The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought
by Romm, James S.Edition: Reprint
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1994-09-19
Publisher(s): Princeton Univ Pr
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Summary
For the Greeks and Romans the earth's farthest perimeter was a realm radically different from what they perceived as central and human. The alien qualities of these "edges of the earth" became the basis of a literary tradition that endured throughout antiquity and into the Renaissance, despite the growing challenges of emerging scientific perspectives. Here James Romm surveys this tradition, revealing that the Greeks, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Romans, saw geography not as a branch of physical science but as an important literary genre.
Author Biography
James S. Romm is Assistant Professor of Classics at Bard College
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. xi |
| Works Frequently Cited | p. xiii |
| Introduction: Geography as a Literary Tradition | p. 3 |
| The Boundaries of Earth | p. 9 |
| Boundaries and the Boundless | p. 11 |
| Ocean and Cosmic Disorder | p. 20 |
| Roads around the World | p. 26 |
| Herodotus and the Changing World Picture | p. 32 |
| Aristotle and After | p. 41 |
| Ethiopian and Hyperborean | p. 45 |
| The Blameless Ethiopians | p. 49 |
| The Fortunate Hyperboreans | p. 60 |
| Arimaspians and Scythians | p. 67 |
| The Kunokephaloi | p. 77 |
| Wonders of the East | p. 82 |
| Before Alexander | p. 83 |
| Marvel-Collectors and Critics | p. 94 |
| The Late Romance Tradition | p. 109 |
| Ultima Thule and Beyond | p. 121 |
| Antipodal Ambitions | p. 124 |
| The North Sea Coast | p. 140 |
| The Headwaters of the Nile | p. 149 |
| The Atlantic Horizon | p. 156 |
| Geography and Fiction | p. 172 |
| Ocean and Poetry | p. 176 |
| The Voyage of Odysseus | p. 183 |
| Pytheas, Euhemerus, and Others | p. 196 |
| The Fictions of Exploration | p. 202 |
| Epilogue: After Columbus | p. 215 |
| Index | p. 223 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
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