Λιβύη

Cyrene, the Kingdom of Garamantes and the Ends of the World

Ancient Greek online course, 5- 28 November, 2025

Herodotus dedicates the second part of the fourth book of his Histories to Africa, but not to its most civilised part – Egypt – nor to Ethiopia, the land that the Greeks knew best through the tales of poets or the merchants’ sporadic reports. Instead, he writes of the vast territory that opens up to the south and west of Cyrene, borders Carthage, and spreads towards the Atlas Mountains and the ocean, fading from area to area into a wilder and more desolate landscape in which the very nature of man seems to dissolve. There, he says, among towering mountains, where not a drop of rain falls, people live in houses made of salt. Further away still, they have no names nor dreams.

Herodotus obtained most of his facts about Africa (Libya, in Greek) from the Greeks of Cyrene, the writings of Hecataeus and Carthaginian geographers. The resulting account, which is extremely accurate with regard to Cyrene and its surroundings, an area that Herodotus may have visited in person, is confirmed by archaeology, while the ethnographic observations on the Garamantes are corroborated by Egyptian depictions as well as the customs of modern day Berbers. Africa thus acquires the stature of a remote and mostly unknown land, from which the Greeks, through mysterious channels, derived some of their customs, such as the dress of Pallas and the technique of yoking horses into quadrigae.

In this course, which will be conducted entirely in Ancient Greek, we will follow in the footsteps of Herodotus through the deserts of Africa, starting with the coastal Greek cities and heading onto the increasingly arid fields of the farmers and shepherds of the inlands, until at last we reach the realm of snakes and wild beasts, and from there the very end of the world.

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Part 1:  Book IV of the Histories

In this module, we will read the most significant passages of the Libyan logos (IV, 145-200): starting with the description of Cyrene and its mythical foundation, we will follow Herodotus’ journey towards the west, divided, according to geographical topos, into a series of belts, each characterised by a particular type of flora and fauna and by the different customs of the inhabitants.

This part of the course will take place in seminar format via zoom (webinar) every Wednesday from 18:00 to 19:15 CET.

Each seminar will be conducted entirely in Ancient Greek (Attic).

Each session will be recorded and made available up for 12 months.

Part 2:  Writing and Conversation in Ancient Greek

Each of these sessions will be designed to provide participants with an opportunity to converse with one another and engage with them face to face on the Zoom platform.

Each of these special exercises will likewise be recorded and made available for the duration of the course.

Part 1

Book IV of the Histories

Part 2

Writing and Conversation in Ancient Greek