice visited this monumental stone,
in 1899 and 1900. It is a majestic stone column cut in a conical shape, of a
considerable thickness, with its faces recurved towards its base, exactly like
the columns of Malta, consecrated to Hercules by Abdosir and Osirsamar around
the beginning of the 2nd century b.c. (These columns having the
lower section rounded in an oval shape, sat on a concave circular base).
The
length or height of this column is 4.90m
and the diameter at its base is 2.31m.
No ornament, no figure, no inscription
are to be seen on the exposed surface of the column, if they were not made to
disappear by time. The side on which this column is resting on the ground was
not examined, as I had no means to move this stone colossus. This mysterious column
from the mountains of Tismana does not present the characteristics of the
historical epochs, either in regard to its shape, or to the art with which it
is cut or worked.
On the contrary, it presents, by its
shapes and characteristics, the type of the
Phoenician Columns of Hercules.
The commemorative column, called “Petra-taiata a lui Iorgovan” (T.N. –
The hewn - Rock of Iorgovan) / Hercules, near the mountain road which leads
from Tismana, over the Carpathians, into
(From a 1900 photograph).
This column is characterised especially
by the enormous size of its width. The old representations of the Columns of
Hercules showed the same ratio of height and width.
Pliny the Elder communicates to us (lib.
XXXVII. 19. 2) an important note extracted from the writings of the Greek
philosopher Theophrastus (4th century b.c.), according to which the
emerald column of Hercules from the temple at
Finally, we shall mention here that the
pseudo-columns of Hercules, which were in the temple at Gades (Cadix) in
The Romanian people call the archaic
column from Tismana mountains “
The tradition is the following: Iovan Iorgovan (Hercules of old), going
to fight the gigantic dragon, which was coiled around the peak of the Oslea
mountain, tried firstly his broadsword on this stone. So, the Romanian legend
considered that the natural breakage of this column were cuts, made by Iorgovan’ broadsword.
It is doubtless though, that the name
We are presented now with the second
subject of historical interest: which was in antiquity the purpose of this
monumental column in the western mountains of
According to the old traditions
preserved by the Greek authors, the Columns of Hercules were markers, not only
for the navigation on the river Oceanos, but for the land travel as well (Pindar, Nem. III; Suidas, v. Gadeira), laborum Herculis metae.
The great endeavour to develop the
economic activity had started even during the Pelasgian epoch: a wide road
system which was meant to connect
These prehistoric lines of communication had
in popular traditions the name of “the
roads of Hercules” (Livy, lib. V. c. 34). In his Roman
history he tells us that, according to the mythological legends, there was an
ancient road through the “
We find another tradition at Diodorus Siculus. Hercules, writes he
(lib. IV. 19. 3), after having taken Geryon’s herds, wanting to go from the
Celtic lands to Italy, across the Alps, had opened and paved with stones the
bad and difficult roads, in order to pass with his men and all the baggage
loaded on his transporting wagons; and because the barbarians of those lands
had attacked and robbed his troupes inside the mountains’ straits, Hercules had
punished with death the leaders of these evil doers, and had ensured that this
road will be safe for posterity.
The same tradition is repeated by Silius Italicus with the following
words: “The first to pass over these inaccessible peaks (of the
And finally, Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that the first road across the
As we see, the pre-historical
traditions which the Greek authors have preserved, were talking in particular
about a road through the
It is possible that Hercules might have
opened a way through the central Alps of Europe as well, although Livy tells us very precisely that there
is no popular tradition regarding this, and that only the mythological legends
told about Hercules’ road through the
But the famous road of Hercules, built
when he had taken Geryon’s herds from the Erythia island, is the road from the
The traditions of antiquity also talked
about a road built by Hercules during the time of the robbing of Erythia
island, near the
[1.
This bridge supported the communication over the canal, which is seen to have been opened there, and which,
according to popular traditions, served for the draining of the lake, which covered in a remote epoch
the surface of the nearby basin. The hill which is at the end of the canal was
also perforated for the same purpose.
Diodorus Siculus (IV.
18. 6) mentions also a tradition according to which the fields named Tempe from Thessaly, being covered with
stagnant water, Hercules, by perforating
the hill, had drained this lake into the river Peneus. It looks like this is
one and the same tradition, which the Greek authors have placed in
Our
folk songs recall even today the roads once built by Iorgovan, or Hercules, in these lands (Burada, O calatorie in Dobrogea, p. 145; Sezatoarea, Falticeni, I.
p. 13; Tocilescu, Materialuri folkl.
Finally, we add here a few more words
about the Column Abyla.
As Herodotus
tells us, the second column in Hercules’ temple at
According to Romanian popular
traditions, the region of the Carpathians on the northern side of the Iron
Gates was once named the Mountains of
Gold. Even today the south-western peak of the
So, the monumental column from near the
road of Iorgovan, which passes into Transylvania over the top of the
Carpathians, appears from traditions, as well as from its characteristics, to
be the second Column of Hercules, called Abyla
or Petra alba (T.N. – the White
Stone) [2].
[2.
The Column of Hercules called
Cynegetiche:
There
existed different opinions in antiquity about the number of the Columns of
Hercules.
As Hesychius writes, some talked about
two, others about three, one, or four Columns of Hercules. Scylax even expresses the following: “I shall start from the Columns of Hercules in
It
results therefore from these words that in older geographical literature there
was really talk about more Columns of Hercules.
One
of the Greek historians, Charax
Pergamenus, who lived during the times of Hadrian and the Antonines,
considers that the column called
In
old Greek the word chynegeo meant to hunt,
chynegos
meant hunter and chynegetiche
meant hunt. We have here again a
geographical name, distorted in order to have a Greek meaning.
The
position of this column called Chynegetiche was, according to Charax, in
As
for the name ‘Abenna or ‘Abinna, this is only a simple
subsequent translation of the Greek word Chynegetiche. But Charax used for
the Greek noun Kynegetiche (hunt) or venatore
in Romanian, the popular infinitive of
the verb a vena (T.N. – to hunt, in
Romanian).
The
barbarian inhabitants from near the Columns of Hercules, from whose language
Charax, or his predecessors, took the word ‘A venna, with the meaning of chynegeo,
were therefore a people of proto – Latin origin or Pelasgian. So, even in
Hadrian’s times, a language was spoken near the Istru, with the same
grammatical forms with which it is spoken today. But it is very probable that
this mention of Charax derives from times anterior to