Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece

by: Hawes, G.

Myths on the Map
The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece
Edited by Greta Hawes
Offers a broad interdisciplinary overview of an innovative topic of central importance to the study of ancient Greek culture, history, and literature
Features cutting-edge contributions from leading scholars of Greek myth, literature, history, and archaeology
Includes accessible English translations of all passages in foreign and ancient languages
Supplements rigorous written analyses with illustrations throughout

Description
Polybius boldly declared that 'now that all places have become accessible by land or sea, it is no longer appropriate to use poets and writers of myth as witnesses of the unknown' (4.40.2). And yet, in reality, the significance of myth did not diminish as the borders of the known world expanded. Storytelling was always an inextricable part of how the ancient Greeks understood their environment; mythic maps existed alongside new, more concrete, methods of charting the contours of the earth. Specific landscape features acted as repositories of myth and spurred their retelling; myths, in turn, shaped and gave sense to natural and built environments, and were crucial to the conceptual resonances of places both unknown and known.

This volume brings together contributions from leading scholars of Greek myth, literature, history, and archaeology to examine the myriad intricate ways in which ancient Greek myth interacted with the physical and conceptual landscapes of antiquity. The diverse range of approaches and topics highlights in particular the plurality and pervasiveness of such interactions. The collection as a whole sheds new light on the central importance of storytelling in Greek conceptions of space.

Table of Contents
Frontmatter
List of Figures
List of Contributors
0:Of Myths and Maps, Greta Hawes
1:Walking through History: Unlocking the Mythical Past, Katherine Clarke
2:Cities-Before-Cities: 'Prefoundational' Myth and the Construction of Greek Civic Space, Daniel W. Berman
3:Landscapes of the Cyclopes, Richard Buxton
4:Mapping the Hellespont with Leander and Hero: 'The Swimming Lover and the Nightly Bride', Elizabeth Minchin
5:Centaurs and Lapiths in the Landscape of Thessaly, Emma Aston
6:Meddling with Myth in Thebes: A New Vase from the Ismenion Hill (Thebes Museum 49276), Stephanie Larson
7:Callimachus and the Poetics of the Diaspora, Jeremy McInerney
8:Pausanias' Arcadia, Between Conservatism and Innovation, Julie Baleriaux
9:Rivers Run Through It: Environmental History in Two Heroic Riverine Battles, Christina A. Salowey
10:Fountains as Reservoirs of Myth and Memory, Betsey A. Robinson
11:Scandalous Maps in Aeschylean Tragedy, Aara Suksi
12:Imaginary Islands in the Hellenistic Era: Utopia on the Geographical Map, Iris Sulimani
13:Imaginary Itineraries in the Beyond, Robert L. Fowler
14:Islands of Knowledge: Space and Names in Imperial Mythography, Charles Delattre
15:Serpents in the Soul: The 'Libyan Myth' of Dio Chrysostom, Richard Hunter
Endmatter
Bibliography
Index locorum
General index

Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece

by: Hawes, G.

• ISBN-13: 9780198744771 / 978-0-19-874477-1
• ISBN-03: 0198744773 / 0-19-874477-3
• Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017