The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

practically the same length, and for this reason, before
there was traffic there, it was called by Greek sailors
(“footprint”). 40. Theland extends 140 (Roman) miles
in length and 40 miles in width. No serpent or wolf is
born there, only the solifuga,asmall animal that is most
hurtful to humans. Also, nothing poisonous grows there,
except the plant, mentioned by many writers and poets,
that is similar to wild parsley, makes people contort in a
rictus, and kills them as iftheyweregrinning.Sardinia
has hot springs that bring healing to the sick and blindness
to thieves if they touch their eyes with this water
after an oath has been given.
41. Ligurian settlers founded the island of Corsica,
naming it after the one who guided them there, a certain
Ligurian woman by the name of Corsa, who saw a
bull from the herd she was guarding close to the shore
habitually swim across and return fattened shortly afterwards.
Eager to discover his unknown pasture, when he
strayed from the herd she followed the bull in a boat
to the island. Learning of the island’s fertility after her
return, the Ligurians went there on rafts and named the
island after the woman who found it and guided them
there. 42. This island is also known in Greek as ,
from having been inhabited by Cyrnus, the son of Hercules.
Vergil says of it (cf. Ecl. 9.30):
Corsican (Cyrneus) yews.
It is separated from Sardinia by a strait of twenty
(Roman) miles and surrounded by the Ligurian gulf on
its Italian side. It has many sheer headlands, produces
quite delightful pastures, and a stone that is called catochites
by the Greeks.
43. Ebosus (i.e. Ibiza) is a Spanish island, so called
because it is not far ‘from Zanium’ (a Zanio), as if its
name were abozus; foritlies seventy stades (i.e. about
nine miles) from it. Serpents flee its soil. Opposite it is
Colubraria (cf. coluber, “serpent”),whichisfullofserpents.
44.The Baleares are two Spanish islands: Aphrosiades
and Gymnasides, a bigger one (maior)and a smaller
one (minor), whence they are also called Maiorica (i.e.
Majorca) and Minorica (i.e. Minorca) by the common
people. In these islands the sling with which stones are
hurled was first invented–whencetheyarecalledthe
Baleares, for in Greek means “throw.” From the
12 The erroneous equation of Borion with Hippo Regius was
caused by a misreading of the source, Solinus’s Collectanea.
The Etymologies XIV.vi.40–viii.2 297
same root are derived the terms ballista (i.e. a kind of
catapult), as if it were “the one thrown,” and fundibalum
(i.e. another such machine; see XVIII.x.2). Vergil says of
them (Geo. 1.309):
The thongs of the Balearic sling.
vii. Promontories (De promuntoriis) 1. Itischaracteristic
of islands that they ‘jut out’ (prominere), whence
these places are called promontories (promuntorium).
Thus, Sallust says of Sardinia (Histories 2.2): “It juts out
(prominere)wider in the east than in the west.”
2.SigeumisapromontoryofAsia, located where the
Hellespont opens out more widely. It is called Sigeum
due to the silence of Hercules, because, denied hospitality
by the Trojan king Laomedon, he feigned his
departure and from there came back against Troy in
silence, which is called . 3. Maleum is a promontory
in Greece that juts out into the sea and extends
for fifty (Roman) miles; the waves in this place are so
fierce that they seem to pursue those traveling by ship.
This promontory was named after Maleus, king of the
Argives. 4.TheSicilian promontory of Pelorum, which is
oriented toward the north, according to Sallust (cf. Histories
4.39) was named after a general of Hannibal’s who
is buried there. 5. The Sicilian promontory Pachynum,
which looks towards the south-west, is so called from
the density of its air – for the term means “thick”
and “dense” – as the south-west wind blows there. 6.
Lilybaeum is a promontory of Sicily, extending to the
west. It is named after a city of the same name that is
located there. 7.Borionisapromontory in Numidia, so
called because it stretches north (cf. boreas,“the north”).
Afterwards it was called Hippo Regius, because it was cut
off by the sea. 12 Calpis is a Spanish promontory.
viii. Mountains and other terms for landforms (De
montibus ceterisque terrae vocabulis) 1. Mountains
(mons) are the highest swellings of the land, so called
because they ‘stand out’ (eminere). Some of them owe
their names to particular causes. We should mention
those that are commonly thought to be the greatest.
2.The Caucasus range stretches from India to the Taurusand
has many different names because of the variety
of peoples and of languages in every direction through
which it passes. Thus, toward the east, where it rises to
greater height, it is called Caucasus, due to the whiteness