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How did people imagine the world before geography became a science?

In this episode of Geography and Geographers, we explore how Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, shaped the earliest Western geographical imagination. Long before maps, coordinates, or formal geographical methods, Homer described seas, islands, winds, distant lands, and different peoples in ways that encouraged early thinking about the Earth as an organized and interconnected space.

This video examines Homer’s contribution to early ideas related to physical geography, human geography, and environmental understanding—including navigation by stars, climatic forces, environmental constraints, and the spatial organization of societies. It also explains why later scholars such as Herodotus, Eratosthenes, and Strabo repeatedly cited and critically engaged with Homer while developing geography as a more systematic discipline.

Homer’s importance lies not in scientific precision, but in conceptual influence. His work represents a crucial transitional stage between mythological worldviews and later scientific geographical inquiry, helping to prepare the intellectual foundations of geography.

Geography and Geographers is a channel dedicated to exploring geography in its full breadth—its ideas, thinkers, concepts, and contemporary relevance.