Gaius Julius Solinus

In Buddhist texts, the first of the four noble truths is that life is suffering and dissatisfaction, or dukkha.

And if you go back to ancient Greek literature, we find the wisdom of Solinus, that best of all is not to be born, but second best is to die as quickly as possible.

So the idea that our human condition is one that is fundamentally negative is nothing new.

It's been around for a while.

So, too, the position of Paradise was fixed in the extreme east or, in other words, at the top of medieval maps.

There again, some of the classical authorities, as Pliny and Solinus, had admitted into their geographical accounts legends of strange tribes of monstrous men, strangely different from normal humanity.

Among these may be mentioned the Sciapodes, or men whose feet were so large that when it was hot, they could rest on their backs and lie in the shade.

There is a dim remembrance of these monstrosities in Shakespeare's reference to the anthropophagi and "men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." In the mythical travels of Sir John Mandeville, there are illustrations of these curious beings, one of which is here reproduced.