On explaining a unique characteristic of the Nile River, Herodotus notes the following:
2.21 The second way shows more ignorance than that which has been mentioned, and it is more marvel[l]ous to tell; for it says that the river produces these effects because it flows from the Ocean, and that the Ocean flows round the whole earth.
2.23 As for him who talked about the Ocean, he carried his tale into the region of the unknown, and so he need not be refuted; since I for my part know of no river Ocean existing, but I think that Homer or one of the poets who were before him invented the name and introduced it into his verse.
Times have changed.
