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26-534: Ceryx was, like his father, a messenger. But the kêryx career began as a humble cook for the tribe, a skill Hermes demonstrates in his cooked meat offerings on the Twelve Gods Altar set in place 522BC by Peisistratos III in Athens. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes 128 recalls the young god cutting out and laying up twelve steaks on a flat rock or platamoni," the 12 Gods altar. According to Pausanias , Ceryx

52-746: A collector of manuscripts from antiquity, had this archetype in Florence around 1418. After his death in 1437, it was sent to the library of San Marco, Florence , ultimately disappearing after 1500. The first printed edition ( editio princeps ) was printed in 1516 in Venice , by the firm of Aldus Manutius (who had died the previous year). The editor was Marcus Musurus ( Greek : Μάρκος Μουσοῦρος Markos Mousouros ; Italian : Marco Musuro ; c. 1470 – 1517) from Venetian Crete who had made his career in Italy, and already edited many classic Greek authors. It

78-496: A past tense verb rather than the present tense in some instances. Their interpretation is that he did this in order to make it seem as if he were in the same temporal setting as his audience. Unlike a modern day travel guide, in Description of Greece Pausanias tends to elaborate with discussion of an ancient ritual or to impart a myth related to the site he is visiting. His style of writing would not become popular again until

104-600: A purveyor of second-hand accounts and believed that Pausanias had not visited most of the places that he described. Modern archaeological research, however, has been revealing the accuracy of information imparted by Pausanias, and even its potential as a guide for further investigations. Research into Tartessos exemplifies where his writing about it is aiding contemporary archaeological research into its existence, location, and culture. Description of Greece Description of Greece ( Ancient Greek : Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις , romanized :  Helládos Periḗgēsis )

130-529: A single mention of the author, not a whisper before the sixth century ( Stephanus Byzantius ), and only three or two references to it throughout the Middle Ages ." Eighteen surviving manuscripts of Pausanias were known in the 1830s, copies from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, with three perhaps older than the rest. They are full of lacunae and errors, and all appear to depend on a single manuscript, now missing, that managed to be copied. Niccolò Niccoli ,

156-399: A story about a Greek author, thought to be Anyte of Tegea , who has a divine dream. In the dream, she is told to present the text of Description of Greece to a wider Greek audience in order to open their eyes to "all things Greek". Description of Greece left only faint traces in the known Greek corpus. "It was not read", Habicht relates, "there is not a single quotation from it, not even

182-459: Is honest about his sourcing, sometimes confirming contemporary knowledge by him that may be lost to modern researchers. Until twentieth-century archaeologists concluded that Pausanias was a reliable guide to sites being excavated, classicists largely had dismissed the writings of Pausanias as purely literary. Following their presumed authoritative contemporary Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff , classicists tended to regard him as little more than

208-482: Is the only surviving work by the ancient "geographer" or tourist Pausanias (c. 110 – c. 180). Pausanias' Description of Greece comprises ten books, each of them dedicated to some part of mainland Greece. He is essentially describing his own travels, and large parts of Greece are not covered, including the islands. His tour begins in Attica ( Ἀττικά ) and continues with Athens, including its suburbs or demes . Then

234-516: The 6th century AD, and the book seems to have survived to the Middle Ages in a single manuscript, itself now lost. However, it attracted great interest in the Renaissance, and was copied in manuscript several times, before being first printed in 1516. Pausanias was motivated by his interest in religion, mythology, and the local legends around religious sites. His work has been regarded as some kind of "journey into identity", referring to that of

260-476: The Greek beliefs and heritage. Pausanias describes the religious art and sacred architecture of many famous sites such as Olympia and Delphi . Although as a critic of art and architecture he is usually vague and frustratingly brief, his few words are often or usually the only surviving literary source from antiquity, and of great interest to historians and archaeologists. Even in the most remote Greek regions, he

286-576: The council, popular assembly , or court of law , reciting there the formulas of prayer , and summoning persons to attend. Hermes , himself the ceryx of the gods, was their patron and carried the caduceus (Latin corruption of Ancient Greek kerykeion ), the herald’s staff. This article relating to Greek mythology is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pausanias (geographer) Pausanias ( / p ɔː ˈ s eɪ n i ə s / paw- SAY -nee-əs ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Παυσανίας ; c.  110  – c.  180 )

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312-463: The date palms of ancient Aulis , the wild strawberries at Mount Helicon , the olive oil in Tithorea , as well as the "white blackbirds" of Mount Kyllini (Cyllene) and the tortoises of Arcadia. The end of Description of Greece remains mysterious: some believe that Pausanias died before finishing his work, and others believe his strange ending was intentional. He concludes his Periegesis with

338-444: The early nineteenth century when contemporary travel guides resembled his. In the topographical aspect of his work, Pausanias makes many natural history digressions on the wonders of nature documented at the time, the signs that herald the approach of an earthquake , the phenomena of the tides , the ice-bound seas of the north, and that at the summer solstice the noonday sun casts no shadow at Syene ( Aswan ). While he never doubts

364-439: The existence of the deities and heroes, he criticizes some of the myths and legends he encountered during his travels as differing from earlier cultural traditions that he relates or notes. His descriptions of monuments of art are plain and unadorned, bearing a solid impression of reality. Pausanias is frank in acknowledging personal limitations. When he quotes information at second hand rather than relating his own experiences, he

390-416: The historical and mythological underpinnings of the culture that created them. Recent decades, during which archaeology has confirmed various of his descriptions, have increased his credibility as a witness among scholars. In the 19th century his accounts were often regarded as unreliable. We know nothing about Pausanias except what can be deduced from his book. There are no ancient mentions of either until

416-568: The mainland of Greece, writing about various monuments, sacred spaces, and significant geographical sites along the way. In writing his Description of Greece , Pausanias sought to put together a lasting written account of "all things Greek", or panta ta hellenika . Being born in Asia Minor , Pausanias was of Greek heritage. He grew up and lived under the rule of the Roman Empire , but valued his Greek identity, history, and culture. He

442-515: The sites and cultural details he mentions although knowledge of their existence may have become lost or relegated to myth or legend. Nothing is known about Pausanias apart from what historians can piece together from his own writing. However, it is probable that he was born c.  110 AD into a Greek family and was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. From c.  150 until his death around 180, Pausanias travelled throughout

468-618: The text was translated by William Henry Samuel Jones and is available through the Loeb Classical Library . The translation as Guide to Greece by Peter Levi is popular among English speakers, but is often thought to be a loose translation of the original text: Levi took liberties with his translation that restructured Description of Greece to function like a general guidebook to mainland Greece. Sir James George Frazer also published six volumes of translation and commentary of Description of Greece ; his translation remains

494-500: The work goes with Corinthia ( Κορινθιακά ), Laconia ( Λακωνικά ), Messenia ( Μεσσηνιακά ), Elis ( Ἠλιακά ), Achaea ( Ἀχαϊκά ), Arcadia ( Ἀρκαδικά ), Boeotia ( Βοιωτικά ), Phocis ( Φωκικά ), and Ozolian Locris ( Λοκρῶν Ὀζόλων ). The work is rather erratic on described topography ; its main interest is the cultural geography of ancient Greece, especially its religious sites, in which Pausanias not only described architectural and artistic objects, but also reviewed

520-400: Was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD. He is famous for his Description of Greece ( Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις , Hēlládos Periḗgēsis ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his firsthand observations. Description of Greece provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology , which is providing evidence of

546-573: Was fascinated by many kinds of holy relics, depictions of deities, and other mysterious and sacred things. For example, at Thebes , Pausanias views the ruins of the house of the poet Pindar , the shields of warriors who died at the famous Battle of Leuctra , the statues of Arion , Hesiod , Orpheus , and Thamyris . He also visited the grove of the Muses on Helicon and saw the portraits of Polybius and of Corinna at Tanagra in Arcadia . Pausanias

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572-762: Was keen to describe the glories of a Greek past that still was relevant in his lifetime, even if the country was beholden to Rome as a dominating imperial force. Pausanias's pilgrimage throughout the land of his ancestors was his own attempt to establish a place in the world for this new Roman Greece, connecting myths and stories of ancient culture to those of his own time. Pausanias has a straightforward and simple writing style. He is, overall, direct in his language, writing his stories and descriptions unelaborately. However, some translators have noted that Pausanias's use of various prepositions and tenses may be confusing and difficult to render in English. For example, Pausanias may use

598-477: Was mostly interested in relics of antiquity, rather than contemporary architecture or sacred spaces. As Christian Habicht , a modern day classicist who wrote a multitude of scholarly articles on Pausanias, says: "He definitely prefers the sacred to the profane and the old to the new, and there is much more about classical art of Greece than the about contemporary, more about gods, altars, and temples, than about statues of politicians or public buildings." Although he

624-483: Was no naturalist, he often gives brief comments on the physical aspects of the ancient landscapes he passed through. Pausanias wrote about the pine trees located on the coast of Ancient Elis , the wild boars and the deer in the oak woods of Seliana (Phelloe), and the crows amid the oak trees in Alalcomenae . Towards the end of Description of Greece , Pausanias touches on the fruits of nature and products, such as

650-781: Was the youngest son of Eumolpus , one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis and a founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries . He founded the two families of high priests in Eleusis: the ceryces (or Ceryces), a family of priests in Athens , and the Eumolpidae . In Homer ’s time, ceryx was a profession of trusted attendants or retainers of a chieftain. The role of ceryces / ˈ s ɛ r ɪ ˌ s iː z / expanded, however, to include acting as inviolable messengers between states, even in time of war, proclaiming meetings of

676-548: Was translated into Latin by Romolo Amaseo  [ it ] , printed in Rome in 1547, with a combined Greek and Latin edition from Thomas Fritsch of Leipzig in 1696. An Italian translation followed in 1593 ( Mantua by Alfonso Bonacciuoli ). A French translation by Nicolas Gédoyn was published in 1731. It was again translated into Latin by Germans, published in 1896. Translations into English begin rather late, with Thomas Taylor (London, 1794). A widely known version of

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