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Guide to Greece, Vol. 1: Central Greece Paperback – August 7, 1984
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Written in the second century AD by a Greek traveller for a predominantly Roman audience, Pausanias' Guide to Greece is an extraordinarily literate and well-informed guidebook. A study of buildings, traditions and myth, it describes with precision and eloquence the glory of classical Greece shortly before its ultimate decline in the third century. This volume, the first of two, concerns the five provinces of central Greece, with an account of cities including Athens, Corinth and Thebes and a compelling depiction of the Oracle at Delphi. Along the way, Pausanias recounts Greek legends that are unknown from any other source and quotes a wealth of classical literature and poetry that would otherwise have been lost. An inspiration to Byron and Shelley, Guide to Greece remains one of the most influential travel books ever written.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- Print length608 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Classics
- Publication dateAugust 7, 1984
- Dimensions5.1 x 1.05 x 7.75 inches
- ISBN-100140442251
- ISBN-13978-0140442250
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About the Author
Peter Levi was a Jesuit priest and archaelogical correspondent for The Times before his appointment as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In addition to his translation of Pausanias he also published biographies of Tennyson, Edward Lear, Virgil, Horace and John Milton, and 22 volumes of poetry.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (August 7, 1984)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 608 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140442251
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140442250
- Item Weight : 14.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.1 x 1.05 x 7.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #298,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #106 in General Greece Travel Guides
- #289 in Ancient Greek History (Books)
- #888 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
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Sometime during the reign of Hadrian, a very well-read Greek set down a description of the Greek mainland, paying attention mainly to pre-Roman structures and works of art. A long tradition of German scholarship has denied that Pausanias ever left his library, ignoring English "amateurs" who had little trouble following him on the ground. Those interested in this controversy, or uncertain of whether they want to commit themselves to a work of this size, can now turn to Christian Habicht's first-rate introduction to the book and its critical reception, "Pausanias' Guide to Ancient Greece." Habicht also evaluates existing translations, including this one.
There is no substitute, however, for the riches lying within what looks like a dry account of buildings and natural wonders.
First of all, Pausanias had the good sense to avoid retelling the best-known stories and historical episodes, and give space to lesser-known material. It is thanks to manuscripts of his work that we have, for examples, the stories of the Messenian struggles against Sparta (a fascinating mixture of history and patriotic romance), and some of the more obscure episodes of Athenian history under Macedonian rule.
Secondly, Pausanias provides otherwise unknown versions of many classical myths, explaining exactly where they were told, and how they were connected to the local cults. This is an extremely valuable source for Greek mythology as part of a living culture, instead of a literary theme. From time to time we get a glimpse of rituals, and frequently we learn of abandoned cults and forgotten shrines -- it is sometimes hard to remember that the ancient world was subject to profound changes, even before the rise of Christianity or the Barbarian Invasions. (Come to think of it, Pausanias includes interesting details of a Celtic invasion of Greece which is seldom mentioned in modern general histories.)
Finally, if read with great care, Pausanias provides an extraordinary amount of detail about the physical realities of the ancient world. Used with intelligence, it has been of enormous value to archeologists. On the other hand, the descriptions are sometimes extremely obscure, due to unstated assumptions as well as textual corruptions, and the application of Pausanias to the evidence of excavations has often been controversial. (Habicht is, again, a good introduction to the issues.)
Although Levi's translation is not always ideal (the distribution between two volumes is eccentric, and some passages, such as the list of Spartan kings, are shortened) , and the line drawings which illustrate it are sometimes as frustrating as they are helpful, it is a handy, relatively inexpensive, and mostly very reliable, contribution.
[Notes, September 2013: As will be evident to anyone reading this on Amazon, Penguin has since issued the "Guide" in a Kindle edition -- still in two "volumes" (which I find annoying). As for other translations, the bilingual Loeb Classical Library edition is still available in hardcover, and is still -- or, rather, more -- expensive than ten years ago. The excellent, but archeologically very, very dated, six-volume translation-with-commentary by J.G. Frazer (yes, the author of "The Golden Bough," and quite a bit more) has been reprinted, in hardcover and paperback editions. However, it is available *free* as a set of pdf files on Archive.org (a Library of Congress website), along with some translations from the eighteenth- and earlier nineteenth-centuries, which are mainly of curiosity value, unless one is tracing a history of scholarship on some place or topic. Frazer's impressive Classical scholarship still makes his four volumes of commentary (plus a separate index volume) a useful guide to other Classical sources and previous studies. Frazer's translation (in the first volume) is, naturally, rather Victorian-sounding, but not without literary merit.]