Duane W. Roller

Duane W. Roller (1946- ) is an American archaeologist, author and professor emeritus of classics, Greek and Latin at the Ohio State University. Among his many published works is Through the Pillars of Herakles ^[1483] in which offers a new review of the early Greek and Roman exploration beyond the Mediterranean. The book was briefly reviewed in the New Yorker^(a). 

In Through the Pillars of Herakles ^[p.203], he states that “The exact location of the Pillars of Herakles was long a matter of dispute. Although they may seem obvious today as the two large mountains at the western end of the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and Jebel Mousa, such was not the case in antiquity, and understanding of the region changed as topographical knowledge increased. At some early date, Homer’s mythical and unlocated Pillars of Atlas (Od. 1.51-4) became associated with the wanderer Herakles, but as the western end of the Mediterranean became better understood in the latter seventh century BC, uncertainty increased rather than decreased. Herodotus, who mentioned the Pillars several times, placed them east of Gadeira and Tartessos (4.8, 152), which could mean anywhere in the 50-kilometre-long strait (the modern Strait of Gibraltar) that runs east to the opening of the Mediterranean, through rugged topography with several promontories that could be identified as the Pillars, although especially prominent are Gibraltar and Jebel Mousa (the Kalpe and Abilyx of Strabo) at the eastern end. The early prominence of Gadeira caused some (such as Pindar) to place them in that area, or at points, east thereof, such as Tarifa or Cape Trafalgar: the sources seem uncertain as to whether height or prominence was the defining criterion.”

In an article in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, Roller noted that the name “Atlantic” (Greek Atlantikos or Atlantis) is not documented as applying to the ocean west of the inhabited world until the 5th century BC.

^(a) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/04/24/through-the-pillars-of-herakles