Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum, Copenhagen, Denmark ©

Lighthouses helped to solve that problem and they are not a modern invention. Homer, when he wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey in 700 B.C. mentions lighthouses along the coastline of Asia Minor and elsewhere in Greece. These were not true lighthouses, in the modern sense of the word. They consisted of a simple bonfire, usually high atop a cliff, burning brightly as a fire light beacon. Fires on shore could be seen at a modest distance out to sea by the early mariners . Firelight in the dark saved lives. But when they were needed most, it was often during a storm and rain has the capability of dousing fire and extinguishing its light.