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The Itinerary of Pausanias, which is in ten books, contains a description of Attica and
Megaris (i.), Corinthia, Sicyonia, Phliasia, and Argolis (ii.), Laconica (iii.), Messenia
(iv.), Elis (v. vi.), Achaea (vii.), Arcadia (viii.), Boeotia (ix), Phocis (x.). His work
shows that he visited most of the places in these divisions of Greece, a fact which is
clearly demonstrated by the minuteness and particularity of his description. But he also
travelled much in other countries. A passage in the eighth book (46.4, 5) appears to prove
that he had been at Rome, and another passage (10.21.1) is still more to the purpose. He
speaks of seeing a hymn of Pindarus on a triangular stele in the temple of the Libyan Ammon,
near the altar which Ptolemaens, the son of Lagus, dedicated to Ammon (9.16.1). He also
visited Delos (9.40.5), as we infer from his mode of description, which is exactly like that
of Herodotus in similar cases: "the Delians have a wooden statue (
The Periegesis is merely an Itinerary. Pausanias gives no general description of a country
or even of a place, but he describes the things as he comes to them. His account is minute;
but it mainly refers to objects of antiquity, and works of art, such as buildings, temples,
statues, and pictures. He also mentions mountains, rivers, and fountains, and the
mythological stories connected with then, which indeed are his chief inducements to speak of
them. His religious feeling was strong, and his belief sure, for he tells many old legends in
true good faith and seriousness. His style has been much condemned by modern critics, some of
whom consider it a sample of what has been called the Asiatic style. Some even go so far as
to say that his words are wrongly placed, and that it seems as if he tried to make his
meaning difficult to discover. But if we except some corrupt passages, and if we allow that
his order of words is not that of the best Greek writers, there is hardly much obscurity to a
person who is competently acquainted with Greek, except that obscurity which sometimes is
owing to the matter. He makes no attempt at ornament; when he speaks of the noble works of
art that he saw, the very brevity and simplicity with which he describes many beautiful
things, present them to us in a more lively manner than the description of a connoisseur, who
often thinks more about rounding a phrase than about the thing which he affects to describe.
With the exception of Herodotus, there is no writer of antiquity, and perhaps none of modern
times, who has comprehended so many valuable acts in a small volume. The work of Pausanias is
full of matter mythological, historical, and artistic; nor does he neglect matters physical
and economical. His remarks on earthquakes (7.24), on the soft stone full of sea shells
(
When Pausanias visited Greece. it was not yet despoiled of all the great works of art. The country was still rich in the memorials of the unrivalled genius of the Greeks. Pausanias is not a critic or connoisseur in art, and what is better, he does not pretend to be one; he speaks of a thing just as he saw it, and in detail. His description of the works of Polygnotus at Delphi (10.25-31), the paintings in the Poecile at Athens (1.15), the treasures of art collected in Elis (v. vi.), among which was the Jupiter of Pheidias (5.10), are valuable records, simply because they are plain facts. Greece was still richer in sculpture at the time of his visit than in painting, and he describes works of all the great Greek sculptors, both in marble and in bronze ; nor does he omit to mention the memorials of the archaic style which were still religiously preserved in the temples of Greece.
There is a French translation by