Textual Wanderings: Homeric Scholarship and the Written Landscape of Strabo's Geography

Abstract

This article examines Strabo's attitude towards Homeric scholarship, textual emendation and the wanderings of mythical heroes. By exploring the interconnections between these themes, three broader aspects of the Geography are elucidated: the relationship between Homeric and historical truth and fiction, Strabo's self-fashioning as a consciously late Hellenistic scholar, and the significance of interpretations of past heroic wanderings as a means of exploring present geo-political concerns. The discussion focuses upon two particular casestudies: the travels of Jason and the Argonauts, and the wanderings of Aeneas. Ultimately through this examination Strabo emerges as a liminal figure who firmly straddles the divide between the worlds of past Hellenistic textual scholarship and Imperial Greek literature.