Myths on the Map - The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece

Myths on the Map brings together contributions from leading scholars of Greek myth, literature, history, and archaeology to explore the intricate ways in which myth interacted with the physical and conceptual landscapes of antiquity. It highlights in particular the plurality and pervasiveness of such interactions.

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. Th e 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.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

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