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Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places |
Chemmis, Perdita, and Other Floating Islands
Chemmis was described by Pomponius Mela as a floating island in Egypt. This island had sacred groves and a temple of Apollo, and it floated wherever the wind blew it. No further information is given.
Plutarch, telling of the story of the Egyptian gods Isis and
Osiris, tells that Isis loosened the island of Chemmis from its foundation and
set it afloat to protect her son Horus from her enemy Seth. This island
moved around, and was sometimes on the Nile and sometimes on the sea.
Both Seneca and Pliny tell of the floating islands in Lydia and other Greek
stories tell of more islands, called Delos and Patmos.
Herodotus tells: "The next greatest marvel was the island called Chemmis. This island lies in the middle of a broad and deep lake close by the temple, and the natives declare that it floats. For my own part I did not see it float, or even move; and I wondered greatly, when they told me concerning it, whether there be really such a thing as a floating island. It has a grand temple of Apollo built upon it, in which are three distinct altars. Palm trees grow on it in great abundance, and many other trees, some of which bear fruit, while others are barren. The Egyptians tell the following story in connection with this island, to explain the way in which it first came to float:- "In former times, when the isle was still fixed and motionless, Latona, one of the eight gods of the first order, who dwelt in the city of Buto, where now she has her oracle, received Apollo as a sacred charge from Isis, and saved him by hiding him in what is now called the floating island. Typhon meanwhile was searching everywhere in hopes of finding the child of Osiris. The island, therefore, in consequence of this event, was first made to float. Such at least is the account which the Egyptians give."
Other types of floating or phantom islands are reported by ocean sailors, and they are generally attributed to mirages and optical illusions, or navigational errors. Many of these islands were found by accident or by sailors who had been caught in a storm, but they would not be found by anyone who set out looking for them.
In the Speculum Regale (also called the King's Mirror, written in Norway around 1250), it is told of an island called Loycha that floated on a lake in Ireland, on which grew herbs that could cure all ills, but no more than one person could land on it at a time. This island would float for seven years, then attaches permanently to the shore, and then another floating island would appear.
For an interesting article on actual floating islands by Chet Van Duzer, click here.
Or for another article by Chet Van Duzer about floating islands: www.seabean.com/newsletters/vol10-3.pdf
Or, read more about his excellent book, Floating Islands- a Global Bibliography.
