SLIDE #105
TITLE: World view according to Homer
DATE: prior to 900 B.C.
AUTHOR: Homer
DESCRIPTION: These slides show reconstructions of the world/earth view
held by the early Greek poet Homer. The Homeric conception of the world
represented as a flat, circular disc of land surrounded by a continuous
ocean-stream remained a popular notion in the Greek world even after many
philosophers and scientists had accepted the theory of the sphericity of
the earth enunciated by the Pythagoreans and subjected to theoretical proof
by Aristotle. In this interpretation the world is like a plateau on the
top of a mountain; inside this, close to the surface of the earth, lies
the House of Hades, the realm of Death, and beneath it Tartarus,
the realm of Eternal Darkness. The plateau of the earth is surrounded by
Oceanus, the world river, and from its periphery rises the fixed
dome of the sky. The sun, the moon, and the stars rise from the waters at
the edge of the dome, move in an arc above the earth, and then sink once
again into the sea to complete their course beneath the Oceanus.
The atmosphere above the mountain of the earth is thick with clouds and
mist, but higher up is the clear Æther with its starry ceiling.
The earliest literary reference for cartography in Greece is difficult to
interpret. Its context is the description of the shield of Achilles in the
Iliad of Homer thought by modern scholars to have been written in the
8th century B.C. Since both Strabo (ca. 64/63 B.C.-A.D. 21 ) and the Stoics
claimed Homer was the founder and father of a "geographical science",
generally understood as involving both maps and treatises, it is tempting
to start a history of Greek theoretical cartography with Homer's description
of this mythical shield. If this interpretation is valid, then it must also
be accepted that Homer was describing a cosmological map. Although from
the Hellenistic Period onward the original meaning of the term geography
was a description of the earth, ge, written or drawn (mapping and
geographical descriptions were thus inseparable in the Greek world); it
is equally clear that Greek mapmaking included not only the representation
of the earth on a plane or globe, but also delineations of the whole universe.
The shield in Homer's poem, made for Achilles by Hephæstus, god of
fire and metallurgy, was evidently such a map of the universe as conceived
by the early Greeks and articulated by the poet.
Despite the literary form of the poem, it gives us a clear picture of the
various processes in the creation of this great work with its manifestly
cartographic symbolism. We are told how Hephæstus forged a huge shield
laminated with five layers of metal and with a three-layered metal rim.
The five places that made up the shield consisted of a gold one in the middle,
a tin one on each side of this, and finally two of bronze. On the front
bronze plate we are told that he fashioned his designs in a concentric pattern;
a possible arrangement is suggested in the reconstruction provided herein.
The scenes of the earth and heavens in the center, two cities (one at peace
and one at war), agricultural activity and pastoral life, and "the
Ocean, that vast and might river" around the edge of the hard shield
denote his intention of presenting a synthesis of the inhabited world as
an island surrounded by water. Hephæstus depicted the universe in
miniature on Achilles' shield, and Homer, in his poetry, only provides a
commentary on this pictorial representation. As with the Thera fresco,
which is roughly contemporaneous with the subject of Homer's poem, the juxtaposition
on the shield of scenes and actions that in reality could not occur at the
same time shows the artist's desire to portray a syncretism of human activity.
In light of the archaeological discoveries of cultures that certainly influenced
Homer's poetry, the content of Achilles' shield seems less extraordinary.
Homer was writing at a time not much earlier than the first manifestations
of what is considered the beginning of Greek science. His poem may be interpreted
as the poetic expression of macro-cosmic/micro-cosmic beliefs, held by a
society seeking to reconcile a general view of the universe with man's activity
within it. Hephæstus, the divine smith, is chosen to give a complete
image of the cosmos - earth, sea, and sky together with scenes of human
life. The main constellations - Orion, the Hyades, the Pleiades,
and the Great Bear - are described, suggesting that a tradition
had already developed of using these groups of stars to identify different
parts of the sky. The shield includes a representation of the sun and moon
shining simultaneously, again in an attempt to integrate a general knowledge
of the sky into one depiction. Even in this poetic form we can glimpse the
use of a map, almost as a heuristic device, to bring some order into concept
and observation and to codify the early Greeks' reflections on the nature
and constitution of their world.
At the same time, we should be clear that the map on Achilles' shield was
not intended to communicate a literal view of geographical knowledge of
the world as known to the early Greeks. The scenes from rural and urban
life are arranged on the surface of the shield in no apparent geographical
order. They simply present a generalized and metaphorical view of human
activity and of the profound interdependence of human beings in spite of
the variety and specialties of their pursuits. This human unity is emphasized
by the ocean encircling the whole shield, rendering the world an island.
Homer depicts no maritime activity in his social microcosm: the ocean seems
to be no more than a geometric framework for the knowable inhabited world,
a frame work W.A. Heidel considers to be the essential feature of all maps
from ancient Greece.
So detailed is Homer's description that, though clearly an imaginary map,
Achilles' shield represents a useful glimpse of the early history of efforts
to map the world. Probably much of it is conventional, and much also is
fanciful. Indeed, it was the subject of ridicule by later writers. Strabo
summarized the view:
Some men, have believed in these stories themselves and also in the wide
learning of the poet, have actually turned the poetry of Homer to their
use as a basis of scientific investigations... Other men, however, have
greeted all attempts of that sort with such ferocity that they not only
have cast out the poet.... from the whole field of scientific knowledge
of this kind, but also have supposed to be madmen all who have taken in
hand such a task as that.
But the description no doubt reflects elements present in real maps of the
time, many of which were widely used later on. Stars are named and grouped
into constellations; the limits of the known world are fixed by means of
the ocean, real or imaginary, that encircles the inhabited world; and there
is an attempt to give pride of place to human activity in this world scene.
LOCATION: (map only exists as a reconstruction)
REFERENCES:
*Berthon, S., Robinson, A., The Shape of the World (color)
Dilke, O.A.W, Greek and Roman Maps, pp. 20, 24, 36-7, 55, 62,131.
*Harley, J.B., The History of Cartography, Volume One, pp. 131-32.
Heidel, W.A., The Frame of the Ancient Greek Maps, p. 8.
*Landström, B., Bold Voyages and Great Explorers, p. 27. (color)
Wroth, L.C., The Early Cartography of the Pacific, p. 93.
*illustrated