The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction - Couverture rigide

Romm, James S.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0691069336 ISBN 13 : 9780691069333

Editeur : Princeton University Press, 1992

Synopsis

For the Greeks and Romans, the Earth's furthest 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. This survey reveals 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. The tradition described by Romm emerged in Homer and Hestiod, whose imaginative geography defined the Earth by giving it boundaries - the river Ocean, the Pillars of Heracles, and other mythical forms of circumscription. Other Greek authors developed exotic literary landscapes by filling these "limits" with idealized human societies and bizarre or monstrous animal life, while the Romans adapted the concept of perimeters to goals of imperial conquest. As Hellenistic and Roman voyages of exploration failed to confirm the fancied landscapes, the tradition came to be seen as one in which invented narratives had masqueraded as truths. As a result, some of late antiquity's most daring innovations seized on geography as a theme for prose fiction, and the explorer's log became an important antecedent of the early modern novel.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

James S. Romm is Assistant Professor of Classics at Bard College.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Princeton University Press
• Date d'édition: 1992
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0691069336
• ISBN 13: 9780691069333
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 252
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible