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Author:  Abraham Ortelius (*1527 - †1598) 

               was a Flemish/Netherlandish cartographer and geographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World). One of the founders and the notable representatives of the Netherlandish school of cartography in its golden age (the 16th and 17th centuries), he is also believed to be the first person to imagine that the continents were joined together before drifting to their present positions.

Map title:  Italia nam tellus Graecia Maior erat…/ Antwerp 1595

Description: Decorative Ortelius Map of Ancient Southern Italy as part of Greater Greece, Referencing Myths and Ancient Writings.

The title cartouche identifies the land as Italy, once part of Greater Greece. Also known as Magna Graecia, these are the Hellenic colonies and settlements that were located in the southern parts of the Italian peninsula. Archimedes, one of the brightest minds of the ancient world, was born and spent his entire life in Magna Graecia, (in Syracuse, Sicily), where he also made all of his groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

This map contains locations from many ancient myths as well as classical sources like Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy. Particular attention is given to places in Homer’s Odyssey, such as the magical island of Ogygia in the Ionian Sea (Maris Siculi), where the nymph Calypso lived. Calypso enchants Odysseus and keeps him on Ogygia as her husband for seven years, until she is forced by the gods to let him go.

Other locations and figures from the Odyssey include the monsters Scylla and Charybdis (who takes the form of a giant whirlpool) guarding either side of the Strait of Sicily (Fretum Mamertium), and Odysseus’ home island of Ithaca (Ithacesiae insule). There are also more general locations related to myth, such as Athena’s temple at the very top of the map and Hephaestus’ island at the very bottom