Travel Literature in Antiquity

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto)

Ed. by Vaios Liapis, Open University of Cyprus
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Places

Ancient Greece (Location)
Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Involved)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing

Resources

Recommended Reading

Travel in antiquity involves many topics, such as transportation, trade, war, exploration, geography, ethnography, migration, colonization, and tourism. Ancient narrative about travel is multi-faceted as well. There was no coherent genre of ancient travel literature, though certain tropes and discourses are discernible. This article will briefly survey the variety of ancient travel before discussing types of narratives that featured travel.

Two quotations from Homer indicate that travel can be experienced in very different ways. An arresting simile in the Iliad (15.80-83) compares the flight of Hera through the air to nostalgic thought of travel: “as when the mind races of a man who, having traveled far over the …

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1953 words

Citation: Burgess, Jonathan. "Travel Literature in Antiquity". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 May 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=7224, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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