119
5.2.2 Markianos
Also telling are passages where a series of orientations are systematically enumerated in rapid succession, as when the late antique geographer Markianos, in his
Circumnavigation of the Outer Sea, defines a series of regions in Asia by those surrounding each; the progress of his thought being perhaps too swift to allow any
expectation that the reader should pick up on the original, non-directional meanings
of the terms:
ἡ Σουσιανὴ κεῖται μὲν ἐν τῷ Περσικῷ κόλπῳ· περιορίζεται δὲ ἀπὸ μὲν ἄρκτων τῇ
Ἀσσυρίᾳ, ἀπὸ δὲ δύσεως τῇ προειρημένῃ Βαβυλωνίᾳ παρὰ τὸ τοῦ Τίγριδος ποταμοῦ
μέρος τὸ μέχρι θαλάσσης, ἀπὸ δὲ ἀνατολῆς τῇ Περσίδι, ἀπὸ δὲ μεσημβρίας τῷ Περσικῷ
κόλπῳ […]
Sousiane lies in the Persian gulf. It is bounded on the north (apo arktōn, lit. ‘from the
bears’) by Assyria; on the west (apo dyseōs, lit. ‘from the settings’) by the aforementioned
Babylonia beside this part of the river Tigris as far as the sea; on the east (apo anatolēs, lit.
‘from the rising’) by Persis; and on the south (apo mesēmbrias, lit. ‘from the midday’) by
the Persian gulf […]
The passage echoes much earlier usage, such as that of Herodotos in the fifth
century bc, describing Ionia (1. 142):
οὔτε γὰρ τὰ ἄνω αὐτῆς χωρία τὠυτὸ ποιέει τῇ ᾿Ιωνίῃ οὔτε τὰ κάτω, οὔτε τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἠῶ
οὔτε τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἑσπέρην
For neither do the places above it behave in the same way as Ionia, nor do those below it
43 ;
neither do those to the east of it (pros tēn ēō, lit. ‘towards the dawn’) or to the west (pros tēn
hesperēn, lit. ‘towards the evening’).
Again, a rapid accumulation of orientations makes the non-cardinal connotations
irrelevant, and we should translate using standard cardinal directions.
5.3 ‘There’s a Bitter East Wind and the Fields are Swaying’:
Primary Meaning Present
Other passages, however, make it hard not to be aware of the original, primary sense
of a term. This is particularly the case when a directional expression is a phrase
composed of two or more words (other than a simple preposition-plus-noun phrase),
where a syntactical relationship is created between the terms. Among these, perhaps
the most telling are those that refer to the stages of the sun’s daily movement, such
as ‘the rising sun’ or ‘the setting(s) of the sun’, where it is hard to suppose that the
author does not intend us to acknowledge the metonymy, recognizing the primary
43 One would normally take ἄνω (anō), ‘up’, to mean ‘up-country’, i.e. ‘inland’; but here it is
opposed to κάτω (katō), ‘down’, which cannot mean ‘out at sea’. Possibly Herodotos is thinking
of spatial relationships on a display map of the kind that Aristagoras of Miletos possessed (5. 49).
Sun, Sea, and Sky: On Translating Directions (and Other Terms) in the Greek Geographers
5.2.2 Markianos
Also telling are passages where a series of orientations are systematically enumerated in rapid succession, as when the late antique geographer Markianos, in his
Circumnavigation of the Outer Sea, defines a series of regions in Asia by those surrounding each; the progress of his thought being perhaps too swift to allow any
expectation that the reader should pick up on the original, non-directional meanings
of the terms:
ἡ Σουσιανὴ κεῖται μὲν ἐν τῷ Περσικῷ κόλπῳ· περιορίζεται δὲ ἀπὸ μὲν ἄρκτων τῇ
Ἀσσυρίᾳ, ἀπὸ δὲ δύσεως τῇ προειρημένῃ Βαβυλωνίᾳ παρὰ τὸ τοῦ Τίγριδος ποταμοῦ
μέρος τὸ μέχρι θαλάσσης, ἀπὸ δὲ ἀνατολῆς τῇ Περσίδι, ἀπὸ δὲ μεσημβρίας τῷ Περσικῷ
κόλπῳ […]
Sousiane lies in the Persian gulf. It is bounded on the north (apo arktōn, lit. ‘from the
bears’) by Assyria; on the west (apo dyseōs, lit. ‘from the settings’) by the aforementioned
Babylonia beside this part of the river Tigris as far as the sea; on the east (apo anatolēs, lit.
‘from the rising’) by Persis; and on the south (apo mesēmbrias, lit. ‘from the midday’) by
the Persian gulf […]
The passage echoes much earlier usage, such as that of Herodotos in the fifth
century bc, describing Ionia (1. 142):
οὔτε γὰρ τὰ ἄνω αὐτῆς χωρία τὠυτὸ ποιέει τῇ ᾿Ιωνίῃ οὔτε τὰ κάτω, οὔτε τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἠῶ
οὔτε τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἑσπέρην
For neither do the places above it behave in the same way as Ionia, nor do those below it
43 ;
neither do those to the east of it (pros tēn ēō, lit. ‘towards the dawn’) or to the west (pros tēn
hesperēn, lit. ‘towards the evening’).
Again, a rapid accumulation of orientations makes the non-cardinal connotations
irrelevant, and we should translate using standard cardinal directions.
5.3 ‘There’s a Bitter East Wind and the Fields are Swaying’:
Primary Meaning Present
Other passages, however, make it hard not to be aware of the original, primary sense
of a term. This is particularly the case when a directional expression is a phrase
composed of two or more words (other than a simple preposition-plus-noun phrase),
where a syntactical relationship is created between the terms. Among these, perhaps
the most telling are those that refer to the stages of the sun’s daily movement, such
as ‘the rising sun’ or ‘the setting(s) of the sun’, where it is hard to suppose that the
author does not intend us to acknowledge the metonymy, recognizing the primary
43 One would normally take ἄνω (anō), ‘up’, to mean ‘up-country’, i.e. ‘inland’; but here it is
opposed to κάτω (katō), ‘down’, which cannot mean ‘out at sea’. Possibly Herodotos is thinking
of spatial relationships on a display map of the kind that Aristagoras of Miletos possessed (5. 49).
Sun, Sea, and Sky: On Translating Directions (and Other Terms) in the Greek Geographers