![Periplous of the Erythraean Sea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Periplous_of_the_Erythraean_Sea.svg)
Hippalus (
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
: Ἵππαλος) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
navigator and merchant who probably lived in the 1st century
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
. He is sometimes conjectured to have been the captain of the Greek explorer
Eudoxus of Cyzicus
Eudoxus of Cyzicus (; el, Εὔδοξος ὁ Κυζικηνός, ''Eúdoxos ho Kyzikēnós''; fl. c. 130 BC) was a Greek navigator who explored the Arabian Sea for Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
Voyages to I ...
' ship.
The writer of the ''
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
'' credited Hippalus with discovering the direct route from the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
to
Tamilakam
Tamiḻakam (Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nad ...
over the Indian Ocean by plotting the scheme of the sea and the correct location of the trade ports along the Indian coast.
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 ' ...
claimed that Hippalus discovered not the route but the
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...
wind also called ''Hippalus'' (the south-west monsoon wind). Most historians have tried to reconcile the reports by stating that knowledge of the monsoon winds was necessary to use the direct route, but the historian
André Tchernia explains that Plinys' connection between the wind and the navigator was based on common pronunciation: in the
Hellenistic Era
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
the name of the wind was written as ''Hypalus'', only in
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
times the spelling ''Hippalus'' came in use. The wind had already been known in Hellenistic times and had before been used by Himyarite (Southern Arabian Semites) and Indian sailors to cross the Indian Ocean.
To understand the importance of Hippalus' discovery we have to know that before him
Greek geographers
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece
*Homer
*Anaximander
*Hecataeus of Miletus
* Massaliote Periplus
* Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC)
*Herodotus
;Hellenistic period
*Pytheas (died c. 310 BC)
*''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th century B ...
thought that the Indian coast stretched from west to east. Hippalus was probably the first (in the west) to recognize the north-south direction of India's west coast. Only someone who has this insight will think crossing the Indian Ocean might be a faster way to
south India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...
than following the coastline.
The use of Hippalus' direct route greatly contributed to the prosperity of
trade contacts between the
Roman province of Aegyptus and India from the 1st century BCE onwards. From Red Sea ports like
Berenice
Berenice ( grc, Βερενίκη, ''Bereníkē'') is the Ancient Macedonian form of the Attic Greek name ''Pherenikē'', which means "bearer of victory" . Berenika, priestess of Demeter in Lete ca. 350 BC, is the oldest epigraphical evidence. ...
large ships crossed the Indian Ocean to the
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
kingdoms of the
Pandyas,
Cholas and
Cheras in present-day
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
and
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
.
In modern times a
crater on the moon was named after the navigator. He is also a prominent character in
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...
's novel about Eudoxus, ''
The Golden Wind.'' He is also mentioned in the Tamil novel ''
Veera Yuga Nayagan Vel Paari.''
References
*Federico De Romanis and André Tchernia, ''Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India'' (New Delhi 1997)
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Ancient Greek explorers
Ancient Greek merchants
Ancient Greeks in Africa
Navigators
1st-century BC Greek people
History of Kerala
Explorers of Asia