The Greek geographical tradition
Notes
For the ancient Greeks, geography was synonymous with cartography
Examples include Eratosthenes and Ptolemy.
The Greek geographers traced their tradition back to the ancient poets, Homer and Hesiod, followed by Anaximander, "then Democritus and Eudoxus and Dicaearchus, Ephorus and a large number of others; and again, their successors, Eratosthenes, Polybius and Posidonius", as Schiöth abbreviates the list given by Strabo.
Both Homer and Hesiod depicted the earth as a flat circular disc surrounded by the river Oceanus, and Anaximander is credited with the first attempt at a world map on this basis, although lost. It is reconstructed in this example from WM Commons. (FP Note: the dividing lines between continents differ from those accepted later - here the Nile divides Africa from Asia and the Phasis (modern-day Rioni in Georgia) divides Europe from Asia.):
Hecataeus is said to have improved upon Anaximander’s map. Fragments of his Circuit of the …