Karte der Sieben Meere in griechischen Quellen.
Eine Rekonstruktion der wichtigsten Gewässer, die griechischen Geographen bekannt sind.
Es gab keine feste Liste. „Sieben Meere“ war weniger eine Zahl als vielmehr eine Bezeichnung für die Weltmeere. Dazu gehörten für die Griechen das Mittelmeer, das Ägäische Meer, das Adriatische Meer, das Schwarze Meer, das Kaspische Meer, das Rote Meer und das Persische Meer.
Von RatioScripta
31 Kommentare
That’s what always gets me when movies say „and I’ve sailed the seven seas“
Like, dude, what desperation brought you over to the Caspian?
Why do the Aegean and Adriatic get singled out as their own „not the Mediterranean“ seas?
Even as early as the mythical labors of Herakles, obviously the Atlantic was known (Herakles opens up the med to the Atlantic).
Are you sure that Erythrean Sea (Old Greek Name for the Arabian Sea) was not one of them? There is a Greek account called „Periplus of the Erythrean Sea“ that discusses in detail various ports and coastal regions of ancient India.
Everybody’s looking for something.
nothing compares to Ageean and Mediterranean. I am biased because I live there 🙂
Which civilization figured out that there were oceans too?
Do we think they understood there was a vast sea beyond Gibraltar? And beyond the Persian sea (what we now call the Indian Ocean)?
The Agean and Adriatic are just a part of the Mediterranean.
Which names did the Greeks use for these?
Ooohhh…
It bugs me to no end that I’ve only sailed 5 of the 7 seas detailed here.
A white man goes swimming in the Black Sea. How does he come out?
>!_Wet_!<
Feels weird that the Adriatic and Aegean Seas are singles out, but the Ionian Sea isn’t. Feels equally important to Greek history and mythology.
They did know about the Atlantic, tho.
„From the coast of gold across the seven seas, i travel all, far away…“
Shouldn’t the Marmara sea (known to Greeks as Propontis) be marked as a separate sea and not as a part of Mediterranean?
First Mate : „Yo captain, we found some water that is *way* bigger than these seven seas, we think we need a new name for this because *damn.*“
Captain : „Yea? Okay show me, let’s check it out.“
( *first mate gestures broadly to the Atlantic* )
Captain : „Oh shi-“
First Mate : „Ocean? I like the sound of that. We will henceforth call this ‚the ocean!‘ “
I see the Greeks had their eyes on the Strait of Hormuz too
Why is Aegean separated but Ionian isn’t?
Atleast Hormuz was still open
Why did my brain see this initially as a Penguin pointing at a whiteboard…
The knowledge of the extend of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific ocean would have melted their brains.
I had no idea when people said ‘the Seven Seas’ they were talmbout a buncha LAKES!
So the greeks thought the Caspian sea was a sea because it was big enough that they didn’t get to the other end of it?
Ah yes Black Sea
You forgot to say 2500 years ago.
Omg this is so cool! I always thought the seven seas thing was kinda vague, but seeing the actual geography they knew is neat tbh 🤔
I learned something today! Thanks. I am currently reading about the Greek colonies around the known world during the Bronze age. More stuff I didn’t know about
The fact that they knew about the Caspian Sea but not about the Baltic Sea is highly unusual to me
Ancient Greeks kind of forgot about the sea between the Aegean and Black
— The Show Runner