Greek Geographers

Q- Discuss the contributions of Greek Geogrephers to
the development of Geographical knowledge.

GREEK GEOGRAPHERS
The Greeks were pioneers in many branches of knowledge
including geography. Greeks borrowed a number of ideas and
concepts of astronomy, mathematics and geometry from
Egyptians and Mesopotamians. The geographical knowledge for
ancient Greeks was, however, limited to the islands and
countries adjacent or near to Greece and the areas surrounding
the Aegean Sea.
(1) Homer
The most famous of the Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey
were written by Homer.
The Odyssey describes the wandering and return of Odysseus
(the main hero of the epic) to Ithaca after the down fall of Troy.
He was blown ofcourse by a strong storm and could reach
home after twenty years. The epic contains a geographical
account of the distant places visited by Odysseus in course of
his long journey. These epics include valuable information
about places and routes and thus, initiated the literary tradition
in the contemporary Greek geographical thinking.
(2) Thales
Thales is regarded as first Greek to have devoted attention to
the measurement and location of places on the earth's surface.
Thales himself was successful businessman. In the course of a
business trip to Egypt, he had been greatly impressed by the
geometrical tradition of the Egyptians in the measurement and
computation of areas. He had introduced some of these ideas
among the Greeks.
He visualized the earth as a disc floating in water. He is also
known for his cosmology based on water as the essence of all
matter from which all visible features of the earth were made.
(3) Anaximander
He is credited with the introduction of the idea of a sundial
known as 'Gnomon' into the Greek world. It consists of a pole
set vertically over a flat surface to measure the varying position
of the sun by measuring the direction and length of the shadow
cast by the pole. The shadow of the pole showed shortest at
noon and provided the exact north-south direction which was
used for determining the true longitude of the relevant place.
Anaximander prepared a map of known world to scale in which
Greek was shown in the centre.
(4) Hecataeus
Hecataeus originated the literary tradition in the writing of
geography. His famous book 'Periodus Ges' (description of the
earth) was published in two volumes in 520 B.C. This book is
regarded as the first known effort to synthesize available
geographical knowledge about the world. Periodus is the first
systematic description of world geography. First volume of this
book includes the description of Europe and second volume is
devoted to Africa and Asia.
(5) Herodotus
In his history of the Greek struggle with the Barbarians,
Herodotus described various places visited by him. He firmly
believed that all history must be treated geographically and
that all geography must be studied historically.
He attempted to explain the annual fluctuations in the flow of
the River Nile and the process responsible for the origins of
deltas at the mouth of the river at Miletus.
Herodotus prepared a map of known world to Greeks in which
Mediterranean Sea was shown in the centre surrounded by
land masses.
(6) Plato
Plato was perhaps the first scholar who put forward the
concept of a spherical earth located in the centre of the
universe, and the sun, moon and all the other heavenly bodies
move around it. But he offered no evidence as proof that the
earth is round.
Plato proposed in his book 'Republic a famous plan for society
which would have divided the population into three principal
classes corresponding to the functions of the soul e.g. lowest
class, middle class, and highest class.
(7) Aristotle
He asserted that form and matter are of equal importance,
both are eternal, and neither can exists without each other. The
union of these two gives universe its character.
He also described the shape and zones of the earth presenting
factual examples.
(8) Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes is referred to as the Father of Geography.
Eratosthenes set forth a stamp on the study of the earth's
surface as the home of man that still persists. He also wrote a
descriptive work called the 'Geographica' Although the work is
no longer extant, it is known to have contained the first
recorded use of the word geography.
Eratosthenes regarded the earth as a sphere placed in the
centre of the universe, round which the celestial bodies
revolves every twenty-four hours. He also regarded that the
sun and the moon had independent motions of their own. His
these ideas are in conformity with present day geographers.
Eratosthenes succeeded to measure the length of equator or
the circumference of the earth.
Eratosthenes also attempted to measure the distance of the
sun and moon from the earth, but his results were far from
accurate. Using the then available indigenous instruments
Eratosthenes attempted to determine various latitudes and
longitudes also.
Eratosthenes also provided latitudinal boundaries to the five
major climatic zones: one torrid (tropical) zone, two temperate
zones and two frigid zones.
(9) Hipparchus
He discovered the precession of the equinoxes and calculated
the length of the year and divided the circle into 360 degrees.
In the latter half of the second country B.C. Hipparchus defined
a grid of latitudes and longitudes for the earth and pointed out
that the earth makes one complete revolution in 24 hours and
thus it covers a journey of 360 degrees in a day. In this way the
earth in its movement covers 15 degrees of longitude in one
hour.
On the basis of latitudes, Hipparchus divided the world into
climata, the belts of latitudes. He also pointed out that equator
was great circle that divides the earth into two equal parts.
(10) Posidonius
Posidonius insisted that the lands of highest temperatures and
driest deserts were located in the temperate zones near the
tropics not near the equator. His conclusion was based on
assumption because he had no access to authentic reports,
from anyone who had crossed the Sahara desert.
Posidonius also calculated the circumference of the earth
18000 miles (28,800km).

Greek Geographers

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Greek Geographers

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Q- Discuss the contributions of Greek Geogrephers to

the development of Geographical knowledge.

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