Discover 6 of the Most Famous Floating Islands Found in Ancient History
Throughout history, there have been stories of floating islands and floating cities. Many of these magical locations can be found in ancient mythology — and as it turns out, the Mediterranean was once home not just to heroes and Gods, but also to some fantastical wonders.
The idea of floating islands and floating cities isn’t a new one. In fact, humans have been talking about distant lands and floating civilizations since time immemorial, and they even show up in some of today’s best-known myths from the ancient world.
While you’ll have a hard time finding any of these magical places today, they remain places of wonder and mystery. We can find inspiration (and warning) from their design and societal structures as we take Blue Frontiers’ floating islands from concept to creation.
Aeolia — A Land That Could Control the Four Winds
After Odysseus’ narrow escape from Cyclops in Homer’s epic Odyssey, they sailed on to reach Aeolia, which floated above the sea with steep cliffs of bronze with a palace on top. Odysseus and his crew were warmly welcomed and given a bag which trapped all the winds — except the desperately-needed west wind to carry them home.
Symplegades — A Dance with Almost Certain Doom
Odysseus wasn’t the only Greek seafarer to come across strange islands on his travels. The Symplegades were two clashing rocks in the Bosporus that Jason and the Argonauts had to pass. Wily Jason sent a dove to time his passage — the dove lost its tail feathers, and the Argo lost its stern ornament. Defeated, the rocks never clashed again.
Tír na nÓg — A Mythical Kingdom of Eternal Goodness
Somewhere between the vast Atlantic and the Gaelic Otherworld is the mythical Irish floating island of Tír na nÓg, a paradisiacal “Land of the Young” where eternal youth, beauty, health, and abundance are a given. Anyone who visits remains eternally young — but if they touch mortal earth again, they will age immediately — and often horribly.
Planctae — Dangerous Waters with Roving, Deadly Rocks
Less of a floating island, Scylla and Charybdis was a treacherous passage with a deadly whirlpool to one side and jagged, wandering rocks to the other. Few sailors were foolhardy enough to attempt this journey. One was Jason and his Argonauts, who sailed between this rock and a hard place (ever wondered where that expression came from?) barely escaping their own watery grave.
Dancing Islands in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History
As one of Rome’s foremost authors, historians, and statesmen, Pliny mentioned several floating islands within present-day Italy. One, he wrote, was “pushed” from place to place to avoid wars. Pliny also wrote about the “dancers,” islands believed to move when a special chorus was sung, along with two more islands, driven around a lake by the wind.
Atlantis — The Great Lost Civilization of Abundance
No exploration of ancient floating islands could be complete without the empire of Atlantis.
Atlantis is a mystery that still grips the human imagination today. First mentioned by Plato in 360 BCE, the legend revealed a utopian city situated in the Atlantic, undone by the bad behavior of its inhabitants — a parable relevant to these modern times. One day, Atlantis disappeared without a trace, sinking to the bottom of the ocean… but could it rise again?
While these floating islands may be lost to the past, we can look to their examples for the future — especially with the linked issues of climate change, population growth, and sea level rises.
Using modern technology combined with ancient ideas, Blue Frontiers is creating a new generation of floating, habitable islands.
Stay tuned for Part II of this series about floating islands in history, fiction, and present day.
