{"id":18372,"date":"2012-10-03T06:53:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T05:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/?p=18372"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:09:38","slug":"hanno-the-voyage-of-n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/hanno-the-voyage-of-n\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanno, The Voyage of"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Voyage of<\/strong> H<\/strong>anno, <\/strong>the Carthaginian navigator, was undertaken around 500 BC. The general consensus is that his\u00a0journey took him through the Strait of Gibraltar <\/a>and along part of the west coast of Africa. A record, or periplus<\/a>, of the voyage was inscribed on tablets and displayed in the Temple of Baal at Carthage<\/a>. Richard Hennig <\/a>\"Hanno\"<\/a>speculated that the contents of the periplus were copied by the Greek historian, Polybius, after the Romans captured Carthage. It did not surface again until the 10th<\/sup> century, when a copy, in Greek, was discovered (Codex Heildelbergensis 398) and was not widely published until the 16th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\r\n

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The 1797 English translation of the periplus by Thomas Falconer, along with the original Greek text, can be downloaded or read online(h)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Edmund Marsden Goldsmid\u00a0(1849-?) published a translation of A Treatise On Foreign Languages and Unknown Islands<\/em>[1348<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0<\/em>by Peter Albinus<\/a>. In footnotes on page 39 he describes Hanno\u2019s periplus as \u2018apocryphal\u2019. A number of other commentators(c)(d)<\/sup>\u00a0have also cast doubts on the authenticity of the Hanno text.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Three years after Ignatius Donnelly<\/a> published Atlantis, <\/em>Lord Arundell<\/a> of Wardour published The Secret of Plato\u2019s Atlantis<\/em>[0648<\/a>]<\/sup> intended as a rebuttal of Donnelly\u2019s groundbreaking book. The ‘secret’ referred to in the title is that Plato’s Atlantis story is based on the account we have of the Voyage of Hanno.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Nicolai Zhirov <\/a>speculated that Hanno may have witnessed \u2018the destruction of the southern remnants of Atlantis\u2019, based on some of his descriptions.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Rhys Carpenter<\/a> dedicated nearly twenty pages to the matter of Hanno, commented that ”The modern literature about his (Hanno’s) voyage is unexpectedly large. But it is so filled with disagreement that to summarize it with any thoroughness would be to annul its effectiveness, as the variant opinions would cancel each other out”<\/em>[<\/sup>221<\/a>.86]<\/sup>.\u00a0Carpenter included what he describes as ‘a retranslation of a translation’ of the text.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Further discussion of the text and topography encountered by Hanno can be read in a paper[1483<\/a>]<\/sup> by Duane W. Roller.<\/p>\r\n

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What I find interesting is that so much attention was given to Hanno\u2019s voyage as if it were unique and not what you would expect if Atlantic travel was as commonplace at that time, as many \u2018alternative\u2019 history writers claim.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

However, even more questionable is the description of Hanno sailing off “with a fleet of sixty fifty-oared ships, and a large number of men and women to the number of thirty thousand, and with wheat and other provisions.” <\/em>The problem with this is that the 50-oared ships would have been penteconters, which had limited room for much more than the oarsmen. If we include the crew, an additional 450 persons per ship would have been impossible, in fact, it is unlikely that even the provisions for 500 people could have been accommodated!<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Lionel Casson, the author of The Ancient Mariners<\/em>[<\/sup>1193<\/sup><\/a>] <\/sup>commented that “if the whole expedition had been put aboard sixty penteconters, the ships would have quietly settled on the harbour bottom instead of leaving Carthage: a penteconter barely had room to carry a few days’ provisions for its crew, to say nothing of a load of passengers with all the equipment they needed to start a life in a colony.<\/em>“<\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The American writer, William H. Russeth, commented(f)<\/sup> on the various interpretations of Hanno’s route, noting that “It is hard for modern scholars to figure out exactly where Hanno travelled, because descriptions changed with each version of the original document and place names change as different cultures exert their influence over the various regions. Even Pliny the Elder, the famous Roman Historian, complained of writers committing errors and adding their own descriptions concerning Hanno\u2019s journey, a bit ironic considering that the Romans levelled the temple of Ba\u2019al, losing the famous plaque forever.”<\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

George Sarantitis<\/a> has a more radical interpretation of the Voyage of Hanno, proposing that instead of taking a route along the North African coast and then out into the Atlantic, he proposes that Hanno travelled inland along waterways that no longer exist(e)<\/sup>.\u00a0A 2013 report in New Scientis<\/em>t magazine(n)<\/sup> revealed that 100,000 years ago, the Sahara had been home to three large rivers that flowed northward, which probably provided migration routes for our ancestors. Furthermore, if these rivers lasted into the African Humid Period, they may be interpreted as support for Sarantitis’ contention regarding Hanno!<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

He insists that the location of the Pillars of Heracles, as referred to in the narrative, matches the Gulf of Gabes <\/a>[1470<\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

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The most recent commentary on Hanno\u2019s voyage is on offer by Antonio Usai<\/a> in his 2014 book, The Pillars of Hercules in Aristotle\u2019s Ecumene<\/em>[<\/sup>980<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>. He also\u00a0has a controversial view of Hanno\u2019s account, claiming that in the \u201csecond part, Hanno makes up everything because he does not want to continue that voyage.\u201d<\/em> (p.24) However, the main objective of Usai\u2019s essays is to demonstrate that the Pillars of Hercules were originally situated in the Central Mediterranean between eastern Tunisia <\/a>and its Kerkennah<\/a> Islands.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

A\u00a01912 English translation of the text can\u00a0be read online(a)<\/sup>, as well as a modern English translation by Jason Colavito<\/a>(k)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Another Carthaginian voyager, Himilco, is also thought to have travelled northward in the Atlantic and possibly reached Ireland, referred to as ‘isola sacra’. Unfortunately, his account is no longer available(g)<\/span><\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The controversial epigrapher Barry Fell went so far as to propose that Hanno visited America, citing the Bourne Stone as evidence!(m)<\/sup><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The livius.org <\/em>website offers three articles(i)<\/sup> on the text, history and credibility of the surviving periplus together with a commentary.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Another excellent overview of the document is available on the World History Encyclopedia <\/em>website.(l)<\/sup>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

(a)<\/sup> https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20040615213109\/https:\/\/www.jate.u-szeged.hu\/~gnovak\/f99htHanno.htm<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(c)<\/sup> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hanno_the_Navigator<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(d)<\/sup> https:\/\/annoyzview.wordpress.com\/2012\/04\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(e)<\/sup> https:\/\/platoproject.gr\/voyage-hanno-Carthaginian\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(f) <\/sup>https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/1033187.William_H_Russeth\/blog?page=2<\/a>
<\/sup><\/p>\r\n

(g)<\/sup> https:\/\/gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/13\/high-north-carthaginian-exploration-of-ireland\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(h)<\/sup> https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=qbMBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Hanno+THomas+Falconer&source=bl&ots=jNnOy0QPyI&sig=xWps907X_R-1Q4kHMGaHI55Ckgs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSysGPsLvMAhXpF5oKHRFvDCEQ6AEIMjAE#v=onepage&q=Hanno%20THomas%20Falconer&f=false<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(i)<\/sup> https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180323080221\/https:\/\/www.livius.org\/articles\/person\/hanno-1-the-navigator\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n

(j)<\/sup> BSMQg<\/a>oYS<\/a>QY<\/a>FJ90bRJIhQ&hl=mt&ei=–tuS<\/a>fNEIaqnAOo_NjHBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=<\/a>&ved=<\/a>CBgQ<\/a> https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/cu31924031441847<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

(k)<\/sup><\/sup> http:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/periplus-of-hanno.html#:~:text=The%20Periplus%20of%20Hanno%20the%20Carthaginian%20is%20an,to%20the%20sixth%20century%20before%20the%20Christian%20era.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(l)<\/sup> Hanno: Carthaginian Explorer – World History Encyclopedia<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

(m)<\/sup> Bourne stone – Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(n)<\/sup> NewScientist.com, 16 September 2013, https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/mg9vcoz<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

& https:\/\/zeenews.india.com\/news\/science\/lost-river-helped-lead-early-ancestors-out-of-africa_877125.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian navigator, was undertaken around 500 BC. The general consensus is that his\u00a0journey took him through the Strait of Gibraltar and along part of the west coast of Africa. A record, or periplus, of the voyage was inscribed on tablets and displayed in the Temple of Baal at Carthage. Richard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1936,2803,2908,678,1475,4118,1476,520,398,1471,4271,108,294,4272,1266,2058,2243,1469,4022,1472,1477,48,924,1474,1922,1473,1252,4643,233,4273],"class_list":["post-18372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antonio-usai","tag-baal","tag-barry-fell","tag-carthage","tag-codex-heildelbergensis-398","tag-duane-w-roller","tag-edmund-marsden","tag-george-sarantitis","tag-gulf-of-gabes","tag-hanno-ii","tag-himilco","tag-ignatius-donnelly","tag-ireland","tag-isola-sacra","tag-jason-colavito","tag-john-francis-arundell","tag-kerkennah","tag-nicolai-zhirov","tag-penteconter","tag-periplus","tag-peter-albinus","tag-pillars-of-heracles","tag-pliny-the-elder","tag-polybius","tag-rhys-carpenter","tag-richard-hennig","tag-strait-of-gibraltar","tag-thomas-falconer","tag-tunisia","tag-william-h-russeth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18372"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66753,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18372\/revisions\/66753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}