Real and theoretical boundaries : human geography in Herodotus
Date
1998
Authors
Small, Margaret Ann
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Herodotus' interest in the geography of the world was governed by his fascination with humanity. To his mind humans and their environment were interrelated. In an era when the majority of geographical writing did not focus solely upon the human world, but set this world into a universal context, Herodotus studied only the inhabited world, the oikoumene. Herodotus saw the world as divided into loosely-defined zones of inhabitation. At the heart of the world lay Greece, a region where owing to climate and environment the people were the bravest. Greece provided the standard of normality. The further one ventured from this region the more bizarre the inhabitants; their characteristics were determined by the region they inhabited. At the furthest reaches of the oikoumene the lands were weird and wonderful their inhabitants correspondingly peculiar and almost unhuman. Beyond these regions lay the eremoi territories - uninhabitable regions which thus provided boundaries to the world and to investigation. Once outside the inhabited world certainty was impossible so all knowledge must be based to a greater or lesser degree on speculation. Herodotus, who placed importance on investigation rather, did not discuss any region outside the realm of potential investigation. Nonetheless, although Herodotus placed importance upon the idea of investigation, he did not adhere strictly to the principle of empiricism, but was influenced by the philosophical beliefs of his day. Like the majority of intellectuals of his day he believed in the idea of limit, demonstrating that all ethnographically - determined regions were separated from one another by natural boundaries which could not be transgressed without repercussion. The theoretical notions of balance, reciprocity, symmetry and limit pervade his geographical thought and provide the means with which he connected humans and their environment.
This thesis begins with a survey of the major trends in Herodotean scholarship over the last century. While not specifically geographically oriented this scholarship has provided much background material for the study of Herodotean geography.
The thesis continues with a study of the geographical ideas extant at the time of Herodotus. Although Herodotus used the empirical information which was filtering into Greek geographical writings, he derided the majority of his predecessors' ideas because they seemed to him speculative, founded either upon theory or myth.
Chapter Three is a discussion of the outer boundaries of the world as described by Herodotus who had rejected the traditional theoretical idea of Ocean as unfounded. The eremoi regions at the edges of the oikoumene formed these boundaries. The idea of zones of inhabitation is also important in this chapter, since the eremoi were bordered by the dehumanising eschatai regions. Although the existence of these eremoi regions was supported by investigative knowledge, in describing their role as limits Herodotus also resorted to the more theoretical ideas of symmetry and balance.
Chapter Four is a study of the importance of natural boundaries in the Histories. Humans who tried to cross them in an act of aggression were hubristically attempting to exert their authority over nature and consequently suffered the penalties ordained by natural law. The limits were discernible by investigation, but the moral implications for transgressing them were the product of theory not investigation.
An examination of Herodotus' perception of the relationship between race and environment follows. Contrary to the popular ethnographic theory of a polarity between Greeks and barbarians, Herodotus adopted a theory of environmental determinism which accounted for the racial variety which he perceived in barbarian races.
The conclusion shows how these disparate aspects of Herodotus' geographical thought were related to one another, particularly by his belief in balance and reciprocity. It further demonstrates how Herodotus saw that the consequences of the violation of natural boundaries provided a lesson to the aggressive Athenians and Spartans of his own time that conquest brought inevitable repercussions for the aggressor.