ISLES OF THE BLEST or FORTUNATE ISLANDS (Gr. at TON, yaKapcov vikroi., Lat., Fortunatae insulae), placed in Greek mythology in the Western ocean, and peopled, not by the dead, but by mortals upon whom the gods had conferred immor tality. Like the Phaeacian land in Homer (Od. or the Celtic Avalon and St. Brendan's island, the Isles of the Blest have per petual summer and abundance. No reference is made to them by
Homer, who speaks instead of the Elysian Plain (Od. iv. and ix.), but they are mentioned by Hesiod (Works and Days, 168) and Pindar (01. By mediaeval map-makers, Madeira and the Canaries are sometimes named Fortunatae insulae. (See