Herodotus and Scythia: on his Geographical Knowledge

ODA, Takeo

Since the book by Hecateus on geography is only extant in fragments, the " History " of Herodotus is invaluable in denoting the geographical knowledge of the earlier Geeks. Above all, the description of Scythia in the fourth vol- ume of his book is the most detailed and excellent as far as the authors of the Greco-Roman period are concerned. As a matter of fact, Scythia, with the plain of southern Russia as its hinterland, was the granary of Greece; Greek colonies were founded along the northern coast of the Black Sea, a large number of Greeks frequented this area, and Herodotus himself visited Scythia. Further, it is to be noted that the geographical knowledge of Herodotus reaches, beyond Scythia, the Ural mountain area as the starting point of the trade-route of gold. However, it is dubious to conclude by identifying the Issedones in Herodotus' History with those in the work of Ptolemy which states that the eastward trade-route from Scythia reached the Tarim Basin across the Altai range. The latter's placing of the Issedones is affected by the wrong description by Marinus of Tyrus. Thus, from the fact that Herodotus describes the Issedones to be in opposition to the Massagetae, it is probable that the Issedones were natives in western Siberia, and that the ancient trade-route from Scythia led to western Siberia by way of the Ural range.

Herodotus and Scythia: on his Geographical Knowledge

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