There has been much thinking about the way the new tools available on the WWW could or would influence old forms of writings. Commentaries are not excluded from these changes and their availability on Internet will transform radically their form and their scope. Some of the possible changes have been discussed by classical scholars themselves. Most of the transformations are ambiguous in their impact on scholarly works.

The infinite space available, for instance, is a great opportunity to go beyond the boundaries of a printed book. As Fowler puts it, the WWW “provides ourselves with infinite large margins to our text”. It allows also an interactivity between texts and visual or aural material and could be seen as a kind of virtual museum where the difference between exposed objects and texts tend to disappear. The new commentaries could also be seen as everchanging fluids of information built by layers and layers of (more or less personal) readings and comments, this in opposition to a monumental work aiming at becoming an long-lasting authority in the field. On the other hand, the absence of a “printed” or fixed version raises the question of authorship, of what a document is and of how to refer to it. Finally the huge amount of material that can be displayed on Internet gives more weight to the questions of order and hierarchy helping the reader to find his way in a chaotic variety, but without imposing on him a too ideologized view.

see:

Fowler D., Critisism as Commentary and Commentary as Criticism, in G.W. Most (ed.), Commentaries-Kommentare, Göttingen 1999, 426-442

Goldhill Simon,Wipe Youor Gloss in G.W. Most (ed.), Commentaries-Kommentare, Göttingen 1999, 380-425

McCarty W., A Network with a Tousand Entrances: Commentary in an Electronic Age?, in Gibson R.K./Shuttleworth Kraus Chr. (ed.), The Classical Commentaries, Histories, Practices, Theories, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 2002, 359-402

Shuttleworth Kraus Ch., Introduction: Reading Commentaries/Commentaries as Readings, in Gibson R.K./Shuttleworth Kraus Chr. (ed.), The Classical Commentaries, Histories, Practices, Theories, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 2002, 1-27

The map shows a modern attempt to repeat what Demetrios did in his time: trying to find places in a real landscape fitting the ones mentioned in the Iliad. The present achievement is about both, the Catalogue of the Ships and the Catalogue of the Trojans. Demetrios was more attached to his homeland and focused on the Trojans and their allies.

Map

This internet page is however also a way of mixing information from ancient sources, like Strabo or Demetrios himself, with a modern stage of the places mentioned. The goal of such undertakings seems double. It is a quest of some readers to find the toponyms mentioned in a text in a real landscape and to give therefore more weight to the story. By starting with the places themselves, it helps to better know ancient geographers or scholars by analysing what was available for them.

The article quoted below is the result of a very stimulating case study about academic values attributed to different methods of publication or communication. It shows the difficulties newer forms of publication encounter in the academic world. One of the main concerns singled out by the study is the supposed lack of peer reviewing and, linked to it, the difficulty to establish the value of the communication submitted in a non-conventional form. Another inconvenience is the absence of storing support for newer forms of publication. This leads to a distinction of works “in-progress” where electronic means are more welcomed and final archival publications done in more traditional forms.

D. Harley, S. Earl-Novell, J. Arter, S.Lawrence, C.J. King, The Influence of Academic Values on Scholarly Publication and Communication Practices, JEP spring 2007

a view from above:
It is a point of view rather common nowadays. Ancient authors could not see it. Maps were made by mathematical abstraction. Nevertheless some texts describe landscapes from this point of view. First of all passages is maybe (Il. 13. 1-14). Both gods, Zeus and Poseidon, are looking down to earth from far above. This is not at all surprising for Greek gods, but it is more puzzling to think about how the Homeric narrator got this information.

Troad

Il.13.1-14

The two authors, Demetrios of Skepsis and Polemon of Ilion, are native to the Troad and write books about this landscape (Demetrios’ Τρωικός διάκοσμος and Polemon’s Περιήγησις Ἰλίου). There is however an important difference between the two scholars in their approaches.
A first hint may be given by the fact that Polemon is considered as an important source for Pausanias and his Periegesis, whereas Demetrios is mainly quoted in Strabo. W. Hutton gives another interesting attempt to explain the different scopes of the two authors. He emphasises that Polemon, among other authors, focus on the landmarks created by humans (monuments, shrines, inscriptions…) and the stories linked to them. Strabo, and maybe Demetrios, is more interested in the topographical form of the landscape, wherein monuments could be built.

See W. Hutton, Describing Greece, Cambridge 2005, 241-272

The backstage described in a book or mentioned for a story is often neglected by readers but it is nonetheless necessary. There is an attempt made by Google to create a map listing all the place mentioned in one book.
see:
booksearch
be-virtual

Demetrius of Scepsis seems to have done something similar, but with the means of his time.

In the recent online publication of the first 100 entries of the Bill’s new Jacoby, there are two interesting authors: Demterios of Ilion and Tellis. Both are mentioned by Ptolemy Chennos.

see:
1)Dowden, Ken. “Demetrios of Ilion (59).” Brillʼs New Jacoby. Editor in Chief: Ian Worthington, (University of Missouri-Columbia). Brill, 2007. Brill Online. bnjacoby-free-trial. 16 March 2007

2) Dowden, Ken. “Tellis (61).” Brillʼs New Jacoby. Editor in Chief: Ian Worthington, (University of Missouri-Columbia). Brill, 2007. Brill Online. bnjacoby-free-trial. 16 March 2007

The project “Travelling with Demetrios of Skepsis” is a new edition of the fragments of this author. There will be an additional translation and extensive comments on each of the remaining fragments. But as the work of Demetrios of Skepsis deals mainly with description of places Demetrios has seen, the project of the new edition of his fragments will also give an important part to other description of the same places. These witnesses could come from Antiquity and the comments will give emphasis to this part. But it is also important to have comments and pictures from the present day stage of the places. So this blog should allow people from all round the world to give their comments and pictures of the places mentioned and described since Antiquity. Their contribution will help making people living in Antiquity and their thoughts closer to the occupations and activities of present day people.