Pausanias in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

A celebrated Greek traveller and geographer, a native of Lydia. He explored Greece, Macedonia, Asia, and Africa; and then, in the second half of the second century A.D., settled in Rome, where he composed a Periegesis (Περιήγησις) or Itinerary of Greece in ten books. Book I. includes Attica and Megaris; II., Corinth with Sicyon, Phlius, Argolis, Aegina, and the other neighbouring islands; III., Laconia; IV., Messenia; V., VI., Elis and Olympia; VII., Achaea; VIII., Arcadia; IX., Boeotia; X. , Phocis and Locris. The work is founded on notes, taken on the spot, from his own observation and inquiry from the natives of the country, on the subject of the religious cults and the monuments of art and architecture. Together with these there are topographical and historical notices, in working up which Pausanias took into consideration the accounts of other authors, especially of Polemon (A.D. 150), poets as well as prose writers. Although his account is not without numerous inaccuracies, omissions, and mistakes, it is yet of inestimable value for our knowledge of ancient Greece, especially with regard to its mythology, folk-lore, and religious cults, but above all for the history of Greek art. The composition of his work, especially in the earlier books, shows little skill in plan, execution, or style, and, while accurate, shows that he did not grasp the distinction between legend and history. The best editions of Pausanias are those of Siebelis, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1822-28); and Schubart and Walz, 3 vols. (1838-40; reprint by Teubner, Leipzig, 1862 and 1881). English translations by Taylor (1793-94); Shilleto (2 vols. 1886). See Kalkmann, Pausanias der Perieget (Berlin, 1886); Gurlitt, Pausanias (Gratz, 1890); and Miss Verrall's Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens (1890).