GEOGRAPHY
OF THE ILIAD
The
Iliad and the Odyssey each evinces a tightly
controlled and neatly tailored apparatus of geographical information,
far removed from any inventive helter-skelter use of geographical
data for the purpose of enhancing meter or narrative strength.
Thus, it could easilly be assumed, these apparatuses were
preconceived endeavours, and wholly independent of a story-line
into which they were subsequently braided.
A GENERAL
RULE IN THE USE OF HOMERIC GEONYMS:
ILIAD:
No place is known for having two different names,albeit the
same name is used for two different kinds of places; for example,
ILIOS is not also TROY
(a city) , hence the inference that TROY
is the name of some other city, as well as the name of a district.
Odyssey: A place may be known to have two different names, one used
in the past and another used in the present, as in the case
of STYRA and KrounI which are both
the same promontory, but the same name may not be used for two
different places.
NOTE:
A general convention: ILIAD, I, 123-456,
Odyssey, i, 123-456; thus, STYRA
(ILIAD), Krouni (Odyssey).
TEN
UNITS OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
Each
UNIT is made up of two PARTS,
the one of PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY and the
other of SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY. Again, each
PART is made up of geographical CONCEPTS,
and each concept in turn is made up of GEONYMS,
which are one-word toponyms or ethnicons (as distinguished
from places or peoples which are described with two or more
words).
GEOGRAPHICAL
CONCEPTS = GEOGRAPHICAL
PARADIGMS
A GEOGRAPHICAL PARADIGM
is the schematic balance in the geographical distribution of
the geonyms of any geographical concept (not unlike the schematic
balance of the four cardinal points, N,
S, E and W.
This schematic balance requires three or more geonyms to establish
a realtionship with each other.
The function of each GEOGRAPHICAL PARADIGM
is to preserve the integrity of geographical information, such
that, today, three millenia after the composition of these epics,
it is possible to determine with a fair amount of certainty
the lack of a geonym which has fallen from the text, or, the
interpolation of a geonym, or as in some cases, the orthographic
correction according to the particular scheme of word-endings
of a given paradigm.
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