Heracles' criticism

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Herakleides , called either Criticus ( the writer ) or Kretikos ( the Cretan ), was a Greek travel writer and geographer of early Hellenism .

person

The origin of Herakleides and its lifetime cannot be precisely determined. Attempts to identify with one of the many other bearers of this name have remained speculation. Friedrich Pfister believes that his style can identify him in the context of the Peripatetic School , where a Herakleides, son of Demetrios, is named as one of the heirs of the long-time headmaster Lykon von Troas (d. 225 BC) (Pfister, 1951 , Pp. 44-48).

plant

Herakleides wrote sometime after 280 BC BC, possibly even before the Chremonideischen War (267–261 BC), a now partially lost book About the Poleis in Greece ( FGrHist 254–264). Fragments and excerpts have survived, almost half of the work, which deal in particular with Athens , Boiotia , Euboia and Thessaly .

In his precise travelogue, the author mainly offered information on the nature of the roads, the climate, agriculture and the peculiarities of individual cities, but also pointed remarks about the respective national character, especially drastic about the Boioter.

The traditional end of the work shows that Herakleides, in the old dispute over the borders of Hellas , tended to believe that the Peloponnese did not belong to it, but that Thessaly did.

expenditure

  • Alexander Arenz : Herakleides Critique (2022) , in: Hans-Joachim Gehrke (Hrsg.), The Fragments of the Greek Historians , Part V: The Geographers . Brill Jacoby online 2014, (online) .
  • Alexander Arenz: Herakleides Critique's "About the Cities in Hellas". A periegese of Greece on the eve of the Chremonic War. Utz, Munich 2006 (= Diss. Freiburg 2005), ISBN 3-8316-0596-3 ( excerpt with table of contents online ). - (Critical edition of the fragments with introduction, interpretation and commentary)
  • Friedrich Pfister : The travel pictures of Heraklides. Introduction, text, translation and commentary with an overview of the history of Greek folklore. Vienna 1951.

literature

  • Rudolf Däbritz : Herakleides criticism. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VIII, 1, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 487 f.
  • Albrecht Dihle : Eraclide e la periegesi ellenistica. In: Francesco Prontera (ed.): Geografia storica della Grecia antica. Rome 1991, pp. 67-77.
  • Jeremy McInerney: Heraclides Criticus and the Problem of Taste. In: Ineke Sluiter, Ralph M. Rosen (Eds.): Aesthetic Value in Classical Antiquity. Brill, Leiden, Boston 2012, pp. 243-264 ( online ).
  • Jeremy McInerney: Herakleides Critique (369A). In: Ian Worthington (Ed.), Brill's New Jacoby. Brill Jacoby Online, 2014, (online) .
personal data
SURNAME Heracles' criticism
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herakleides Kretikos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek travel writer and geographer of early Hellenism
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC Chr.