fl. 400s B.C.

Greek Geographer and Historian

In his Genealogia or Historiai, Hecataeus of Miletus presented an overview of Greek mythologies and traditions. The work may—to some extent at least—be considered a forerunner of modern anthropological writing; but it is primarily for a second book, Ges periodos or Periegesis, that Hecataeus is remembered. With the Periegesis (Tour round the world), Hecataeus introduced a systematic approach to geography, using a style that would later be employed by other noted geographical writers of the classical world.

Hecataeus came from Ionia, the region of islands off the western coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey) where the long set of wars between Greece and Persia (499-449 B.C.) had their beginnings. He opposed the Ionian revolt against Darius I (r. 522-486 B.C.) in 500 B.C., and after Darius's forces defeated the Ionians six years...