Wiesehöfer, Josef, Horst Brinkhaus & Reinhold Bichler. 2016. Megasthenes und seine Zeit. Akten der Internationalen Tagung „Megasthenes, Apollodoros and Isidoros. Greek Views of India and the Parthian Empire“. Kiel,27. –30.6. 2 012. . Vol. 1. (Classica et Orientalia 13). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.The volume comprises a collection of the articles, presented initially at the conference “Images of the Orient: Megasthenes, Apollodorus of Artemita and Isidore of Charax”, held from 27.06. until 30.06.2012 at the Institute for Classical Archaeology of the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel (Germany). The contributions of this volume deal with Megasthenes, the Greek ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period, as a central object of study. He became an ambassador of Seleucus I Nicator of the Seleucid dynasty possibly to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India and played an important role on the transition of the Greek notions of India as semi-mythical Wonderland and the geographical remit of great gods and heroes (Semiramis, Hercules, Dionysus, etc.) towards a verifiable plave with native traditions; however without a complete relinquishing the old topical descriptive and explanatory patterns . Megasthenes reports, is among the earliest well-known Western accounts of India.
Table of Contents:
- Josef Wiesehöfer; Horst Brinkhaus: “Megasthenes und Indien im Fokus althistorischer Forschung”
- Reinhold Bichler: “Herrschaft und politische Organisation im älteren Indien-Bild der Griechen und in der klassischen Alexander-Historie”
- Horst Brinkhaus: “Zum aktuellen Stand der Arthaśāstra
-Forschung: Kann Kauṭilya noch als Kronzeuge für Megasthenes gelten?” - Veronica Bucciantini: “Megastene e la ‘Reiseliteratur’:
resoconti di viaggio tra descrizione, memoria e rappresentazione” - Bruno Jacobs: “Megasthenes’ Beschreibung von Palibothra und
die Anfänge der Steinarchitektur unter der Maurya-Dynastie” - Sushma Jansari; Richard Ricot“: Megasthenes and the ‘Astomoi’: a case study into ethnography and paradoxography”
- Grant Parker: “Roman Megasthenes: towards a reception history”
- Daniel T. Potts: “Cultural, economic and political relations between Mesopotamia, the Gulf region and India before Alexander”
- Duane W. Roller: “Megasthenes: His Life and Work”
- Robert Rollinger: “Megasthenes, mental maps and Seleucid royal ideology: the western fringes of the world or how Ancient Near Eastern empires conceptualized world dominion”
- Kai Ruffing: “Die Ausbildung des literarischen Indienbildes bis Megasthenes”
- Oskar von Hinüber: “Aśoka und die Griechen”
- Josef Wiesehöfer: “Seleucids and Mauryas”