Parrot’s Journey to Mount Ararat: Some Observations
abstract
In the year 1829 Friedrich Parrot (1792-1841), professor of physics at the University of Dorpat (modern Tartu), first climbed Mount Ararat. With him were the Armenian deacon Khachatur Abovian (the ‘father of modern Armenian literature’), two Russian soldiers and two local Armenian peasants. His account of the Journey to Ararat, published in German in the year 1834, is considered a classic of travel literature. The present papers analyses its debt both to the literary genre and to ancient sources, especially to the Geography of the ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo (ca. 63 BCE-ca. 23 CE).
Keywords: Parrot • Travel literature • Abovian • Ararat • Strabo