Pausanias
Pausanias
Flourished Cireca 150 c.e.
Travel writer
Greek Tourist. One of the classicist’s most important sources on ancient Greece is the Periêgêsis tês Hellados (“Description of Greece”) of Pausanias. In this work Pausanias, who himself traveled throughout Greece, describes the topography of each region, offering a treasury of precious information about places of interest to the tourist. He opens each account of an important city with a sketch of its history and then discusses its daily life, rituals, and folklore. Even today it is possible to take his work as a useful guide to the archaeological sites in the various parts of Greece. Pausanias offers along the way interesting stories and anecdotes that cannot be found anywhere else in extant ancient literature. He expresses a particular fondness for nature, and throughout the ten books of the Periêgêsis tês Hellados are discussions of the tides, the signs of an impending earthquake, the icy seas of the North, and the summer solstice in Syene (Aswan), Egypt, where the noonday sun casts no shadow.
Sources
Karim W. Arafat, Pausanias’ Greece: Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Christian Habicht, Pausanias’ Guide to Ancient Greece (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5 volumes, edited and translated by W. H. S. Jones and Henry A. Ormerod (London: Heinemann; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1918–1935).