The process of creating a dataset begins with the selection of single place, or node. For our prototype the node was the port of Cassiope, on the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu). TLG and PHI Latin databases are consulted for all mentions of the node in ancient Greek and Latin texts. Search results are examined to determine whether they describe travel and meet the project’s criteria for a travel narrative. In the case of Cassiope, we found eight travel narratives that mention the port. The Cassiope travel narratives describe travel across fifty-seven total points as far west as Rome and as far east as Corinth.
Next, spreadsheets are created based on each travel narrative. Every point and journey segment mentioned in the travel narrative is plotted. To the extent possible, each point is geo-referenced using coordinates from Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org and identified with a Pleiades URI. In addition, for each place and journey segment the relevant passage from the narrative is quoted and marked up with the language of the text, the genre, the composition date of the text, the date of travel (if known), and the mode of travel. These categories function as criteria for querying the dataset so that the visualization can display, e.g., only narratives written in Greek or only descriptions of land travel.
-Natalie Ayers and Micah Myers
