antipodes

n.

properly a Greek word, the pluralof 'antipous, lit. «having feet opposed.» Theancients, however, had no knowledge of the southern hemisphere.Under the word perioikos, Liddell and Scott explain that 'antipodes meant «those who were in opposite parallelsand meridians.» The word Antipodes was adopted into theLatin language, and occurs in two of the Fathers, Lactantiusand Augustine. By the mediaeval church to believe in theantipodes was regarded as heresy. `O.E.D.' quotes two examplesof the early use of the word in English.

1398. `Trevisa Barth. De P. R.,' xv. lii. (1495), p. 506:

«Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that have theyr feteayenst our fete.»

1556. `Recorde Cast. Knowl.,' 93:

«People . . . called of the Greeks and Latines also 'antipodes, Antipodes, as you might sayCounterfooted, or Counterpasers.»

Shakspeare uses the word in five places, but, though he knewthat this «pendent world» was spherical, his Antipodes were notAustralasian. In three places he means only the fact that itis day in the Eastern hemisphere when it is night in England.

`Midsummer Night's Dream,' III. ii. 55:

«I'll believe as soon

This whole earth may be bored, and that the moon

May thro' the centre creep and so displease

His brother's noontide with the Antipodes.»

`Merchant of Venice,' V. 127:

«We should hold day with the Antipodes

If you would walk in absence of the sun.»

`Richard II.,' III. ii. 49:

«Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,

Whilst we were wandering with the Antipodes.»

In `Henry VI.,' part 3, I. iv. 135, the word more clearlydesignates the East:

«Thou art as opposite to every good

As the Antipodes are unto us,

Or as the South to the Septentrion.» [ sc. the North.]

But more precise geographical indications are given in `Much Ado,' II. i. 273, where Benedick is so anxious to avoid Beatrice that he says – – «I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes thatyou can devise to send me on. I will fetch you a tooth-pickernow from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length ofPrester John's foot; fetch you a hair of the great Kam's beard;do you any embassage to the Pygmies rather than hold threewords conference with this harpy.»

Now the Pygmies lived on the Upper Nile, near Khartoum,

Prester John in India, and the great Kam (Khan) in Tartary.

The word Antipodes in modern use is applied rather toplaces than to people. Geographically, the word means a placeexactly opposite on the surface of the globe, as AntipodesIsland (Eastward of New Zealand), which is very near theopposite end of the diameter of the globe passing throughLondon. But the word is often used in a wider sense, and thewhole of Australasia is regarded as the Antipodes of GreatBritain.

The question is often asked whether there is any singular tothe word Antipodes, and `O.E.D.' shows that antipode isstill used in the sense of the exact opposite of aperson. Antipod is also used, especially playfully. Theadjectives used are Antipodal and Antipodean.

1640. Richard Brome [Title]:

«The Antipodes; comedy in verse.» [Acted in 1638, firstprinted 4t0. 1640.]