Heinrich Bunting’s Itinerarium Sacra Scripturae (‘Travels According to the Scriptures’), first published in 1581, contained accurate maps of the Holy Land, but also three maps of pure fantasy. Two of those have already been described on this site: the world in the form of a cloverleaf (entry #87) and Europe as a queen (entry #141). This is the third one.
The title of this map is Asia Secunda Pars Terrae in Forma Pegasir (‘Asia, the Second Part of the Earth, in the Form of Pegasus‘). The winged horse of Greek mythology is the son of Poseidon and Medusa, was tamed by Athena and became the horse of the Muses. This obviously pagan origin of the image makes its appearance in a Holy Land travel book a bit of a mystery.
On this map, Pegasus is drawn realistically – i.e. Asia is adjusted to horse-shape.
• Asia’s front legs, touching Africa with the knees, constitute Arabia.
• Its head, licking Europe, is Asia Minor (present-day Turkey).
• The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run down its neck, on which is marked the area of Mesopotamia.
• Another river indicated, at the horse’s thigh, is the Ganges, with India Infra Gangem (‘India before the Ganges’) to the west and India Extra Gangem (‘India across the Ganges’).
• The horse’s behind is India Orientalis (‘East India‘, which could be used for parts east of present-day India, e.g. Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies).
• Both hind legs are inscribed with India Meridionalis (‘South India’), which doesn’t at all reflect the single-peninsular nature of the Indian subcontinent.
• The wings are labelled Scythia and Tartaria, names often used to describe the vast unknown areas of Siberia.
• The body of water in between the wings and the horse’s body is the Caspian Sea.
This map found at the Cartographical Curiosities section of the Yale University Library Map Collection.
Virtually everytrhing East of the Ganges isn’t part of India anyway. Might “India” be meant in a much broader sense, that way the rearmost “India Meridionalis” could mean Indochine and extra-Ganges, East India could refer to China? I seem to remember reading that “Tartary” was once used to refer to the whole steppe-y bit of North and Central Asia.
Comment by Dave On Fire — August 17, 2007 @ 9:38 am
What is the purpose of such a map. In 1581 everyone should have known, that Asia isn’t shaped as a horse. There were quite detailed maps of the coastlines that differ substantially from this drawing. So why would an artist shape Asia this way?
Is it supposed to be a mnemonic aid for the relative positions of the depicted countries and people?
Or are symbolic interpretations intended, like calling India orientalis “the horses butt”?
Can someone shed a bit of light onto this question?
Comment by Marc — August 17, 2007 @ 10:13 am
It’s probably just intended as decorative. The Greek hero Bellerophon captured and flew on the winged horse Pegasus in the area of Asia Minor.
Comment by Leo Petr — August 17, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
[...] found this 16th-century map of Asia reimagined in the shape of Pegasus over at strangemaps, one of the world’s truly fantastic blogs. Click here for the whole [...]
Pingback by Asia Secunda Pars Terrae in Forma Pegasir « Bridlepath — August 17, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
Hi,
This map reminds me of the ‘Leo Belgicus’ map, which depicts the Netherlands as a lion.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Belgicus for more information about this map and some nice scans.
Great site!
Yvette
Comment by Yvette Hoitink — August 20, 2007 @ 7:39 pm
Sus is a Persian word for horse. It was borrowed into Hebrew.
I think Pega is a reversal of @aGaF = wing, pinion … hence,
winged-horse. Compare @aGaF/Pega and Afgan-istan, the left wing
on the Persian horse. BTW, Hebrew PaRaSH means horseman, knight.
Izzy: What do you think about that?
Pegasus: Horse-feathers !
This map is in the tradition of anthropomorphic (body-part) maps. To see descriptions of Hermes (in Asia minor) and Aphrodite (in north Africa), join the very quiet BPMaps group at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com /group/BPMaps/
Comment by Israel "izzy" Cohen — September 17, 2007 @ 9:31 pm
Anthropomorphic maps were made by configuring the body of a god or
goddess over the area to be mapped. The name of each part of that body became the name of the area or feature under that part. This produced a scale 1:1 map-without-paper on which the name of a place automatically indicated its approximate location and direction with respect to all other places on the same map whose name was derived in this manner.
Aphrodite as an Anthropomorphic Map
The goddess we call Aphrodite
Is not just an old Grecian deity.
The Phoenicians did make
Her a map. It’s not fake.
Her body is cartograffiti.
The Punic war destroyed her face,
The Romans left nary a trace.
But her hair is still there,
In Sahara, that’s where.
And her chin’s a Tunisian place.
Mt. Atlas is her first verTebra.
Her backbone is now Gulf of Sidra.
Her heart is in Libya,
Her left leg, Somalia.
Her breast is in Chad wearing no bra.
The Greeks called her liver Egypt, an’
Her kidney was Biblical Goshen.
She’s bent at her waist,
Now Misr-ably placed.
The Red Sea was her menstruation.
As a kid I did think the Red Sea
Was an English map typo: lost E,
From Reed Sea in Hebrew.
But that could not be true,
Mare Rubrum ’twas Latin, B.C.
Aphrodite with Hermes did sin,
We know this is true ’cause within
Her “snatch” we call Sinai
His “zaiyin” does still lie.
It’s known as the desert of Zin.
BPMaps moderator
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps/
Comment by Israel "izzy" Cohen — September 17, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
The work Asia is derived from the word Ashwa which means horse in Sanskrit. Scholars believe that Ashwa was a word that was used for horse in other Indo-European languages that predated Sanskrit as well.
Comment by Max Kumbe — September 24, 2007 @ 4:54 am
Inspired by your post, I wrote an article on my (Dutch) historical cartography website. This article compares the famous Leo Belgicus map of the Netherlands to other allegorical maps such as the one you describe here. Thanks for the inspiration!
Leeuw, paard of persoon als cartografische voorstelling
Comment by Yvette Hoitink — December 3, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Just two coincidences I thought were interesting: I doubt a 16th century German would know this, but the winged horse is a major symbol in Central Asian art and culture. Also, Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet wrote a poem in the early 20th century in which he compares Anatolia to a horse’s head (roughly):
Coming at a gallop from far within Asia
Stretching towards the Mediterranean like a mare’s head
This country of ours
Comment by Greg — January 9, 2008 @ 12:36 am
[...] Some other examples discussed in earlier posts include Europe As A Queen (#141), Asia As A Horse (#165) and Scotland as a gallant piper [...]
Pingback by 278 - Ice Coffee Town, the Netherlands « Strange Maps — May 26, 2008 @ 10:13 am
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:05 am
thanks for this map..
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:54 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:33 am
[...] 165 Licking Europe Asia As A Horse Strange Maps Posted by root 23 hours ago (http://strangemaps.wordpress.com) The tigris and euphrates rivers run down its neck on which is marked the area of mesopotamia can someone shed a bit of light onto this question comment by marc august 17 powered byip2location com middot blog at wordpress com Discuss | Bury | News | 165 licking europe asia as a horse strange maps [...]
Pingback by 165 Licking Europe Asia As A Horse Strange Maps | Shed Kits — May 27, 2009 @ 3:45 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:38 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:09 am