On the western margin of the earth, by the stream of Ocean, lay a
happy place named the Elysian Plain, whither mortals favored by
the gods were transported without tasting of death, to enjoy an
immortality of bliss. This happy region was also called the
"fortunate fields," and the "Isles of the Blessed."

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any
real people except those to the east and south of their own
country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. Their
imagination meantime peopled the western portion of this sea with
giants, monsters, and enchantresses; while they placed around the
disk of the earth, which they probably regarded as of no great
width, nations enjoying the peculiar favor of the gods, and
blessed with happiness and longevity.

The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon were supposed to rise out of the
Ocean, on the western side, and to drive through the air, giving
light to gods and men. The stars also, except those forming
Charles' Wain or Bear, and others near them, rose out of and sank
into the stream of Ocean. There the sun-god embarked in a winged
boat, which conveyed him round by the northern part of the earth,
back to his place of rising in the east. Milton alludes to this
in his "Commmus."

"Now the gilded car of day
His golden axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantic stream,
And the slope sun his upward beam
Shoots against the dusky pole,
Pacing towards the other goal