Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum Enough, the 17Th Century Churchman Br J Sports Med: First Published As on 4 October 2006

WARM UP 815

WARM UP the Etruscan town of Atria which ...... formerly gave the name of Atriatic to the sea now called the Adriatic.’’2 As if Roman confusion wasn’t

Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum enough, the 17th Century churchman Br J Sports Med: first published as on 4 October 2006. Downloaded from and scholar John Lightfoot mentions a P McCrory very different set of seas in his Commentary on the New Testament.A ...... chapter titled The Seven Seas according to the Talmudists, and the four Rivers compass- ing the Land includes the ‘‘Great Sea’’ o paraphrase Billy Connolly, there is depended upon the context and local (now called the Mediterranean Sea), the something that definitely sounds geography. Apparently the first refer- ‘‘Sea of Tiberias’’ (Sea of Galilee), the Twindswept and interesting about ence to this magical number of seas was ‘‘Sea of Sodom’’ (Dead Sea), the ‘‘Lake the dream of sailing the seven seas. in a song or hymn written about 2300 1 of Samocho’’, and the ‘‘Sibbichaean’’. Certainly Mrs Connolly seems to have BC in Sumer. In ancient Greek litera- Obviously he couldn’t count either. thoroughly embraced the idea, if her ture, the ‘‘seven’’ seas were arbitrary In the late 19th Century, Rudyard recent biography is anything to go by. and were usually seven out of the Kipling published a volume of poems But have you ever thought of just what following list of nine bodies of water— The Seven Seas (1896) and dedicated it to are the seven seas? I was reminded of Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Arabian Sea, the City of Bombay. Unfortunately he this recently when my 9 year old Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Indian Ocean, did not specify which particular classi- daughter asked me this question after Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and the fication he preferred! watching the Pirates of the Caribbean and Persian Gulf. Finally, some modern geographical having named the oceans (that I knew) Just to confuse the issue, the Romans classification schemes count seven she quickly pointed out that it didn’t used the term in an entirely different oceans in the world—North Pacific tally up to seven. This glaring lack of context. The navigable network of Ocean, South Pacific Ocean, North knowledge was right up there with my channels in the mouth of the Po river, Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, theory that the Chinese built the Great which discharge into the saltmarshes on Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and the Wall to keep rabbits out of their back- the Adriatic shore, were also called the Arctic Ocean. yards. Clearly my antipodean schooling ‘‘Seven Seas’’. Pliny the Elder, a Roman Any questions? has been lacking in several key areas of author and fleet commander, wrote Br J Sports Med 2006;40:815 classical knowledge. Perhaps I was away about these lagoons, separated from that day. the open sea by sandbanks: My research has now revealed the ‘‘All those rivers and trenches were following facts: first made by the Etruscans, thus REFERENCES http://bjsm.bmj.com/ Medieval Arabic and European litera- discharging the flow of the river across 1 Meador BD, (Translator and editor), Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High. ture often spoke of the ‘‘Seven Seas’’; the marshes of the Atriani called the University of Texas, 2001. ISBN 0292752423. however, which particular seas Seven Seas, with the famous harbor of 2 Pliny the Elder. Historia Naturalis, III 120[1]. on September 24, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright.