105
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
E. Boutsikas et al. (eds.), Advancing Cultural Astronomy, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64606-6_6
Sun, Sea, and Sky: On Translating
Directions (and Other Terms) in the Greek
Geographers
D. Graham J. Shipley
1 Introduction
The terms which a language community employs to denote natural phenomena
(such as the astronomical or the atmospheric), and to express the relationships
between them, raise particular issues when they are to be rendered meaningful in
another cultural frame of reference.
1
The present paper arises from the author’s role as editor of a collection of over
thirty geographical writings translated from ancient Greek, ranging from the early
archaic period (late eighth century bc) to late antiquity (sixth century ad or later).
2
Most of them are incomplete; many are anonymous or are attributed to an author
about whom nothing is known.
3
Despite a chronological range of some 1200 years
1 It is a pleasure to offer this study to my colleague of 30 years Clive Ruggles, whose pioneering
work, combining mathematics, ethnography, and archaeology, has radically altered our understanding of how past cultures endow the landscapes around and above them with distinctive
schemes of meaning. I thank the editors of the volume, the anonymous readers, Prof. Dr. Kai
Brodersen, Dr. Dorothea Stavrou, and for overall guidance Prof. Richard Talbert. Translations are
mine unless otherwise indicated.
2 Shipley forthcoming.
3 At the time of writing the following authors and texts are included, in approximate date order (*
indicates verse, † a Latin version of a Greek work). Archaic: Homeric Catalogue of Ships (from
Iliad, book 2); Aristeas; Skylax; Hekataios; Hanno. Classical: Hippokrates, Airs, Waters, and
Places; Pseudo-Skylax. Hellenistic: Pytheas; Dikaiarchos; Herakleides Kritikos; Timosthenes;
Eratosthenes; Mnaseas; Skymnos; Agatharchides; Hipparchos; *anon., Iambics for King
Nikomedes (‘Pseudo-Skymnos’); Artemidoros; Poseidonios; *Dionysios son of Kalliphon.
Roman: Menippos; Isidoros; Pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos; anon., Circumnavigation of the
D. G. J. Shipley (*)
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
e-mail: graham.shipley@leicester.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
E. Boutsikas et al. (eds.), Advancing Cultural Astronomy, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64606-6_6
Sun, Sea, and Sky: On Translating
Directions (and Other Terms) in the Greek
Geographers
D. Graham J. Shipley
1 Introduction
The terms which a language community employs to denote natural phenomena
(such as the astronomical or the atmospheric), and to express the relationships
between them, raise particular issues when they are to be rendered meaningful in
another cultural frame of reference.
1
The present paper arises from the author’s role as editor of a collection of over
thirty geographical writings translated from ancient Greek, ranging from the early
archaic period (late eighth century bc) to late antiquity (sixth century ad or later).
2
Most of them are incomplete; many are anonymous or are attributed to an author
about whom nothing is known.
3
Despite a chronological range of some 1200 years
1 It is a pleasure to offer this study to my colleague of 30 years Clive Ruggles, whose pioneering
work, combining mathematics, ethnography, and archaeology, has radically altered our understanding of how past cultures endow the landscapes around and above them with distinctive
schemes of meaning. I thank the editors of the volume, the anonymous readers, Prof. Dr. Kai
Brodersen, Dr. Dorothea Stavrou, and for overall guidance Prof. Richard Talbert. Translations are
mine unless otherwise indicated.
2 Shipley forthcoming.
3 At the time of writing the following authors and texts are included, in approximate date order (*
indicates verse, † a Latin version of a Greek work). Archaic: Homeric Catalogue of Ships (from
Iliad, book 2); Aristeas; Skylax; Hekataios; Hanno. Classical: Hippokrates, Airs, Waters, and
Places; Pseudo-Skylax. Hellenistic: Pytheas; Dikaiarchos; Herakleides Kritikos; Timosthenes;
Eratosthenes; Mnaseas; Skymnos; Agatharchides; Hipparchos; *anon., Iambics for King
Nikomedes (‘Pseudo-Skymnos’); Artemidoros; Poseidonios; *Dionysios son of Kalliphon.
Roman: Menippos; Isidoros; Pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos; anon., Circumnavigation of the
D. G. J. Shipley (*)
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
e-mail: graham.shipley@leicester.ac.uk