Pausanias (Greek: Παυσανίας) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology. This is how Andrew Stewart assesses him:^[1] A geographer is a crazy psycho whose area of study is geocrap, the pseudoscientific study of Earths physical environment and human habitat and the study of boring students to death. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (January 24, 76 – July 10, 138), known as Hadrian in English, was Roman emperor from 117 – 138, and a member of the gens Aelia. ... Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86–March 7, 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. ... Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (April 26, 121[1] – March 17, 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death. ... Ancient Greece is a period in Greek history that lasted for around one thousand years and was extinguished by the newly-powerful Christianity. ... Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...

A careful, pedestrian writer, he is interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless, or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him; yet his honesty is unquestionable, and his value without par.

Biography

He was probably a native of Lydia; he was certainly familiar with the western coast of Asia Minor, but his travels extended far beyond the limits of Ionia. Before visiting Greece he had been to Antioch, Joppa and Jerusalem, and to the banks of the river Jordan. In Egypt he had seen the pyramids, while at the temple of Ammon he had been shown the hymn once sent to that shrine by Pindar. In Macedonia he had almost certainly viewed the traditional tomb of Orpheus. Crossing over to Italy, he had seen something of the cities of Campania, and of the wonders of Rome. He was one of the first to write of seeing the ruins of Troy, Alexandria Troas, and Mycenae. Lydia (Greek ) is a historic region of western Anatolia, congruent with Turkeys modern provinces of Ä°zmir and Manisa. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to... Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. ... Antioch on the Orontes (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Δάφνη, Αντιόχεια η επί Ορόντου or Αντιόχεια η Μεγάλη; Latin: Antiochia ad Orontem, also Antiochia dei Siri), the Great Antioch or Syrian Antioch was an ancient city located on the eastern side (left bank) of the Orontes River about 30 km from the sea and its port, Seleucia Pieria. ... Jaffa (Hebrew יָפוֹ, Standard Hebrew Yafo, Tiberian Hebrew Yāp̄ô; Arabic يَافَا Yāfā; also Japho, Joppa), is an ancient city located in Israel. ... Panoramic view from Mt. ... This article is about the Jordan River in western Asia. ... A pyramid is any three-dimensional structure where the upper surfaces are triangular and converge on one point. ... Amun (also spelled Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imen, and spelt in Greek as Ammon, and Hammon) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important deities, before fading into obscurity. ... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), perhaps the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau. ... Campania is a region of Southern Italy, bordering on Lazio to the north-west, Molise to the north, Puglia to the north-east, Basilicata to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,500 km²  (580 sq mi... Walls of the excavated city of Troy Troy (Greek: , Troia, also , Ilion; Latin: Ilium, Troia[1]) is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. ... Alexandria Troas (Alexandria of the Troad, mod. ... A clay tablet with writing in Linear B from Mycenae. ...

Work

His Description of Greece takes the form of a tour in the Peloponnese and in part of northern Greece. He constantly describes ceremonial rites or superstitious customs. He frequently introduces narratives from the domain of history and of legend and folklore; and it is only rarely that he allows us to see something of the scenery. But, happily, he notices the pine trees on the sandy coast of Elis, the deer and the wild boars in the oak woods of Phelloe, and the crows amid the giant oak trees of Alalcomenae. It is mainly in the last section that he touches on the products of nature, the wild strawberries of Helicon, the date palms of Aulis, and the olive oil of Tithorea, as well as the tortoises of Arcadia and the "white blackbirds" of Cyllene. The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus (Greek: Πελοπόννησος Peloponnesos; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a large peninsula in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. ... Elis, or Eleia (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient/Katharevousa: Ήλις, also Ilis, Doric: Άλις) is an ancient district within the modern prefecture of Ilia. ... Alalcomenae () is the name of several towns in Greece. ... For the fictional planet, see Helicon (planet). ... In Greek mythology, Aulis was a daughter of King Ogyges and Thebe. ... Tithorea (Τιθορέα) is a municipality in Phthiotis, Greece. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... Mount Kyllini or Mount Cyllene (Greek: Κυλλήνη, Kyllíni; sometimes in modern times Ζήρια, Zíria), is a mountain on the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece. ...

He is most at home in describing the religious art and architecture of Olympia and of Delphi; but, even in the most secluded regions of Greece, he is fascinated by all kinds of quaint and primitive images of the gods, by holy relics and many other sacred and mysterious things. At Thebes itself he views the shields of those who died at the Battle of Leuctra, and the ruins of the house of Pindar; the statues of Hesiod and Arion, of Thamyris and Orpheus, in the grove of the Muses on Helicon; the portrait of Corinna at Tanagra, and of Polybius in the cities of Arcadia. Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympía or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ... The amphitheatre, seen from above. ... Thebes (in Demotic Greek: Θήβα — Thíva, Katharevousa: — Thēbai or Thíve) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. ... Combatants Thebes Sparta Commanders Epaminondas Cleombrotus I † Strength 6,000–7,000 10,000–11,000 Casualties Unknown About 2,000 The Battle of Leuctra is a battle fought between the Thebans and the Spartans and their allies in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), perhaps the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as Hesiod. ... Arion on a sea horse, as pictured by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1855). ... In Greek mythology, Thamyris, son of Philammon, was a Thracian bard who was so vain and proud, that he boasted he could outsing the Muses themselves, according to a passage in Homer (Iliad, book ii, 594-600) that is taken up in Euripides Rhesus. ... The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau. ... MuSE is an acronym that stands for Multiple Streaming Engine. ... Corinna (or Korinna) was an Ancient Greek poet, probably of the 6th century BC. She came from Tanagra in Boeotia, and according to later legend was the teacher of the much better-known Theban poet Pindar. ... Tanagra (Greek: Τανάγρα) is a community north of Athens in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, that was noted in antiquity for its mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines. ... Polybius (c. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ...

In the topographical part of his work, he is fond of digressions on the wonders of nature, the signs that herald the approach of an earthquake, the phenomena of the tides, the ice-bound seas of the north, and the noonday sun which at the summer solstice casts no shadow at Syene (Aswan). While he never doubts the existence of the gods and heroes, he sometimes criticizes the myths and legends relating to them. His descriptions of the monuments of art are plain and unadorned; they bear the impress of reality, and their accuracy is confirmed by the extant remains. He is perfectly frank in his confessions of ignorance. When he quotes a book at second hand he takes pains to say so. Aswan (Arabic: أسوان Aswān) (, population 200,000) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. ...

References

See also

• Travel literature

Travel literature is literature which records the people, events, sights and feelings of an author who is touring a foreign place for the sake and pleasure of travel. ...

External links

• Description of Greece, tr. W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod (1918)
• Bibliography

Further reading

• Akujärvi, Johanna 2005, Researcher, Traveller, Narrator: Studies in Pausanias' Periegesis (Stockholm). ISBN 91-22-02134-5.
• Alcock, S.E., J.F. Cherry, and J. Elsner 2001, Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece (Oxford). ISBN 0-19-517132-2.
• Arafat, Karim W. 1996, Pausanias' Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers (Cambridge). ISBN 0-521-60418-4.
• Habicht, Christian 1985, Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece (Berkeley). ISBN 0-520-06170-5.
• Hutton, William 2005, Describing Greece: Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias (Cambridge). ISBN 0-521-84720-6.
• Levi, Peter (tr.) 1984a, 1984b, Pausanias: Guide to Greece, 2 vols. (Penguin). Vol. 1 Central Greece ISBN 0-14-044225-1; vol. 2 Southern Greece ISBN 0-14-044226-X.
• Pretzler, Maria. "Turning Travel into Text: Pausanias at work", Greece & Rome, Vol. 51, Issue 2 (2004), pp. 199–216.

Notes

1. ^ One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works, introduction. ^{[citation needed]}

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...