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

Follows the extraordinary record of ancient Greek thought on Hyperborea as a case study of cosmography and anthropological philology.

Renaud Gagné (Author)

9781108833233, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 April 2021

568 pages, 16 b/w illus.
22.2 x 14.4 x 3.2 cm, 0.79 kg

'A truly extraordinary study of the reasons that and the ways in which different texts and traditions in ancient Greece constructed worlds based upon a notion of Hyperborea. This is a brilliant work that opens up a host of new and exciting questions concerning the workings of religion and culture in ancient Greece.' Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

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.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Cosmography
Part I. Sanctuaries of Cosmography: 1. Hyperborea Between Cult and Song
2. Cosmography and Epiphany
Part II. Cosmography, Periods and Genres
3. The Wondrous Road: Archaic Travel Narrative
4. Hyperborea and the Classical Economies of Knowledge
5. Impossible Worlds? Hellenistic Reconfigurations
Conclusion: Further Trajectories
Glossary
Bibliography
Index Locorum
General Index.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]