am I right to say that the division between Europe and Asia (which aren't separate continents, strictly speaking) simply reflects the "us" vs. "them" attitudes of the ancient Greeks? Jim Devine
These supposed " "us" vs. "them" attitudes " are certainly not to be found in Homer, Herodotos, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, or Demosthenes. For the ancient Greeks it was always much more "us vs. us". Nor did they consider "Europe," "Asia," and "Libya" to be "continents" in the sense indicated by Plato, but rather as areas within a much larger landmass whose total dimensions were only vaguely known.
Shane Mage
-----Original Message----- From: Shane Mage [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 5/25/2004 9:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The Origins of Continents
Jayson Funke asks:
"Can anyone tell me of [the] origin of the term continents?"
The term is of Greek origin, *epeiros*. It seems to have been first used in the sense of "continent" by Herodotos. Plato, at Timaios 25A, speaks of the American continent: "...all that we have here, lying within the Pillars of Herakles, is evidently a bay with a narrow entrance [in Phaedo he compares the Mediterranean to a frog pond] but that yonder [the Atlantic] is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent."
Shane Mage
"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)
