 Illustrated page of a 1485manuscript ofDescription of Greece (Laurentian Library collection in Florence) | |
| Author | Pausanias |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις |
| Language | Greek |
| Subject | Geography |
| Published | Second century AD |
| Publication place | Ancient Greece |
| Text | Description of Greece atWikisource |
Description of Greece (Ancient Greek:Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις,romanized: Helládos Periḗgēsis) is the only surviving work by the ancient "geographer" or touristPausanias (c. 110 – c. 180).[1]
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Pausanias'Description of Greece comprises ten books, each of them dedicated to some part of mainland Greece. He is essentially describing his own travels, and large parts of Greece are not covered, including the islands. His tour begins inAttica (Ἀττικά) and continues with Athens, including its suburbs ordemes. Then the work goes withCorinthia (Κορινθιακά),Laconia (Λακωνικά),Messenia (Μεσσηνιακά),Elis (Ἠλιακά),Achaea (Ἀχαϊκά),Arcadia (Ἀρκαδικά),Boeotia (Βοιωτικά),Phocis (Φωκικά), andOzolian Locris (Λοκρῶν Ὀζόλων).[2]
The work is rather erratic on describedtopography; its main interest is the cultural geography of ancient Greece, especially its religious sites, in which Pausanias not only mentioned, and occasionally described, architectural and artistic objects, but also reviewed the historical and mythological underpinnings of the culture that created them.[3] Recent decades, during which archaeology has confirmed various of his descriptions, have increased his credibility as a witness among scholars. In the 19th century his accounts were often regarded as unreliable.
We know nothing about Pausanias except what can be deduced from his book. There are no ancient mentions of either until the 6th century AD, and the book seems to have survived to theMiddle Ages in a single manuscript, itself now lost. However, it attracted great interest in the Renaissance, and was copied in manuscript several times, before being first printed in 1516.
Pausanias was motivated by his interest in religion, mythology, and the local legends around religious sites. His work has been regarded as some kind of "journey into identity",[4] referring to that of the Greek beliefs and heritage. Pausanias describes the religious art and sacred architecture of many famous sites such asOlympia andDelphi. Although as a critic of art and architecture he is usually vague and frustratingly brief, his few words are often or usually the only surviving literary source from antiquity, and of great interest to historians and archaeologists.
Even in the most remote Greek regions, he was fascinated by many kinds of holy relics, depictions of deities, and other mysterious and sacred things. For example, atThebes, Pausanias views the ruins of the house of the poetPindar, the shields of warriors who died at the famousBattle of Leuctra, the statues ofArion,Hesiod,Orpheus, andThamyris. He also visited the grove of theMuses on Helicon and saw the portraits ofPolybius and ofCorinna atTanagra inArcadia.[5]
Pausanias was mostly interested in relics of antiquity, rather than contemporary architecture or sacred spaces. AsChristian Habicht, a modern day classicist who wrote a multitude of scholarly articles on Pausanias, says: "He definitely prefers the sacred to the profane and the old to the new, and there is much more about classical art of Greece than the about contemporary, more about gods, altars, and temples, than about statues of politicians or public buildings."[6]
Although he was no naturalist, he often gives brief comments on the physical aspects of the ancient landscapes he passed through. Pausanias wrote about the pine trees located on the coast ofAncient Elis, the wildboars and the deer in the oak woods ofSeliana (Phelloe), and the crows amid the oak trees inAlalcomenae. Towards the end ofDescription of Greece, Pausanias touches on the fruits of nature and products, such as the date palms of ancientAulis, the wild strawberries atMount Helicon, the olive oil inTithorea, as well as the "white blackbirds" ofMount Kyllini (Cyllene) and thetortoises of Arcadia.
The end ofDescription of Greece remains mysterious: some believe that Pausanias died before finishing his work,[7] and others believe his strange ending was intentional. He concludes hisPeriegesis with a story about a Greek author, thought to beAnyte of Tegea, who has a divine dream. In the dream, she is told to present the text ofDescription of Greece to a wider Greek audience in order to open their eyes to "all things Greek".[8]
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Description of Greece left only faint traces in the known Greek corpus. "It was not read", Habicht relates, "there is not a single quotation from it, not even a single mention of the author, not a whisper before the sixth century (Stephanus Byzantius), and only three or two references to it throughout theMiddle Ages."[6] Eighteen surviving manuscripts of Pausanias were known in the 1830s, copies from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, with three perhaps older than the rest. They are full oflacunae and errors, and all appear to depend on a single manuscript, now missing, that managed to be copied.Niccolò Niccoli, a collector of manuscripts from antiquity, had this archetype in Florence around 1418. After his death in 1437, it was sent to the library ofSan Marco, Florence, ultimately disappearing after 1500.[9]
The first printed edition (editio princeps) was printed in 1516 inVenice, by the firm ofAldus Manutius (who had died the previous year). The editor wasMarcus Musurus (Greek:Μάρκος ΜουσοῦροςMarkos Mousouros;Italian:Marco Musuro; c. 1470 – 1517) from VenetianCrete who had made his career in Italy, and already edited many classic Greek authors.[10]
It was translated into Latin byRomolo Amaseo [it], printed in Rome in 1547, with a combined Greek and Latin edition from Thomas Fritsch ofLeipzig in 1696.[11] An Italian translation followed in 1593 (Mantua byAlfonso Bonacciuoli).[12] A French translation byNicolas Gédoyn was published in 1731.[13] It was again translated into Latin by Germans, published in 1896.[14]
Translations into English begin rather late, withThomas Taylor (London, 1794). A widely known version of the text was translated byWilliam Henry Samuel Jones and is available through theLoeb Classical Library.[15] The translation asGuide to Greece byPeter Levi is popular among English speakers, but is often thought to be a loose translation of the original text: Levi took liberties with his translation that restructuredDescription of Greece to function like a general guidebook to mainland Greece.[4]Sir James George Frazer also published six volumes of translation and commentary ofDescription of Greece; his translation remains a credible work of scholarship to readers of Pausanias today.[16]
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Media related toPausanias's Description of Greece at Wikimedia Commons