Modern translations of herodotus's histories are rarely published without at least one map appended to help orient the reader within the extensive geography through which Herodotus travels. Yet, as we saw in the preceding chapter, cartography in the classical period was not necessarily associated with the concept of orientation, but rather with a schematic overview of the general shape of the earth and its inhabited regions. The map was not a document that could easily be read, or from which specific information about routes or distances could easily be gleaned, especially by the untrained eye. Part of the reason for its eccentricity arose from the absence of an adequate technology for mapping on an extended scale, resulting in a document of limited practical use. As the descriptions of geography in prose grew more sophisticated, cartography remained relatively obscure. This is particularly evident by the time of Herodotus, who, unlike Hecataeus, chose not to “publish” (ekdounai) his prose histories alongside a drawn map of the world.

In Chapter 3, I stressed that the map played a crucial role in the emergence of the prose tradition, helping to shape the way that stories about space were told in the afterworld of epic. I suggested that the newly emerging medium of prose combined with the development of cartography to create a world picture that substituted the technological advances of the map for the supernatural vision of the Muses.