Hecataeus

Finally, let’s get back to Heraclitus’s four polymaths. The last one is Hecataeus of Miletus, who was renowned as a geographer and cartographer who also wrote a book on myths and legends, the Genealogies.

His Periegesis (Journey Round the World) was a pioneering work of geography and history of the lands between Persia and the Atlantic coast of Morocco. He was said to have substantially improved the existing world map, and was known as an authority on the lands east of Greece (i.e., Turkey, Persia, and India) for many centuries.

He traveled throughout Egypt and concluded that the records of the Egyptian kings and high priests extended for over eleven thousand years. He also concluded that the Nile Delta was created as a result of the deposit of silt there by the river.

So Hecataeus was certainly a leader in his fields, but how many fields did he work in? He didn’t work in as many fields as the other three men that Heraclitus accused of polymathy, although he clearly was noted as a geographer, historian, and cartographer, which is still three fields.

Is he a polymath? Sure, at least at this stage of the investigation. He was very well known in his time and long after for his work in three fields. That’s pretty polymathic.