Ctesias On India [Paperback]

A Greek doctor serving at the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II in the fifth century BC, Ctesias met travellers and visitors from the far eastern reaches of the Persian Empire, merchants from along the Silk Road and Indians from near the Indus Valley. HisIndika(On India), was the first monograph ever written on India by a western author, introducing its readers to such fantastic creatures as the unicorn and the martichora, along with real life subjects such as the parrot and the art of falconry. Confirming pre-existing conceptions of what were considered to be the edges of the earth, Ctesias'Indikahelped shape the Greek view of India.

Ctesias: On India is one of the first western works on India, written in the fifth century BC. This full English translation provides a fascinating account of what was, at the time, the very edge of the known world.

??????Nichols's general approach makes the book fairly accessible to non-classicists as well, and its subject matter may appeal to anyone working in the emergent field of monster studies, which explores why and how cultures ascribe form and meaning to monsters. In short???Nichols's book is useful, particularly in that it makes Ctesias'Indikamuch more accessible than the treatise had been previously.??? ???D. Felton, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Andrew G. Nichols is Visiting Lecturer in Classics, University of Florida.