Herodotus’s Scythians and Ptolemy’s Central Asia

Type:

Book

Author:

Helmut Humbach; Klaus Faiß

Published:

2012

The present book is dedicated to semasiological and onomasiological studies on Herodotus and Ptolemy.In part A, which deals with Herodotus, are firstly discussed the names of deities and persons he collected in his famous portrayal of the Scythians of the northern Black Sea region, a well-known Iranian people, and secondly the Scythian tribes living on the northern border of Darius the Great's empire.This second step leads to part B, the main subject of our investigation, i.e., the description of the Central Asiatic countries as presented by Ptolemy in Book 6 of his "Geography," which dates from about 150 C.E. thus being ca.600 years younger.It essentially offers lists of geographical and ethnographical names of very different origins mostly preserved in bad condition.These names are philologically examined for the first time in the long tradition of Ptolemy studies.The respective instances consist, for a considerable part, of epithets of deities allowing a further insight into the religious rather than the political and cultural background of Ptolemy's time.The indexes C and D are meant to facilitate the understanding of the entries in part B.We are deeply indebted to Dr. Susanne Ziegler, whose indefatigable commitment made possible the difficult computer processing of the text versions, which was further complicated by numerous, yet necessary, changes and additions.Moreover, Dr. Ziegler not only carried out all the prepress processes, but she also had a large share in as…

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