Pericles Setting

Want to know where Pericles is set? See each setting Shakespeare used in the play on the map below.

Shakespeare sets Pericles in the ancient world in several places: Antioch, Tyre, Tarsis Ephesus and other cities. In this play, Shakespeare is taking a tour of the area around North Africa, Turkey, Syria – in fact, all around the east and south of the Roman Empire. Most important though, is that some scenes are set in ships on the sea – the audience is experiencing the whole known world and going on a dangerous journey through it, which represents the dangerous journey through life. In this sense, Pericles is a very ambitious play.

The map below shows all the locations Shakespeare used for Pericles. You can zoom in on the map for a more detailed view of an area, and click the icons on the map for more information. Text in the more info box are the specific locations Shakespeare references in his Pericles text: