Etymology as a teaching tool for learning geography: Eustathios of Thessalonike’s Parekbolai on Dionysius Periegetes

Abstract

Eustathios of Thessalonike wrote several commentaries (parekbolai) on ancient authors, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Pindar (now lost), perhaps Oppian, Aristophanes (some fragments survive) and Dionysius of Alexandria’s Periegesis. Unlike the Homeric Parekbolai, those on the Periegesis has been the subject of little study, not only as a scientific work by classical philologists, but also as a literary work by Byzantinists. In this regard, this chapter delves into the didactic methodology and etymological approach of Eustathios in his Parekbolai on the Periegesis, analyzing the role of etymology in the teaching of geography and focusing on the places, geographical features, and peoples of the oikoumenē described in the Periegesis. The chapter also examines the ways in which Eustathios uses, rewrites, and adapts his sources to elucidate the etymology of the terms he discusses, and the ways in which he extends etymologies with his own remarks.