Delphi Complete Works of Pausanias Read online

  The Complete Works of

  PAUSANIAS

  (c. AD 110 – c. 180)

  Contents

  The Translation

  DESCRIPTION OF GREECE

  The Greek Text

  CONTENTS OF THE GREEK TEXT

  The Dual Text

  DUAL GREEK AND ENGLISH TEXT

  The Biography

  INTRODUCTION TO PAUSANIAS by W. H. S. Jones

  © Delphi Classics 2014

  Version 1

  The Complete Works of

  PAUSANIAS

  By Delphi Classics, 2014

  The Translation

  Ancient remains at Sardis, the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia — Pausanias was most likely a native of Lydia

  Other ruins at Sardis

  DESCRIPTION OF GREECE

  Translated by W. H. S. Jones

  Composed in ten books, with each being dedicated to an area of Greece, Pausanias’ Description of Greece is an important work that describes many lost wonders and archaeological features from firsthand observations, serving as a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology. The great work commences in Attica, with Athens and its demes dominating the discussion. The subsequent books concern Corinth, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, Phocis and Ozolian Locris. The Description of Greece functions largely as a cultural geography, where Pausanias often digresses from descriptions of architectural and artistic objects to review the mythological and historical underpinnings of the society that produced them. As a Greek writing under the patronage of the Roman Empire, he found himself in an awkward cultural space, between the glories of the Greek past he was keen to describe and the realities of a Greece partly in servitude to Rome’s imperial force. For these reasons, the Description of Greece demonstrates the author’s careful attempts to establish an identity for Roman Greece that was distinctly its own.

  Pausanias is particularly noted for his detailed descriptions of the religious art and architecture of Olympia and the precincts at Delphi. At Thebes he views the shields of those who died at the Battle of Leuctra, the ruins of the house of Pindar and the statues of Hesiod, Arion, Thamyris and Orpheus in the grove of the Muses on Helicon, as well as the portraits of Corinna at Tanagra and of Polybius in the cities of Arcadia.

  In the topographical sections of his work, Pausanias is fond of digressions on the wonders of nature, including comments on the signs that herald the approach of an earthquake, the phenomena of the tides, the ice-bound seas of the north and the noonday sun, which at the summer solstice casts no shadow at Syene (Aswan). Though he never doubts the existence of the gods and heroes, he occasionally criticises the myths and legends relating to them. His descriptions of monuments of art are plain and unadorned, producing an impression of reality, with their accuracy confirmed by the extant remains. Pausanias is entirely open in his confessions of ignorance and when he quotes a book at second hand he takes pains to say so.

  The work was largely ignored until the Middle Ages. Posterity came perilously close to losing the Description of Greece altogether, as only three manuscripts survive from fifteenth century copies, which are riddled with errors and lacunae, all appearing to depend on a single manuscript. Niccolò Niccoli had this archetype in Florence in 1418 and following his death in 1437, the copy went to the library of San Marco, Florence and then it disappeared at some point after 1500. It was not until the twentieth century that archaeologists realised how reliable Pausanias was as a guide to the sites that were then being excavated. Previously, he was dismissed by classicists, who followed the authoritative Wilamowitz in discrediting Pausanias as a purveyor of literature quoted at second-hand, which had not actually visited most of the places he described. The experience of a century of archaeologists, however, has fully vindicated Pausanias’ reputation of and his Description of Greece.

  The 1485 manuscript of the ‘Description of Greece’, housed in the Laurentian Library

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE.

  BOOK I.

  BOOK II.

  BOOK III.

  BOOK IV.

  BOOK V.

  BOOK VI.

  BOOK VII

  BOOK VIII.

  BOOK IX.

  BOOK X.

  The Athenian Agora, which features in Book I

  Ancient Corinth, which Pausanias visits in Book II

  PREFACE.

  THE present work was originally intended to be a plain translation of the text of Spiro. After a time I was requested by the Editors of the Loeb series to add a few notes, dates, maps, etc., so that the Tour might be more intelligible to English readers. Fully aware of the difficulties and dangers of the plan, I have nevertheless tried my best to choose from a vast quantity of material just those scraps of information which an English reader would need most. A few of the notes are printed at the side and foot of the page; most of them, together with the maps and plans, are reserved for the Index, which it is hoped to make a “companion” to Pausanias.

  The transliteration of Greek names has been a matter of difficulty. The only wav to avoid inconsistencies is to transliterate letter for letter without attempting either to Latinize or to Anglicize. To follow the rules adopted in the Loeb series without occasional inconsistencies is impossible, especially as the number of names given by Pausanias is so vast; here again I can only say that I have tried my best.

  The text of Spiro has rarely been altered. A few of the most plausible conjectures, generally though not always adopted by Spiro, have been assigned to their authors in footnotes.

  In my translation I have not distinguished between “Medes” and “Persians,” or “Ilium” and “Troy.” It is rather deceptive to an English reader to do so, and the Greek scholar can easily tell from the original which word in each case was used by Pausanias.

  I have to acknowledge much kind help. Especially am I indebted to my friend Mr. A. W. Spratt, Fellow of St. Catharine’s College, for his careful reading of the proofs. Professor Ridgeway and my colleague, Mr. R. B. Appleton, have given invaluable criticism and advice.

  W. H. S. J.

  BOOK I.

  SUNIUM & LAURIUM

  [1.1.1] I. On the Greek mainland facing the Cyclades Islands and the Aegean Sea the Sunium promontory stands out from the Attic land. When you have rounded the promontory you see a harbor and a temple to Athena of Sunium on the peak of the promontory. Farther on is Laurium, where once the Athenians had silver mines, and a small uninhabited island called the Island of Patroclus. For a fortification was built on it and a palisade constructed by Patroclus, who was admiral in command of the Egyptian men-of-war sent by Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, to help the Athenians, when Antigonus, son of Demetrius, was ravaging their country, which he had invaded with an army, and at the same time was blockading them by sea with a fleet.

  PEIRAEUS

  [1.1.2] The Peiraeus was a parish from early times, though it was not a port before Themistocles became an archon of the Athenians. Their port was Phalerum, for at this place the sea comes nearest to Athens, and from here men say that Menestheus set sail with his fleet for Troy, and before him Theseus, when he went to give satisfaction to Minos for the death of Androgeos. But when Themistocles became archon, since he thought that the Peiraeus was more conveniently situated for mariners, and had three harbors as against one at Phalerum, he made it the Athenian port. Even up to my time there were docks there, and near the largest harbor is the grave of Themistocles. For it is said that the Athenians repented of their treatment of Themistocles, and that his relations took up his bones and brought them from Magnesia. And the children of Themistocles certainly returned and set up in the Parthenon a painting, on which is a p
ortrait of Themistocles.

  [1.1.3] The most noteworthy sight in the Peiraeus is a precinct of Athena and Zeus. Both their images are of bronze; Zeus holds a staff and a Victory, Athena a spear. Here is a portrait of Leosthenes and of his sons, painted by Arcesilaus. This Leosthenes at the head of the Athenians and the united Greeks defeated the Macedonians in Boeotia and again outside Thermopylae forced them into Lamia over against Oeta, and shut them up there. The portrait is in the long portico, where stands a market-place for those living near the sea – those farther away from the harbor have another – but behind the portico near the sea stand a Zeus and a Demos, the work of Leochares. And by the sea Conon built a sanctuary of Aphrodite, after he had crushed the Lacedaemonian warships off Cnidus in the Carian peninsula. For the Cnidians hold Aphrodite in very great honor, and they have sanctuaries of the goddess; the oldest is to her as Doritis (Bountiful), the next in age as Acraea (Of the Height), while the newest is to the Aphrodite called Cnidian by men generally, but Euploia (Fair Voyage) by the Cnidians themselves.

  [1.1.4] The Athenians have also another harbor, at Munychia, with a temple of Artemis of Munychia, and yet another at Phalerum, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary of Demeter. Here there is also a temple of Athena Sciras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown, and of heroes, and of the children of Theseus and Phalerus; for this Phalerus is said by the Athenians to have sailed with Jason to Colchis. There is also an altar of Androgeos, son of Minos, though it is called that of Heros; those, however, who pay special attention to the study of their country’s antiquities know that it belongs to Androgeos.

  [1.1.5] Twenty stades away is the Coliad promontory; on to it, when the Persian fleet was destroyed, the wrecks were carried down by the waves. There is here an image of the Coliad Aphrodite, with the goddesses Genetyllides (Goddesses of Birth), as they are called. And I am of opinion that the goddesses of the Phocaeans in Ionia, whom they call Gennaides, are the same as those at Colias. On the way from Phalerum to Athens there is a temple of Hera with neither doors nor roof. Men say that Mardonius, son of Gobryas, burnt it. But the image there to-day is, as report goes, the work of Alcamenes. So that this, at any rate, cannot have been damaged by the Persians.

  [1.2.1] II. On entering the city there is a monument to Antiope the Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was carried of by Peirithous and Theseus, but Hegias of Troezen gives the following account of her. Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon, but could not take it, but Antiope, falling in love with Theseus, who was aiding Heracles in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. Such is the account of Hegias. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia, while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. To Molpadia also there is a monument among the Athenians.

  [1.2.2] As you go up from the Peiraeus you see the ruins of the walls which Conon restored after the naval battle off Cnidus. For those built by Themistocles after the retreat of the Persians were destroyed during the rule of those named the Thirty. Along the road are very famous graves, that of Menander, son of Diopeithes, and a cenotaph of Euripides. He him self went to King Archelaus and lies buried in Macedonia; as to the manner of his death (many have described it), let it be as they say.

  [1.2.3] So even in his time poets lived at the courts of kings, as earlier still Anacreon consorted with Polycrates, despot of Samos, and Aeschylus and Simonides journeyed to Hiero at Syracuse. Dionysius, afterwards despot in Sicily had Philoxenus at his court, and Antigonus, ruler of Macedonia, had Antagoras of Rhodes and Aratus of Soli. But Hesiod and Homer either failed to win the society of kings or else purposely despised it, Hesiod through boorishness and reluctance to travel, while Homer, having gone very far abroad, depreciated the help afforded by despots in the acquisition of wealth in comparison with his reputation among ordinary men. And yet Homer, too, in his poem makes Demodocus live at the court of Alcinous, and Agamemnon leave a poet with his wife. Not far from the gates is a grave, on which is mounted a soldier standing by a horse. Who it is I do not know, but both horse and soldier were carved by Praxiteles.

  ATHENS

  [1.2.4] On entering the city there is a building for the preparation of the processions, which are held in some cases every year, in others at longer intervals. Hard by is a temple of Demeter, with images of the goddess herself and of her daughter, and of Iacchus holding a torch. On the wall, in Attic characters, is written that they are works of Praxiteles. Not far from the temple is Poseidon on horseback, hurling a spear against the giant Polybotes, concerning whom is prevalent among the Coans the story about the promontory of Chelone. But the inscription of our time assigns the statue to another, and not to Poseidon. From the gate to the Cerameicus there are porticoes, and in front of them brazen statues of such as had some title to fame, both men and women.

  [2.2.5] One of the porticoes contains shrines of gods, and a gymnasium called that of Hermes. In it is the house of Pulytion, at which it is said that a mystic rite was performed by the most notable Athenians, parodying the Eleusinian mysteries. But in my time it was devoted to the worship of Dionysus. This Dionysus they call Melpomenus (Minstrel), on the same principle as they call Apollo Musegetes (Leader of the Muses). Here there are images of Athena Paeonia (Healer), of Zeus, of Mnemosyne (Memory) and of the Muses, an Apollo, the votive offering and work of Eubulides, and Acratus, a daemon attendant upon Apollo; it is only a face of him worked into the wall. After the precinct of Apollo is a building that contains earthen ware images, Amphictyon, king of Athens, feasting Dionysus and other gods. Here also is Pegasus of Eleutherae, who introduced the god to the Athenians. Herein he was helped by the oracle at Delphi, which called to mind that the god once dwelt in Athens in the days of Icarius.

  [1.2.6] Amphictyon won the kingdom thus. It is said that Actaeus was the first king of what is now Attica. When he died, Cecrops, the son-in-law of Actaeus, received the kingdom, and there were born to him daughters, Herse, Aglaurus and Pandrosus, and a son Erysichthon. This son did not become king of the Athenians, but happened to die while his father lived, and the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the most powerful of the Athenians. They say that Cranaus had daughters, and among them Atthis; and from her they call the country Attica, which before was named Actaea. And Amphictyon, rising up against Cranaus, although he had his daughter to wife, deposed him from power. Afterwards he himself was banished by Erichthonius and his fellow rebels. Men say that Erichthonius had no human father, but that his parents were Hephaestus and Earth.

  [1.3.1] III. The district of the Cerameicus has its name from the hero Ceramus, he too being the reputed son of Dionysus and Ariadne. First on the right is what is called the Royal Portico, where sits the king when holding the yearly office called the kingship. On the tiling of this portico are images of baked earthenware, Theseus throwing Sciron into the sea and Day carrying away Cephalus, who they say was very beautiful and was ravished by Day, who was in love with him. His son was Phaethon, . . . and made a guardian of her temple. Such is the tale told by Hesiod, among others, in his poem on women.

  [1.3.2] Near the portico stand Conon, Timotheus his son and Evagoras King of Cyprus, who caused the Phoenician men-of-war to be given to Conon by King Artaxerxes. This he did as an Athenian whose ancestry connected him with Salamis, for he traced his pedigree back to Teucer and the daughter of Cinyras. Here stands Zeus, called Zeus of Freedom, and the Emperor Hadrian, a benefactor to all his subjects and especially to the city of the Athenians.

  [1.3.3] A portico is built behind with pictures of the gods called the Twelve. On the wall opposite are painted Theseus, Democracy and Demos. The picture represents Theseus as the one who gave the Athenians political equality. By other means also has the report spread among men that Theseus bestowed sovereignty upon the people, and that from his time they continued under a democratical government, until Peisistratus rose up and became despot. But there are many false beliefs current among the mass of mankind, since they are ignoran
t of historical science and consider trustworthy whatever they have heard from childhood in choruses and tragedies; one of these is about Theseus, who in fact himself became king, and afterwards, when Menestheus was dead, the descendants of Theseus remained rulers even to the fourth generation. But if I cared about tracing the pedigree I should have included in the list, besides these, the kings from Melanthus to Cleidicus the son of Aesimides.

  [1.3.4] Here is a picture of the exploit, near Mantinea, of the Athenians who were sent to help the Lacedaemonians. Xenophon among others has written a history of the whole war – the taking of the Cadmea, the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, how the Boeotians invaded the Peloponnesus,and the contingent sent to the Lacedacmonians from the Athenians. In the picture is a cavalry battle, in which the most famous men are, among the Athenians, Grylus the son of Xenophon, and in the Boeotian cavalry, Epaminondas the Theban. These pictures were painted for the Athenians by Euphranor, and he also wrought the Apollo surnamed Patrous (Paternal) in the temple hard by. And in front of the temple is one Apollo made by Leochares; the other Apollo, called Averter of evil, was made by Calamis. They say that the god received this name because by an oracle from Delphi he stayed the pestilence which afflicted the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War.

  [1.3.5] Here is built also a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods; the image is by Pheidias. Hard by is the council chamber of those called the Five Hundred, who are the Athenian councillors for a year. In it are a wooden figure of Zeus Counsellor and an Apollo, the work of Peisias, and a Demos by Lyson. The thesmothetae (lawgivers) were painted by Protogenes the Caunian, and Olbiades portrayed Callippus, who led the Athenians to Thermopylae to stop the incursion of the Gauls into Greece.