Eustathios of Thessalonike wrote several commentaries (parekbolai) on
ancient authors, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Pindar (now lost), perhaps Oppian, Aristophanes
(some fragments survive) and Dionysius of Alexandria’s Periegesis. Unlike
the Homeric Parekbolai, those on the Periegesis has been the subject of little
study, not only as a scientific work by classical philologists, but also as a literary
work by Byzantinists. In this regard, this chapter delves into the didactic methodology
and etymological approach of Eustathios in his Parekbolai on the Periegesis,
analyzing the role of etymology in the teaching of geography and focusing on the
places, geographical features, and peoples of the oikoumenē described in the
Periegesis. The chapter also examines the ways in which Eustathios uses, rewrites,
and adapts his sources to elucidate the etymology of the terms he discusses, and the
ways in which he extends etymologies with his own remarks.
