The Gorgades may refer to a group of islands off the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coast of Africa (the ''Insulae Gorgades'', perhaps the Canaries or the Cape Verde islands), as well as the fabled tribe of native inhabitants, the women of which were covered entirely with hair (an idea perhaps derived from ancient sailors' accounts of some species of ape or monkey).

Ancient sources

Their earliest known mention appears in Book III, Chapter 9, of the ''Description of the World'' of Pomponius Mela (c. 43 CE), which speaks of "a huge island, on which they say there are only women, bristly in their whole body, and fruitful of their own accord without any connections with males: of so savage and excessively wild manners that some of them can scarcely be restrained by chains from struggling." The ancient mentions most widely read in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

were those of the Roman naturalist

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

and geographer Gaius Julius Solinus. In his '' Natural History'' Pliny names the Greek geographer

Xenophon of Lampsacus Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies of ...

as the one who identified the islands and the

Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( la, Carthaginiensis ) usually refers to a citizen of Ancient Carthage. It can also refer to: * Carthaginian (ship), a three-masted schooner built in 1921 * Insurgent privateers; nineteenth-century South American privateers, ...

navigator

Hanno Hanno may refer to: People * Hanno (given name) :* Hanunu (8th century BC), Philistine king previously rendered by scholars as "Hanno" *Hanno ( xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤀 , '; , ''Hannōn''), common Carthaginian name :* Hanno the Navigator, Carthagi ...

as one who visited there in the fifth or sixth century BCE. Following Pliny, Solinus writes, "Women were found swift as birds; out of all those they saw, two were captured, so hairy and rough of body that Hanno, for remembrance of the occurrence, hung up their two skins in the temple of Juno, where they remained until the time of the destruction of Carthage." These islands and inhabitants were subsequently mentioned by such medieval writers as Thomas de Cantimpre in the ''Liber de Natura Rerum'' and Vincent of Beauvais in the ''Speculum Historiale'', going on to be included in medieval bestiaries, which especially focused on the hairiness of the females.Steffen Hope, "Typologies of the medieval cultural border," page 42, in ''Roda da Fortuna'', 2017, Volume 6, Número 1, pp. 25-54. ISSN: 2014-7430.

References

Mythic humanoids Medieval European legendary creatures {{legendary-creature-stub