Sailing the 7 Seas - Where are they ? And why are there 9!???

[David_Old_Jersey]

Planning (far far ahead in the future!) - no real destination in mind, but thought it would be kinda cool to be able to answer the question "where have you been", with "I have sailed the 7 seas"............I was however somewhat surprised to find that (according to Wikipedia) their are in fact 9 of them!

"Medieval European and Arabic literature often spoke of the Seven Seas. Which seven seas are intended depends on the context. The "Seven Seas" was a commonplace phrase in many ancient literatures before it was taken up by the Greeks and Romans; it appears in a translation of one of Enheduanna's hymns to Inanna (Hymn 8), written about 2300 BC in Sumer (Meador 2001). The number seven has ancient magic of its own in many traditions, informing many groupings of seven. "Seven" as an indefinite number remains for a long time synonymous with "several", as in the Greek Seven Seas[1]. In Greek and Western culture, the "seven" seas were arbitrary and changed over time, varying depending upon the part of the world and the period of time. However, they were usually seven out of the following list of nine bodies of water:"

• Adriatic Sea
• Aegean Sea
• Arabian Sea
• Black Sea
• Caspian Sea
• Indian Ocean
• Mediterranean Sea
• Persian Gulf
• Red Sea

I can't say that up to now I have given this a great deal of thought.

"Sailing the 7 Seas" has for me just been a saying that has been known since I was a kid, and means "have been sailing everywhere" and is a phrase usually used by 16th and 17th Century Privateers (Hey, my Ancestors were NOT Pirates, we had licences ).

It is surprisingly hard to pick "just" 7 Seas!! - I guess the solution is to do all 9??.......BUT, interestingly (??!) if I had to name the 7 off the top of my head I would have chosen:

• Mediteranean Sea
• Indian Ocean
• The Carribean
• Black Sea
• The Pacific Ocean
• The Atlantic Ocean
• The South China Sea

........which add a couple more

I wonder if my GPS has a button for "Goto the 7 Seas" ??