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India (Herodotus)
In ancient Greek geography, the Indus Basin, basin of the Indus River, was on the extreme eastern fringe of the ecumene, known world. The Greek geographer Herodotus (5th century BC) describes the land as India, calling it (Roman transliteration: ''hē Indikē chōrē'', meaning "the Indus land"), after ''Hinduš'', the Old Persian name for the satrapy of Punjab in the Achaemenid Empire. Achaemenid king, Darius the Great had Achaemenid invasion of Indus Valley, conquered this territory in 516 BC. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor (western and central Turkey) were already part of the Achaemenid Empire since 546 BC and, thus, the Greeks and Indians came into contact with each other as subjects of the Empire. Background According to Herodotus 4.44, Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek explorer sailed down the length of the Indus in the service of Darius. Hecataeus of Miletus, around 500 BC, wrote about the geography and peoples of "India", as did the Greek physician Ctesias. Most of these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Geography
;Pre-Hellenistic Classical Greece *Homer *Anaximander (died ) *Hecataeus of Miletus (died ) *Massaliote Periplus (6th century BC) *Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC) *Herodotus (died ) ;Hellenistic period *Pytheas (died ) *''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' (3rd or 4th century BC) *Megasthenes (died ) *Autolycus of Pitane (died ) *Dicaearchus (died ) *Deimakos (3rd century BC) *Timosthenes (floruit, fl. 270s BC) *Eratosthenes (c. 276–194 BC) *Scymnus (floruit, fl. 180s BC) *Hipparchus (c. 190–120 BC) *Agatharchides (2nd century BC) *Posidonius (c. 135–51 BC) *Pseudo-Scymnus (c. 90 BC) *Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–30 BC) *Alexander Polyhistor (1st century BC) ;Roman Empire period *''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' *Strabo (63 BC – AD 24) *Pomponius Mela (fl. 40s AD) *Isidore of Charax (1st century AD) *Mucianus (1st century AD) *Pliny the Elder (AD 23 – 79), ''Natural History (Pliny), Natural History'' *Marinus of Tyre (AD 70 – 130)Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (ed. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indus Basin
The Indus Basin is the part of Asia drained by the Indus River and its tributaries. The basin covers an area of traversing four countries: Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan, with most of the area lying predominantly in the latter two countries. Geography The Indus River has two main tributaries: the Panjnad—formed by successive confluences of Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum, and Chenab Rivers—and the Kabul, containing the waters of the Swat and Kunar Rivers, as well as others. The Indus and Sutlej originate on the Tibetan Plateau, the Ravi, Beas, Chenab and Jhelum originate in the Indian western Himalayas, and the Kabul and its tributaries originate in the Hindu Kush of eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The Indus Basin lies in four countries: Pakistan, India, China, and Afghanistan. The largest portion of the basin, at 47%, lies in Pakistan while India contains the second biggest share at 39%. China and Afghanistan contain the remaining 14%. The Indus Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon, Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20 and spent most of his ruling years conducting Wars of Alexander the Great, a lengthy military campaign throughout West Asia, Western Asia, Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and ancient Egypt, Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the List of largest empires, largest empires in history, stretching from History of Greece, Greece to northwestern History of India, India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he Alexander's Balkan campaign, campaigned in the Bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xerxes I Of Persia
Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great. In Western history, Xerxes is best known for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC, which ended in Persian defeat. Xerxes was designated successor by Darius over his elder brother Artobazan and inherited a large, multi-ethnic empire upon his father's death. He consolidated his power by crushing revolts in Egypt and Babylon, and renewed his father's campaign to subjugate Greece and punish Athens and its allies for their interference in the Ionian Revolt. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led a large army and crossed the Hellespont into Europe. He achieved victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium before capturing and razing Athens. His forces gained control of mainland Greece north of the Isthmus of Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the view that concepts and moral values must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture. It asserts the equal validity of all points of view and the relative nature of truth, which is determined by an individual or their culture. The concept was established by anthropologist Franz Boas, who first articulated the idea in 1887: "civilization is not something absolute, but...is relative, and... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes". However, Boas did not use the phrase "cultural relativism". The concept was spread by Boas' students, such as Robert Lowie. The first use of the term recorded in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' was by philosopher and social theorist Alain Locke in 1924 to describe Lowie's "extreme cultural relativism", found in the latter's 1917 book ''Culture and Ethnology''. The term became common among anthropologists after Boas' de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Funerary Cannibalism
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect the dead, from interment, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour. Customs vary between cultures and religious groups. Funerals have both normative and legal components. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved; additionally, funerals may have religious aspects that are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation. The funeral usually includes a ritual through which the corpse receives a final disposition. Depending on culture and religion, these can involve either the destruction of the body (for example, by cremation, sky burial, decomposition, disintegratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gold-digging Ant
The gold-digging ant is a mythical insect described in classical and medieval bestiaries. They were dog- or fox-sized ants that dug up gold in sandy areas. Some versions of the '' Physiologus'' said they came from Ethiopia, while Herodotus claimed they were located in India. They were also briefly mentioned by Megasthenese in his book Indika. Herodotus In '' Histories'' (Book 3, pass pp ages 102 to 105) Herodotus reports that a species of fox-sized, furry "ants" lives in one of the far eastern, Indian provinces of the Persian Empire. This region, he reports, is a sandy desert, and the sand there contains a wealth of fine gold dust. These giant ants, according to Herodotus, would often unearth the gold dust when digging their mounds and tunnels, and the people living in this province would then collect the precious dust. French ethnologist Michel Peissel says that the Himalayan marmot on the Deosai Plateau in Gilgit–Baltistan province of Pakistan, may have been what Hero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caspatyrus
Scylax of Caryanda (; ) was a Greek explorer and writer during the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE of the Achaemenid Empire. His own writings are lost, though occasionally cited or quoted by later Greek and Roman authors. The periplus sometimes called the ''Periplus of Scylax'' is not, in fact, by him; that so-called ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' was written in about the early 330s BCE by an unknown author working in the ambit of the post-Platonic Academy or the Aristotelian Peripatos (Lyceum) at Athens. Exploration Scylax was from Caryanda, a small city on an island close to Iasos in Asia Minor. He was probably an ethnic Carian, who might have been familiar with Greek and used it for his writings. Not much is known about Scylax, except for the few fragments of information relayed by later Greek writers. Herodotus calls him a sea-captain from Ionia. He is said to have sailed down the Indus River at the behest of the Achaemenid emperor Darius I (522–486 BCE) and then ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aethiopia
Ancient Aethiopia, () first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in northern Sudan, of areas south of the Sahara, and of certain areas in Asia. Its earliest mention is in the works of Homer: twice in the ''Iliad'', and three times in the ''Odyssey''. The Greek historian Herodotus uses the appellation to refer to regions south of Egypt when describing "Aethiopians," indicating Nubia, not the modern nation of Ethiopia. Etymology The Greek name ''Aithiopia'' (, from ) is a compound derived of two Greek words: + . According to the Perseus Project, this designation properly translates in noun form as ''burnt-face'' and in adjectival form as ''red-brown''. As such, it was used as a vague term for darker skinned populations than the Greeks since the time of Homer.“” Homer, ''Iliad'', 1.423, whence nom. “” ''Call.Del.208'': (, ):—properly, ''Burnt-face'', i.e. ''Ethiopian, negro'', , etc.; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Padaei
The Padaei () or the Padaeans are an Indian tribe described by the Greek historian Herodotus in ''The Histories''. Herodotus describes them (III.101) as being darker than other Indians and living in a place which is very distant from Persia towards the south and east. An extract from his work (III.99) includes the following: :"Another tribe of Indians, called the Padaei, who live to the east of these marsh Indians, are nomadic and eat raw meat. They are said to have the following customs. If any of their compatriots -- a man or a woman -- is ill, his closest male friends (assuming that it is a man who is ill) kill him, on the grounds that if he wasted away in illness his flesh would become spoiled. He denies that he is ill, but they take no notice, kill him, and have a feast. Exactly the same procedure is followed by a woman's closest female friends when it is a woman who is ill. They sacrifice and eat anyone who reaches old age, but it is unusual for anyone to do so, because they k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skin Colour
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in adults in particular, due to exposure to the sun, disorders, or some combination thereof. Differences across populations evolved through natural selection and sexual selection, because of social norms and differences in environment, as well as regulation of the biochemical effects of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin. Human skin color is influenced greatly by the amount of the pigment melanin present. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes; it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skin humans. The skin color of people with light skin is determined mainly by the bluish-white connective tissue under the dermis and by the hemoglobin circulating in the veins of the dermis. The red color underlyi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
