RATIONES RERUM 27: Articolo Massimo Di Marco

Descrizione

Rationes Rerum 27

MASSIMO DI MARCO
Ellanico e la “carta” di Ecateo. Per una revisione dell’esegesi di FGrHist 4 T13

According to most scholars, Strabo (1, 1, 11) credits Hecataeus with being the first to compose a work of geography covering the whole inhabited world, while denying that he, like Anaximander, also produced a geographical map. This article sets out to show that this interpretation is groundless: the γράμμα of Hecataeus mentioned by Strabo is not the Periegesis, but rather the map designed to accompany that work. Agathemerus (1, 1) states unambiguously that Hecataeus produced a map, and the sentence that follows, Ἑλλάνικος … ἀπλάστως παρέδωκε τὴν ἱστορίαν, does not mean that «Hellanicus handed down the fruits of his research unaccompanied by any map» or «transmitted his history without artistry», but rather «he handed down the story (scil. of Hecataeus’ map and of the admiration it aroused) without indulging in invention». This in turn suggests that the citation of Hellanicus as a source for Hecataeus’ map already stood in Eratosthenes, from whom both Strabo and Agathemerus derive their information.