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Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places |
Terrestrial Paradise
Picture of Eden, from the Hereford MappaMundi.
Many cultures and religions have a paradise that is a sacred place. Often it is for those who have died, or it was once inhabited by man, who lost the right to be there. The Christian version of this paradise is described in Genesis:
Genesis 2:8-15:
"And the Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of
the ground made the Lord God 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. And a river went out of Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
The name of the first is Pison: that is it which
compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of
that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is
it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is
it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is Euphrates.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden."
During the Dark Ages many believed that this paradise, called Eden in the Bible, was an actual place on Earth. Many maps tried to fix the location of it- the T-O style maps generally placed it in the very east of the world. The Earthly paradise was believed to be very high also; it was not reached by Noah's Flood, and nearly touched the moon.
The section of the map above also shows the 4 main rivers of the world which were supposed to flow from a spring in paradise- the Phison (Ganges), the Gyon (Nile), the Tigris, and the Euphrates. The explanation for how all these rivers came from the same place was that the rivers went underground for long ways before resurfacing. No one could get there because the river's currents were too strong, and there were wild beasts and uncrossable rocks, and even a high wall around it. Sir John Mandeville claims that "Many great lords have tried at different times to travel by those rivers to Paradise, but they could not prosper in their journeys; some of the died through exhaustion from rowing and excessive labor, some went blind and deaf through the noise of the waters, and some were drowned through the violence of the waves. And so no man, as I said, can get there except through the special grace of God." (Moseley, 1983)
In the late 1490's, Christopher Columbus felt that he had discovered the terrestrial paradise. After his travels, he began to believe that the world was pear-shaped, with the terrestrial paradise as the highest point. As evidence, he cited the belief that ships rise toward the sky as they sail west from the Azores, and that they enjoy milder weather, and that there was greater compass deviation. In speaking about his discovery of the Land of Gracia (Venezuela), Columbus believed that he had found "another world" and because of its size, location and large rivers, he felt that it was the Earthly Paradise.
