ABSTRACT
Geography suggests a double act of inscription. In its most literal sense, the ancient Greek verb geō-graphein means ‘to write’, or rather ‘to scratch’ the earth – the face of the earth. By interpreting the earth, geographers inscribe its surface with narratives and stories. By describing it, they produce images which are in turn inscribed in the collective imagination. The expression graphein tēn gaian (to write, or describe the earth) was first used by the Milesian philosopher Anaximander in the sixth century BCE. He was the first, we are told by Agathemenus, who dared to create a map of the inhabited world, or literally to ‘write the earth on a tablet’, en pinaki (Ritter in Schmidt 2010: 33-4). As Anaximander’s map was about to take shape, Pherecydes of Syros, another sixth-century Greek philosopher, recounts the extraordinary story of the mystical marriage between Zeus and Chthonia, the still formless earth. On the third day of marriage, Zeus places a multi-coloured mantle embroidered with all the lands, mountains and cities on Chthonia’s shoulders. Thanks to the moulding power of the mantle, cartographic order is imprinted on chaos and Chthonia takes shape; she becomes Gaia, Mother Earth (Piani and Baratono 2011). The act of creation is ascribed to the power of the divine mantle; signification to cartographic inscription.
