Travellers in ancient times used guidebooks, which can still inspire today

12. 08. 2022

Travel guides were known and used even by people in ancient times, most often by sailors and merchants, for whom a new genre of travel guides was created: the periplus. It contained not only practical information about sailing, but sometimes also interesting facts collected from different countries. Ancient Greece also produced guidebooks that can still be used as sightseeing guides to this day. Vladislav Knoll from the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the CAS describes ancient monuments and records preserved mainly in medieval (Byzantine) manuscripts.

Precise data on names, locations and distances, coastal relief, climatic peculiarities. Practical information that every sailor or merchant in ancient times needed on their travels was – perhaps surprisingly – easy to obtain. Peripli ("circumnavigations"), or, sailors' guides, comprised a distinct genre of ancient Greek writing and covered a large part of the then-known waterways.

"Texts have survived that describe the coasts of Europe to the Black Sea, Asia, North Africa, India, virtually the entire world known to ancient civilisation. Most of the works follow the trajectory of navigation in describing each area," says Vladislav Knoll of the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the CAS. "The authors have supplemented geographical data with purely practical information – for example, where to anchor, find drinking water, replenish supplies, or trade (and with what)."

Furry people and Fish-eaters, or, fun facts from travels

Most of the peripli try to be as objective as possible, yet some texts contain subjective descriptions, especially if the author encountered something surprising or interesting during the voyage.

"Hanno's short periplus, originally written in Phoenician in the 5th century BC, describes a journey along the African coast southwards – perhaps as far as the Gulf of Guinea, where the author writes of an encounter with furry people he calls 'Gorillai'. It was this word which was then used to name the great apes in the 19th century. And he is far from alone. Multiple authors describe encounters with the indigenous peoples – including local customs. Also interesting is the account of the customs and origins of the Ichthyofag (Fish-eaters) people," Vladislav Knoll adds.

Some of the peripli have survived as transcriptions in other works, which is also the case of Indica, the "Book of India" by Arrian of Nicomedia, which contains a retelling of the periplus by Nearchus, Alexander the Great's "admiral". Nearchus describes that strange nation of the Fish-eaters, who were said to be people turned into fish and back again. They feed only on fish, even drying some, grinding them into flour, and baking them into bread. The author remarks at this point that they have nothing else to do anyway, as their land is completely desolate.

A guide to attractions – even on Serpent Island

Sometimes, peripli and other works also describe sights, often temples, where the traveller could pay homage to one of the gods. One of the longest descriptions in a second-century travel account of the circumnavigation of the Black Sea (also by Arrian of Nicomedia) concerns the temple of Achilles on Leuké or "White Island" – now called Serpent or Zmiinyi Island – off the coast of Ukraine, which became a symbol of the current war and bravery of the Ukrainian defenders.

In addition to peripli, other guidebooks – periegeses – have become popular, which not only describe the coastline, but also take the reader inland.

"Periegeses are a type of geographical guide that educates the reader about what countries, nations, and cities exist in the world. They also serve to entertain, which is why they contain a higher number of interesting facts and allusions to mythology," Vladislav Knoll explains.

One of the most important texts was written in the 2nd century AD by Dionysius Periegetes. He refers not only to mythology, but also mentions strange natural phenomena, describing, for example, "fire blazing in the sky" (the Northern Lights) and the polar day in the area of the island of Thule somewhere in the far north, or strange creatures such as the sea monsters living around the island of Taprobane (today's Sri Lanka), which have long thorns sticking out of their backs and are capable of swallowing an entire ship along with its crew. Interestingly, perhaps because of its verse form, this text had long served as a school geography textbook as well.

To travel two thousand years back to Athens as well as the Czech Republic

"Some ancient guidebooks can be used as guides to monuments, such as Pausanias' Description of Greece and Strabo's Geographica," Vladislav Knoll says. Pausanias' Description of Greece is a travel guide in the modern sense of the word. It is a detailed guide to monuments and works of art arranged by Greek regions, within the country's cultural and historical context. Thus, if people go on holiday to Athens and stand by the ruins of the "decorated colonnade" (stoa poikilé, hence the word stoic), over which modern suburban rail cars nowadays careen carelessly, the best course of action is to consult Pausanias' guide.

"You will learn what this place looked like almost two thousand years ago, and you will be able to admire, at least in your mind, the individual magnificent paintings depicting Athenian mythology and history," Vladislav Knoll describes.

Strabo's monumental Geographica from the beginning of our era, which described the entire known world at that time, can partially work in a similar way. In describing the countries he knew, the author was also speaking about local history, customs, monuments, and "attractions". Near Rome, contemporary travellers can try asking if they still show the guaranteed-to-be-genuine cup of Ulysses, or read about the land of Buiaimon in the current area of the Czech Republic and the fate of its king Marobod, a contemporary of Strabo.

The Institute of Slavonic Studies focuses not only on Slavonic studies, but also on Byzantology, the study of the history and culture of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman (Greek-speaking) Empire.

Travellers in ancient times used guidebooks, which can still inspire today

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