In a short break from his preparations for the invasion of Scythia, Darius stops off where the Bo... more In a short break from his preparations for the invasion of Scythia, Darius stops off where the Bosporus was bridged and sails to the Dark Rocks, apparently retracing the steps of the Argonauts.1 ‘There’, Herodotus reports, ‘he sat on the headland and viewed the Pontus, a wonderful sight’ (έζόμeνος δέ έπί ρίω έθηeĩτο τόν Πόντον έόντα άξιοθέητον 4. 85. 1).2 In this paper, we aim to bring that wonderful sight to life using the latest digital technology, and to set out some of the ways in which the world that Herodotus describes can now be represented. At the same time, however, we will be concerned to show the potential of digital technologies for opening up new lines of enquiry, in particular the investigation of the ‘deep’ topological structures that underpin the Histories. After all, the Persian king is not the only figure to take an interest in the Pontus as a geographical concept: the historian too shows an interest in the Black Sea by extensively mapping the region and its place ...
In this chapter we integrate the data-capture and visualization results with more discursive and ... more In this chapter we integrate the data-capture and visualization results with more discursive and analytical approaches based on a close reading of Book 5. Book 5 begins by picking up the story of those ‘Persians whom Darius had left in Europe’, immediately locating the reader in a world that looks both forwards and backwards, recalling the high-level clash between East and West in the opening chapters, even as it seems to mark a decisive shift too in those relations—but in what way, and with what consequences for our understanding? The formalist question of the qualitative analysis—what counts as a proxy for a place?—can now be seen to mirror larger interpretative questions, especially regarding civic identity and ideology. Movement is another issue whose importance has already been identified by the previous two chapters: in the close textual analysis of chapter 9, movement can be seen as something of a running sore. The book begins with the forced movement of the Paeonians by the ...
This introductory chapter provides a background of Eric Robertson Dodds. Missing Persons was the ... more This introductory chapter provides a background of Eric Robertson Dodds. Missing Persons was the title eventually chosen by E.R. Dodds for his autobiography, published just two years before the end of his long life (1893–1979). The title was intended to bring out the disconnections and discontinuities of his life and the range of his interests. His deep engagement with modern poetry makes it unsurprising that his Bacchae commentary is still unsurpassed for bringing out the beauty and artistry of the Greek. The earnestness with which he took political issues and any public role matches his choice of the Gorgias as a subject, a dialogue that wrestles with the fundamental issue of ‘how one should live’. Ultimately, the fascination with human psychology is seen across the whole range of his interests. Indeed, through all his work runs that overwhelming interest in the people and their minds, not just their words.
This chapter examines lived space in Herodotus's Histories' and explores how the picture ... more This chapter examines lived space in Herodotus's Histories' and explores how the picture that emerges differs from abstract depictions of space. Such overly schematic representations we see articulated by the Persians at the very beginning of the Histories, or explicitly challenged by Herodotus when he 'laughs at' the maps produced by his Ionian contemporaries that similarly divide the world into two regions of equal size (4.36.2), or more subtly undercut when Aristagoras turns up with just such a map and puts it to service an argument in favour of conquest. In particular, we want to challenge conventional readings of a polarised world of East versus West, which, while grounded in Herodotus's concern to show how 'Greeks and barbarians came into conflict with each other' (1.1), fail to take into account either Herodotus's implicit rejection of the Persian model of an Asia-Europe divide in favour of an inquiry that recognises that places change over tim...
HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded SpaceText-Imaging Archive) is an interdisciplinary project, sponsor... more HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded SpaceText-Imaging Archive) is an interdisciplinary project, sponsored by the AHRC and involving the collaboration of academics from Classics, Geography and Archaeological Computing, that aims to enrich contemporary discussions of space by developing an innovative methodology to the study of an ancient narrative, Herodotus’ Histories. Using the latest ICT, it investigates the ways in which space is represented in the Histories, and develops visual tools to capture the ‘deep’ topological structures of the text, extending beyond the usual two-dimensional Cartesian maps of the ancient world. In addition to exploring the network culture that Herodotus represents, one of its stated outcomes is to introduce Herodotus’ world to new audiences via the internet. This paper will set out in more detail that methodology, paying particular attention to the decisions that we have made and the problems that we have encountered, in the hope that our project can contribut...
Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investig... more Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investigating and representing geographical concepts in Herodotus: the case of the Black Sea. In: The Bosporus: Gateway between the Ancient West and East (1st Millennium BC–5th Century AD) (Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.; Atasoy, Sümer; Avram, Alexandru; Donmez, Sevket and Hargrave, James eds.), BAR International Series, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 7–17.
Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investig... more Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investigating and representing geographical concepts in Herodotus: the case of the Black Sea. In: The Bosporus: Gateway between the Ancient West and East (1st Millennium BC–5th Century AD) (Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.; Atasoy, Sümer; Avram, Alexandru; Donmez, Sevket and Hargrave, James eds.), BAR International Series, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 7–17.
In a short break from his preparations for the invasion of Scythia, Darius stops off where the Bo... more In a short break from his preparations for the invasion of Scythia, Darius stops off where the Bosporus was bridged and sails to the Dark Rocks, apparently retracing the steps of the Argonauts.1 ‘There’, Herodotus reports, ‘he sat on the headland and viewed the Pontus, a wonderful sight’ (έζόμeνος δέ έπί ρίω έθηeĩτο τόν Πόντον έόντα άξιοθέητον 4. 85. 1).2 In this paper, we aim to bring that wonderful sight to life using the latest digital technology, and to set out some of the ways in which the world that Herodotus describes can now be represented. At the same time, however, we will be concerned to show the potential of digital technologies for opening up new lines of enquiry, in particular the investigation of the ‘deep’ topological structures that underpin the Histories. After all, the Persian king is not the only figure to take an interest in the Pontus as a geographical concept: the historian too shows an interest in the Black Sea by extensively mapping the region and its place ...
In this chapter we integrate the data-capture and visualization results with more discursive and ... more In this chapter we integrate the data-capture and visualization results with more discursive and analytical approaches based on a close reading of Book 5. Book 5 begins by picking up the story of those ‘Persians whom Darius had left in Europe’, immediately locating the reader in a world that looks both forwards and backwards, recalling the high-level clash between East and West in the opening chapters, even as it seems to mark a decisive shift too in those relations—but in what way, and with what consequences for our understanding? The formalist question of the qualitative analysis—what counts as a proxy for a place?—can now be seen to mirror larger interpretative questions, especially regarding civic identity and ideology. Movement is another issue whose importance has already been identified by the previous two chapters: in the close textual analysis of chapter 9, movement can be seen as something of a running sore. The book begins with the forced movement of the Paeonians by the ...
This introductory chapter provides a background of Eric Robertson Dodds. Missing Persons was the ... more This introductory chapter provides a background of Eric Robertson Dodds. Missing Persons was the title eventually chosen by E.R. Dodds for his autobiography, published just two years before the end of his long life (1893–1979). The title was intended to bring out the disconnections and discontinuities of his life and the range of his interests. His deep engagement with modern poetry makes it unsurprising that his Bacchae commentary is still unsurpassed for bringing out the beauty and artistry of the Greek. The earnestness with which he took political issues and any public role matches his choice of the Gorgias as a subject, a dialogue that wrestles with the fundamental issue of ‘how one should live’. Ultimately, the fascination with human psychology is seen across the whole range of his interests. Indeed, through all his work runs that overwhelming interest in the people and their minds, not just their words.
This chapter examines lived space in Herodotus's Histories' and explores how the picture ... more This chapter examines lived space in Herodotus's Histories' and explores how the picture that emerges differs from abstract depictions of space. Such overly schematic representations we see articulated by the Persians at the very beginning of the Histories, or explicitly challenged by Herodotus when he 'laughs at' the maps produced by his Ionian contemporaries that similarly divide the world into two regions of equal size (4.36.2), or more subtly undercut when Aristagoras turns up with just such a map and puts it to service an argument in favour of conquest. In particular, we want to challenge conventional readings of a polarised world of East versus West, which, while grounded in Herodotus's concern to show how 'Greeks and barbarians came into conflict with each other' (1.1), fail to take into account either Herodotus's implicit rejection of the Persian model of an Asia-Europe divide in favour of an inquiry that recognises that places change over tim...
HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded SpaceText-Imaging Archive) is an interdisciplinary project, sponsor... more HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded SpaceText-Imaging Archive) is an interdisciplinary project, sponsored by the AHRC and involving the collaboration of academics from Classics, Geography and Archaeological Computing, that aims to enrich contemporary discussions of space by developing an innovative methodology to the study of an ancient narrative, Herodotus’ Histories. Using the latest ICT, it investigates the ways in which space is represented in the Histories, and develops visual tools to capture the ‘deep’ topological structures of the text, extending beyond the usual two-dimensional Cartesian maps of the ancient world. In addition to exploring the network culture that Herodotus represents, one of its stated outcomes is to introduce Herodotus’ world to new audiences via the internet. This paper will set out in more detail that methodology, paying particular attention to the decisions that we have made and the problems that we have encountered, in the hope that our project can contribut...
Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investig... more Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investigating and representing geographical concepts in Herodotus: the case of the Black Sea. In: The Bosporus: Gateway between the Ancient West and East (1st Millennium BC–5th Century AD) (Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.; Atasoy, Sümer; Avram, Alexandru; Donmez, Sevket and Hargrave, James eds.), BAR International Series, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 7–17.
Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investig... more Barker, Elton; Bouzarovski, Stefan; Isaksen, Leif and Pelling, Chris (2013). Extracting, investigating and representing geographical concepts in Herodotus: the case of the Black Sea. In: The Bosporus: Gateway between the Ancient West and East (1st Millennium BC–5th Century AD) (Tsetskhladze, Gocha R.; Atasoy, Sümer; Avram, Alexandru; Donmez, Sevket and Hargrave, James eds.), BAR International Series, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 7–17.
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