Description of Greece
Description of Greece
Greek
Description of Greece
Name in Non-English, or Alternative Name/s
Pausanias's Description of Greece; Description of Greece; Periegesis Hellados; Description of Hellas
Mythopouch artistic interpretations
English Edition Translation used on this Page
J. G. Frazer · 1898 · Macmillan and Co., Limited, London; The Macmillan Company, New York
Time Period
Second century CE under Roman rule. Historical English source witness: J. G. Frazer, 1898.
Introduction - Overview
Description of Greece is the ten-book account of the Greek traveller Pausanias, written in the second century CE under Roman rule. Moving region by region, Pausanias records sanctuaries, statues, tombs, rituals, local histories, artworks and mythological traditions attached to the places he visits.
The historical English source supplied by Mythopouch is Volume I, Translation, of J. G. Frazer's Pausanias's Description of Greece, published in 1898 by Macmillan. Volume I contains Frazer's complete English translation of Pausanias's ten books; the remaining volumes of the 1898 set are commentary, indices and maps rather than additional translated books.
The Work...
Description of Greece
Pausanias organises Description of Greece geographically rather than as a continuous mythological story. Book I covers Attica; Book II Corinthia and Argolis; Book III Laconia; Book IV Messenia; Books V and VI Elis and Olympia; Book VII Achaia; Book VIII Arcadia; Book IX Boeotia; and Book X Phocis and Delphi.
His method is unusually valuable for mythology because stories are tied to physical places. A hero may have a tomb, a god may be worshipped under a local title, a ritual may preserve a version of a myth that differs from poetry, and a painting or statue may record traditions otherwise lost. Pausanias often reports more than one version of a story and sometimes comments on whether he believes what local guides tell him.
The work preserves major traditions involving Athena and Poseidon in Athens, Theseus and the Amazons, Perseus and Mycenae, Asclepius at Epidaurus, Spartan and Messenian traditions, the sanctuary and games at Olympia, Arcadian cults, Cadmus and Thebes, the Muses of Helicon, Plataea, Apollo at Delphi, and the lost paintings of Polygnotus. It also records historical wars, civic rivalries and monuments from periods long after the heroic age, showing how myth, religion and history continued to occupy the same landscape.
Mythopouch uses J. G. Frazer's 1898 public-domain translation as the historical source witness. Frazer's language and scholarly assumptions belong to his period, so the source should be read as an important historical translation rather than as the final word on every archaeological or philological question.
Summary
Pausanias's ten-book Description of Greece in J. G. Frazer's 1898 public-domain translation, preserving Greek sanctuaries, monuments, local myths, rituals, histories and sacred landscapes.
Source Note
Pausanias's ancient text is public-domain source material. J. G. Frazer's English translation was published in 1898, and Frazer died in 1941. The 1898 Volume I scan used by Mythopouch is explicitly identified as Public Domain Mark material. Mythopouch may host and use this historical translation. Mythopouch does not claim copyright in Pausanias's ancient work or Frazer's translation; copyright applies only to Mythopouch's own modern wording, design and presentation.
Sources & Retellings Cultural Context Notice
Mythology developed across different cultures, periods and traditions, and there is rarely one universally accepted version of a story. Mythopouch approaches these traditions with respect while remaining faithful to the complexity of the surviving material. Retellings and educational content may interpret or adapt historical sources, but are not presented as definitive accounts of any culture, religion or belief system.