Although we tend to think of all Greek myth as simply "Greek", Greek myths were initially the product of local oral traditions, tied to a specific geographic location in the Greek world. Different cities, towns and villages throughout the Greek Mediterranean (Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, North Africa, Italy and southern Sicily) had different heroes, and different traditions regarding them. When these oral traditions were amalgamated and recorded in the Greek and Roman texts which preserve what remains of Greek myth, much of the original geographic information of the sources was retained. This geographic information can be mapped, and used as the basis for further studies in Greek myth, history, geography, and political relationships.
Myths on Maps is a searchable, interactive web-based map displaying the geographic locations recorded for Greek myths in Apollodorus’ Library. The accompanying reader displays the original text, annotated to display characters, places and events. Through the map and reader, users can explore connections between places, events and characters. This data, presented visually, easily shows the geographic connections which were self-evident to the original tellers and audience.
Myths on Maps displays all of the events, places and characters in Apollodorus’ Library and Epitome, in searchable format. These are accessed through the Reader and the Map.
The Reader allows the user to browse through the text of Apollodorus. A sidebar displays the events for each section and information about the characters and places. Clicking on the name of a character displays a sidebar with panels that show the character’s genealogy, geographical locations and events in which they participate in myth, and disambiguation of characters with the same name. Clicking on a place name displays a small map of the location in the sidebar, and panels showing a list of characters and events associated with the place.
The events, places, characters and citations in the sidebar are also clickable. Clicking on an “event” will show the event’s location, participating characters and groups, and links to other accounts of the event in Apollodorus.
The Map is searchable by text, character, place and group. Clicking on a place name will add the place to the map. Clicking on a character name will add to the map all the locations associated with the character in Apollodorus. Clicking on a place on the map will bring up a sidebar with the characters and events associated with that place.
Future Plans
Myths on Maps is a work in progress. Future developments for the site will include the addition of more texts, beginning with Pausanias’ Guide to Greece, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Other features will include filtered searches, directional journeys of characters and groups, and greater user control of the map display. Feedback and suggestions are welcome to Laurel Bowman, mythsonmaps@gmail.com
Acknowledgements
The Myths on Maps project has been funded by the Internal Research Grants program and the Work Study program at the University of Victoria.
We rely on a few external projects for some of the functionality on the site.
- autocomplete - an excellent typeahead library that works well with large data sets.
- OpenLayers. - a full-featured javascript library for adding maps to websites.
- staticSearch - an amazing javascript-based search engine for static sites - no database required!
Team
Myths on Maps has been developed by Dr. Laurel Bowman, U.Vic Greek and Roman Studies (http://web.uvic.ca/grs/), with the support of the Humanities Computing and Media Centre at the University of Victoria (http://hcmc.uvic.ca/ ), and in particular with the support of programming by Greg Newton of HCMC.
Contributors
We are very grateful for the fantastic group of research assistants that have contributed so much to this project over the years.
Simon Bild-Enkin: Encoder and research assistant, 2011/2012. Simon has a Master’s Degree in Renaissance and Reformation France from McMaster University’s History program. His interest in mythology grew from childhood video games, but has continued into several university courses. He has also worked with Dr. Bowman on compiling a mythology sourcebook.
Sophie Boucher: Researcher and XML encoder in 2014/2015 academic year. Sophie is a graduate from the Greek and Roman Studies and English Departments at UVic. Sophie will be pursuing a Master of Information Science at McGill University in September 2015. Her career path will be in digitization of manuscripts and ancient Greek texts such as Sappho, Homer, and Aeschylus. Other area of interests include publishing, archiving, and preservation.
Chelsea Bryson: Encoder and research assistant, 2012/2013.
Louise Corbett: Encoder and research assistant, 2011/2012.
Sarah Daruvala: Encoder and research assistant, 2013/2014. Sara is a graduate of University of Victoria, with a double major in Anthropology and Greek and Roman Studies. In the summer of 2014, she went on an excavation with the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project with the department of Greek and Roman Studies and had the experience of a lifetime, furthering her interest in the subject matter. As of mid-2015, Sara is studying film production at Vancouver Film School, to use the medium as a primary form of expression.
Mikaia DeMaiffe-Elliott: Encoder and research assistant, 2016/17.
Jas Fajeau: Encoder and research assistant, 2017.
Nate Hoy: Encoder and research assistant, 2021/2022.
Tiffanie Hui: Encoder and research assistant, 2019/2020. Tiffanie is a graduate of the University of Victoria, majoring in Greek and Roman Studies, with a minor in Medieval Studies. Tiffanie intends to go to become an archivist.
Rebecca Jamin: Encoder and research assistant, 2010.
Deianeira Kupchanko-Tropf: Encoder and research assistant, 2017/2018.
Jennifer McLean: Encoder and research assistant, 2013-2015. Jennifer is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Victoria whose primary research areas include literary theory and criticism, the Arthurian romance tradition, and the poetic works of Dante Alighieri. She is also interested in the digital humanities, creative writing, and video game design.
Steven Mooney: Encoder and research assistant, 2015/2016. Steven was a Greek and Roman Studies Honours student with an interest in archaeology as well as an interest in government policy.
Katie Ongaro: Encoder and research assistant, 2010.
Matthew Prosser: Encoder and research assistant, 2010-2012.
Amorena Roberts: Encoder and research assistant, 2016-2018.
Jesse Thomas (née Kern): Encoder and research assistant, 2018/2019. Jesse graduated from from the University of Victoria with a BA honours in Greek and Roman Language and Literature. Her thesis was on the geography of ancient Skythia.
Carly Tomblin (née Malloch): Encoder and research assistant, 2009/2010.
Filiz Tütüncü-Çağlar: Encoder and research assistant, 2010/2011. Filiz Tütüncü-Çağlar is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History & Visual Studies at the University of Victoria. She received her MA degree in Archaeology and Art History at the Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. Her research interests include history of horse-breeding, Islamic art and archaeology, medieval ceramics and history of archaeology. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey and can be reached at ft@uvic.ca.
Frances-Jane van Wyk: Encoder and research assistant, 2012.
Ishan Verma: Encoder and research assistant, 2017.
Zaqir Virani: Encoder and research assistant, 2013. Zaqir graduated from the University of Victoria department of English Master’s program in 2014. His research focused on digital spaces and music theory in literature. He now works in technical writing and advertising, and is an enthusiast of blues music and chicken fingers.
Nathan Whitling: Encoder and research assistant, 2015-2018. Nathan graduated from from the University of Victoria with a Double Major in Geography and Greek and Roman Studies. He has since taken the B.Ed Elementary post-degree program.
Amy Wilton: Encoder and research assistant, 2010/2011.