Digitally Mapping Mythical People and Places
- Drawing upon a substantial dataset representing ancient literary (and eventually material resources), develop and publish an interactive map to aid scholars in addressing questions of “Where does a particular figure of myth appear”, and subsequently, “Who from myth is associated with this particular place”.
- Interactive LeafletJS map with citations to primary source texts.
- Supporting website to provide additional details on team members, project aims, methodology, data, and references.
Maps allow us to visualize more than just landmarks. They also enable us to consider the migration of people, the history of trade routes, and the exchange of culture. The Mythodikos project, Ancient Greek for “connected to myth”, will create a dataset and searchable map-interface which will allow a student or scholar to consider mythological figures not just as they are associated with particular texts, authors, and traditions of writing, but also as they are connected to various geographical spaces. Unlike traditional forms of scholarship concerned with literature and mythology, which are readily capable of dealing with questions of Who, What, and even How, this mapping project will open up consideration of the question of Where a particular mythological figure appears in literary accounts. Mythodikos will allow us to consider the movement of a particular figure throughout space, speculate on the geographical scope in which their story was transmitted, and imagine the connections between certain localities on account of their shared association with a mythological figure.
Projects that have begun to combine the visual advantages and utility of digital mapping with exploration of textual and material resources, but have not examined the specific link between person and place in the way that Mythodikos is intended to address. These include:
- MANTO, a collaboration between the Australian National University and the University of New Hampshire
- Topos Text, supported by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation
- Pleiades
- Pelagios Commons
- Recogito, a Pelagios tool
- Peripleo, a Pelagios tool
Initial development of Mythodikos occured between 2019-2022. Work on the project during this time involved the creation and refinement of a text-mining tool using Python and Natural Language Processing methods to establish an initial dataset of person-place connections in the Ancient Greek literary corpus and development of a preliminary LeafletJS map.
At present time, development of Mythodikos is on hiatus. Future work will involve additional refinement of the text-mining tool and front-facing interface, integration of Latin texts, and development of a workflow to account for relevant visual materials.
Stella Fritzell, Project Lead
- identify text corpus source material
- develop Python code for text-mining Ancient Greek literary corpus
- apply text mining dataset to LeafletJS map
- develop and expand on proof of concept
- create and maintain project website and open-source data
Radcliffe Edmonds, Consultant
- consult on use of primary source texts and digital collections
- consult on collection of metadata and citations
Alice McGrath, Consultant
- consult on best practices for project management
- consult on TEI and NER application and adaptation
- consult on text mining, Python, LeafletJS, and other digital methods
- provide high-level troubleshooting support
Alicia Peaker, Consultant
- consult on text mining, Python, and LeafletJS as needed