DOI:10.30842/alp23065737181302320
Podosinov A. V. Svinopodobnyye savromaty
na karte Ptolemeya? (grecheskaya epigramma na «Geografiyu»
Ptolemeya). Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2022. 18(1):
302–320.
In the article I publish a Greek poetic epigram of seven verses
from Ptolemy's “Geography”, written in hexameter and most likely
going back to ancient times; I also give a verse translation into
Russian. The main part of the article is devoted to commenting on
the content of this epigram. Its author rather primitively
described the essence of the great work of Ptolemy. Having already
called his work “Chorography”, he distorted the sense of the
efforts of the Geographer, who at the very beginning of his
“Geography” discusses the difference between chorography and
geography and intends to create the latter. The commentary aims to
clarify the realities of the text, as well as to contextualize the
epigram with regard to cartographic representations of Antiquity
and the early Middle Ages. These are the texts of Maximus Planudes,
Aurelius Cassiodorus, Divisio orbis terrarum and Eumenius,
which give descriptions of the maps. The article also examines the
ancient usus to present the oikumene through the enumeration of the
peoples inhabiting its outskirts, presented in the published
epigram. These are Ethiopians in the south, Germans in the west,
Sauromatae and Scythians in the north, Indians and Chinese in the
east. In the article I analyze the texts of Ephoros, Strabo and
Timosthenes of Rhodos, concerning this usus, and show the
development of this tradition. In the commentary an attempt is made
to determine the origin and meaning of the epithets applied to the
names of peoples in the epigram: the author calls the Ethiopians
'idle' (ἀδραμεῖς), the Germanic tribes - 'unfortunate' (δύσμορα),
the Sauromates - 'similar to pigs' (χοίροισιν ἐοικόται), as well as
'the harsh tribe of unfortunate Scythia' (αἰνομόρου Σκυθίας χαλεπὸν
γένος). The texts of Homer, Herodotus, Pseudo-Scymnos, Pomponius
Mela, Propertius, Strabo, Statius, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus,
Plutarch, Agathemerus, Cosmas Indicopleustes help to understand
these epithets - sometimes quite unexpected, and also to establish
the geographical localization of the peoples mentioned.
Keywords
Ptolemy, "Geography", epigram, ancient
cartography, eoples on the outskirts of the oikumene
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