Guide to Greece, Volume 1: Central Greece

by Pausanias, Peter Levi (Translator)

Written in the second century AD by a Greek traveller for a predominantly Roman audience, Pausanias' Guide to Greece is an extraordinarily literate and well-informed guidebook. A study of buildings, traditions and myth, it describes with precision and eloquence the glory of classical Greece shortly before its ultimate decline in the third century.

This volume, the first of two, concerns the five provinces of central Greece, with an account of cities including Athens, Corinth and Thebes and a compelling depiction of the Oracle at Delphi. Along the way, Pausanias recounts Greek legends that are unknown from any other source and quotes a wealth of classical literature and poetry that would otherwise have been lost. An inspiration to Byron and Shelley, Guide to Greece remains one of the most influential travel books ever written.

Book 1 Attica
Book 2 Corinthia
Book 7 Achaea
Book 9 Boetia
Book 10 Phocis

Genres: History, Classics, Travel, Nonfiction, Greece, Ancient History, Ancient

587 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 179

About the author

Pausanias (/pɔːˈseɪniəs/; Greek: Παυσανίας Pausanías; c. AD 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις Hellados Periegesis) a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology

Reviews

[Evan Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pausanias was a second-century cultural geographer and antiquarian. His sole surviving work is his Guide to Greece, a lengthy effort that’s not quite like anything else I’ve read from antiquity. The Guide is divided up into 10 books; this volume contains the five dedicated to Central Greece (i.e., Greece north of the Peloponnesus).

Pausanias’ work is sort of an early guide for travelers – the ancient version of Frommer’s, if you will. Pausanias describes the many, many, many temples, shrines, and ruins dotting Greece at the time, along with notable works of art and descriptions of major cities. He frequently uses his discussion of an area or object to launch into digressions on history or mythology, a welcome habit that helps keep the text from getting too dry. Some of these digressions are one of the only (or the only) descriptions of their kind from antiquity, making Pausanias a valuable resource for better understanding the ancient world.

The other thing that makes Pausanias interesting is the time he was writing in. By the late second century AD, Greece’s glory years were long gone. Independence had been lost for centuries, and while she continued to exert a cultural influence, even that was beginning to fade with time. The Greece Pausanias explores is a haunted world filled with ghosts. For readers that are well versed in Greek history & literature, it is fascinating, if a bit sad, to read a description of this country and culture in the High Roman era, long after its best days were behind it. The culture may be in decline, but it still can fascinate the modern reader just as it fascinated Pausanias nearly 2,000 years ago.



Pausanias had first-hand knowledge of most of the sites & objects he describes, making his work particularly invaluable for specialists across the ages that have sought to retrace his steps. I would not recommend this to the general reader, as its length and subject matter can make it a little inaccessible at times. But for readers with a deep interest in classical studies, there is much of interest here. 3 stars.

Translation Note: Peter Levi, who translated the Penguin edition, has visited many of the sites covered in this book himself, and is able to provide extensive notes. Recommended.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amiable meandering mix of sites, history, folklore. Athens and Delphi are the highlights.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading this right now and loving it. Its a stream-of-consciousness travel guide/narrative. Its about as structured as a pile of post it notes. One observation runs into another, which triggers a funny story he once heard, which leads to a discussion of myths and recent history.

I'll say it again though: it's a mess. You can skip a page (or 10 pages) and not really miss them.

However... if you love the ancient world, this is a profusion of riches. As Pausanius skips around, a street-level picture of life in Greece emerges. Sooner or later he touches upon every aspect of life.

The translator Peter Levy's voluminous notes are extremely illuminating, reflecting a deep knowledge of the period and published scholarship.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting read. The author's depth of knowledge of history is truly amazing for the time period.

[Walter Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly the most confusing book I’ve ever read. But still extremely informative though. This book is like if you just met someone and they had centuries worth of lore and basically gossip that isn’t confirmed. And then they just told you all about it, and introduced a new person and city into the story like every 30 seconds. Still a good book tho, I was just really unprepared for what I got myself into lmao

[Rhys Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it's an important textual source for ancient historians, but my god this man Pausanias CANNOT write to save his life! Total snooze as a prose writer and I do not see him having a promising future career. Four stars.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly fascinating book. It’s supposed to be a tourist guide to ancient Greece’s famous sights, but it’s full of long digressions about history, mythology, and nature. It’s like an encyclopedia. The Penguin edition‘s footnotes are extremely useful and almost as interesting as the main text. The editor, Peter Levi, was quite a character. His footnotes are sometimes of dubious relevance, but Pausanias would have approved of that.

[AB]

There are layers of travelogue here. The first Pausanias with his meanderings and then the Peter Levi's footnotes of detailing his own travels and stories. I think I enjoyed how they interacted more than any one part by itself. Definitely something that can be picked up and parsed through. Its easy to jump a couple of pages and feel that you've missed little and a lot simultaneously

[Ryan Schaller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pausanias' work contains a delightful amount of information about the Classical Greece and this translations is very readable. Only 4 stars because the footnotes are at least a generation out of date if not two. I'm not sure that there's another easily attainable English translation out there, but if you can find one is more recent commentary, notes, and bibliography, I'd recommend that.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in the nitty gritty details of Ancient Greek culture and want to take a field trip there in your mind, this book is for you. Written in the second century, Pausanius's rambling account of the land and its people takes in five provinces, including the cities of Athens, Thebes and Corinth and the Oracle at Delphi, and includes many, many digressions into local myths, lesser known political conflicts, classical works of literature, and poetry. Like an ancient Rough Guide suffused with the literature of the age, it provides a travelogue of ancient culture, and the translator's copious footnotes catch you up on all the heroes, myths and events that were important enough to mention to contemporary readers in the second century but did not necessarily make the cut in that Survey of Ancient Greece class you took in college.

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

How fun was this! If you ever wanted a chance at exploring ancient Greece city by city as observed in its own time this is it! In addition you get a a fabulous run down of mythology as each statue or sanctuary is met. I can't even imagine how beautiful this form of Greece must have been and it hurts my heart that so many treasures have been lost.

[James Violand · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ancient travelogue. Interesting because much of what is lost or in ruins in Greece are vibrantly describe from personal observation.

[Eilís · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pausanias is so hysterical I swear. He's fantastic because it's thanks to him and his mostly accurate chronicalling that we know where a lot of Temples he describes are and even some of the purposes of them might be. His vivid account is essential in understanding the culture and scope around Greece.

Now I don't reccomend this for any newcomer on Greek myths and culture, Pausanias delves in a few myths, culture and places that require a bit of secondary knowledge to fully appreciate and it maybe be slightly confusing at times and for any beginner I think it can be incredibly overwhelming with the scope of what he is discussing. But for anyone who has read a bit into the topic, it makes whenever Pausanias trying to insist that this version of the myth is the true one because Homer said so and here is the quote from the Odyssey on why the Niobids all died even funnier. This man was pedenatic and incredible well learned and it makes me mourn all the more how much ancient texts we have lost and sometimes Pausanias is our last link to what they might have been. Like Telesilla being an Argive Hero and Poetess and all we have is a single line of her poetry and dubious claims she helped defend Argos against the Spartans. That and she had a statue dedicated to her, a really cool one from the descriptions of it.

"Telesilla, the composer of the songs, has been carved on a slab of stone; her books are thrown about at her feet; she is looking at a helmet she has in her hand and is going to put on."

Like it's was sections like that that made my jaw drop and I was hooked on the different customs between different Temples, why certain regions worshiped certain Gods (and aspects of them) and the different poets and rulers that made history. Pausanias really makes you feel for the richness of Ancient Greece. This is a book I really do reccomend making notes and really taking in every single line about the various places Pausanias visits and how their beliefs that might be specfic to their region influence their worship and daily lives.

Man went into a near twenty page tangent about the Romans and I was yelling at him to get back to his travels. For reference I studied History to Masters level. If anything I should be begging him to say more but that is the testement of Pausanias imagery and descriptions of the different places he visits that paints such a vivid and vibrant cultural identity to Ancient Greece. It feels like every town has a rock, river, statue or hero that is important to them in some capacity and some more than others. But you also get a sense of the cultural shift around Pausanias, he makes comments about the Charities (Graces) and how in older depictions they are always clothed but considering Pausanias in living in a post Roman world, depicitions where they are nude propping up he questions this.

Pausanias does this quite a lot, he questions local myths and their versions. And it is so funny because if you have a decent grasp on the different version of greek mythology you also get to rag with and at Pausanias. It was a book that started slow but I got incredibly invested in more and more as I delved more into it. Highly reccomended.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book saved me from the boredom of a 4 hour flight delay. A tricky one to review. I have to say large parts were skim read for various reasons.

Ultimately, Pausanias is a fantastic source. Written by a greek in the Roman 2nd century it essentially follows the route he travelled in Greece. Even though his travel path was difficult to follow, the book outlines deep local mythology. He also details wider narratives framed around these locations.

Some of the deep mythology and temple descriptions were fairly intense so I decided to skim read some paragraphs. The text has a ‘gandering style’ comparable to Herodotus.

I took particular interest in his depiction of the Romans entering the Greek East, the rule of Pyrrhus of Epirus, the Successor kings, any details regarding the Persian Wars and The period associated with the Athenian Empire, Pergamon (and its wars with the ‘celts’).

Overall, and invaluable source (if it can be fact checked / cross referenced) and would make a compliment to the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Plutarch (to name a few). It is something I will definitely revisit. I would tentatively recommend to the casual reader if they have a good understanding of Greco-Roman history and geography.

[Станислав · Rating 4 out of 5]

Путеводитель с бесконечным количеством мест , имен и событий. Это скорее техническая литература. Самая интересная история про сопротивление Мессенцев Спартанцам. Я раньше слышал, что главным событием греческой исстории примерно 7 века было завоевание Мессении со стороны Спарты. После такой красочной истории Павсания начинаешь болеть за мессенцев (хотя может они и нанесли обиду) и ненавидеть спартанцев.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like taking a tour of ancient Greece: greatly thought provoking and raising lots of questions for which we'll never know the answers.

It's interesting to ponder on what he would have thought about people rating his work highly, 2000 years after he lived.

[Barbara T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very challenging. An extremely slow read because I was constantly looking up references to Greek history, Alexander the Great, mythology, pronunciation (eileithyia anyone?) and unusual words (corybantic). Now ready for my trip to Greece

[Steve Groves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat scatty narrative, with Pausanias meandering between description of temples and statues with local gossip, legends and scraps of poetry. The footnotes in the Peter Levi version are eclectic, but interesting. Glad I finally read it, but probably a one off.

[Lilith · Rating 3 out of 5]

pausanias is honestly a funny dude. i love his skepticism of some things and wholehearted approval of other, highly comparable things. its awesome that he's often correct about the places he talks about, and its also funny when he's wrong. SLOG every other section it feels like though 😭

[Radium · Rating 4 out of 5]

译文流畅好读，注释友好自然。准确性有突出之处也有少量硬伤。

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting travel guide from the 2nd century A.D. to places that often no longer exist. Can be somewhat tedious, but the interspersed bits of history and mythology make it worth reading through.

[America Ringate]

pausanias funny as hell, fuck them romans

[Marcos Augusto · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been to Rome several times but i've never been to Greece, so I decided to buy this book.

Before visiting Greece, Pausanias had traveled widely in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Macedonia, Epirus (now in Greece and Albania), and parts of Italy. His description takes the form of a tour of Greece starting from Attica. It is divided into 10 books; the first book seems to have been completed after 143, but before 161. No event after 176 is mentioned in the work.

His account of each important city begins with a sketch of its history; his descriptive narration follows a topographical order. He gives a few glimpses into the daily life, ceremonial rites, and superstitious customs of the inhabitants and frequently introduces legend and folklore.

Works of art are his major concern: inspired by the ancient glories of Greece, Pausanias is most at home in describing the religious art and architecture of Olympia and Delphi. At Athens he is intrigued by pictures, portraits, and inscriptions recording the laws of Solon; on the Acropolis, the great gold and ivory statue of Athena; and, outside the city, the monuments of famous men and of Athenians fallen in battle. The accuracy of his descriptions has been proved by the remains of buildings in all parts of Greece.

The topographical part of his work shows his fondness for the wonders of nature.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what it says with the added bonus of huge amounts of mythology thrown in. Some of it is even partially true or at least based on stories Pausanias was told as he travelled around. Much the same happens today in Greece. As to whether one should actually believe what one is told there is something I wouldn't care to speculate on here. Let's just say they're somewhat like the Irish of whom I'm a partial.

No apologies for this being the same review as for volume 2.

[Laura]

For research and fun....

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

ToposText.

[Toon Pepermans]

(for now I only wanted to read the part about Thebes and environs)