Cosmography and the Idea of Hyperborea in Ancient Greece: A Philology of Worlds

Description

Cosmography is defined here as the rhetoric of cosmology: the art of composing worlds. The mirage of Hyperborea, which played a substantial role in Greek religion and culture throughout Antiquity, offers a remarkable window into the practice of composing and reading worlds. This book follows Hyperborea across genres and centuries, both as an exploration of the extraordinary record of Greek thought on that further North and as a case study of ancient cosmography and the anthropological philology that tracks ancient cosmography. Trajectories through the many forms of Greek thought on Hyperborea shed light on key aspects of the cosmography of cult and the cosmography of literature. The philology of worlds pursued in this book ranges from Archaic hymns to Hellenistic and Imperial reconfigurations of Hyperborea. A thousand years of cosmography is thus surveyed through the rewritings of one idea. This is a book on the art of reading worlds slowly. Cover Half-title page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents List ofIllustrations Acknowledgements List ofAbbreviations Introduction Cosmography A Hyperborean Tree Philological Worlds Appendix A: Pindar, Olympian 3 Part I Sanctuaries of Cosmography Chapter 1 Hyperborea between Cult and Song Epidēmia and Apodēmia Νικηφόρος Βορέω: A Bone Tablet from Berezan/Olbia Delphic Foundations Delos and the Hyperborean Maidens Appendix B: Alcaeus’ Hymn to Apollo Appendix C: References to Olen Chapter 2 Cosmography and Epiphany Seeing the God’s Arrival Epiphanic Geography Stone Epiphanies The East Pediment of the Alcmaeonid Temple Apollo and Dionysus: Plutarch and Divine Alternance Pausanias and the Galatian Shields Part II Cosmography, Periods and Genres Chapter 3 The Wondrous Road: Archaic Travel Narrative Mapping Trajectories from Hyperborea Reaching Hyperborea: Pindar, Pythian 10 and Bacchylides 3 Homeric Antecedents? The Hesiodic Periodos Gēs Aristeas of Proconnesus Chapter 4 Hyperborea and the Classical Economies of Knowledge Tragic Cosmographies Expansions of Wisdom Pythagorean Appropriations Early Prose Cosmography Herodotean Incorporations Chapter 5 Impossible Worlds? Hellenistic Reconfigurations The Archive and the Encyclopaedists Vestige and Parody Northern Utopias in Alexandria and Babylon Cosmopolitics and Eschatology in Athens Conclusion Further Trajectories The Archive Strikes Back Hyperboreans at the Gates Reading Worlds Slowly Glossary Bibliography Index locorum General index