Ein „vielteiliges“ Meer? Der Pontos Euxeinos in Pseudo-Aristoteles, De mundo, 393a31; ein Beitrag zur „platonischen“ Geographie und armenischen Nebenüberlieferung
Résumé
De mundo (transmitted among the writings of Aristotle) is a cosmological treatise, which already Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff correctly dated to the Julio-Claudian period. When it comes to geography the learned author is particularly familiar with the ideas of Eratosthenes and Poseidonios. Accordingly, the transmitted designation of the Black Sea as polymerestatos (“very manifold”, 393a31) cannot be correct. The early Armenian transmission of the text aids us in reconstructing the original reading, by which the meaning of the word is transferred to the Mediterranean Sea, which was in fact subdivided by the Greeks and Romans into many parts. Furthermore, in the Hellenistic schools the adjective
polymerestatos was used to designate the icosahedron, a Platonic solid, conveniently adapted to the element of water. The twelve vertices of the icosahedron thus correspond to the twelve subdivisions of the Mediterranean Sea listed in De mundo. A rhetorico-didactic strategy employed elsewhere in the work is revealed, whereby the author deliberately uses realia, symbols and numbers at the same time.