Describing Greece Landscape and Literature in the Periegesis of Pausanias [Hardcover]

Examines the most important work of non-fiction travel literature in antiquity, Pausanias' Description of Greece.The second-century CE work Periegesis Hellados (Description of Greece) by Pausanias is the most important example of non-fictional travel literature in ancient Greek. The choices Pausanias makes as a traveller and an author are examined against contemporary literary currents, the cultural background of the Roman Empire at its height, and the archaeological remains in the places which he visited. Through this study Pausanias emerges as a pilgrim, an explorer, and a unique witness to what it meant to be a Greek subject of the Roman Empire.The second-century CE work Periegesis Hellados (Description of Greece) by Pausanias is the most important example of non-fictional travel literature in ancient Greek. The choices Pausanias makes as a traveller and an author are examined against contemporary literary currents, the cultural background of the Roman Empire at its height, and the archaeological remains in the places which he visited. Through this study Pausanias emerges as a pilgrim, an explorer, and a unique witness to what it meant to be a Greek subject of the Roman Empire.William Hutton provides the first exhaustive literary study of the Periegesis Hellados, the most important example of non-fictional travel literature in ancient Greek, to appear in nearly one hundred years. He examines Pausanias' arrangement and expression of his material and evaluates his authorial choices in light of the contemporary literary currents of the day and the cultural milieu of the Roman empire in the time of Hadrian and the Antonines. The descriptions offered in the Periegesis Hellados are also examined in the context of the archaeological evidence available for the places Pausanias visited.1. Introduction; 2. Pausanias' world; 3. Designing the Periegesis; 4. Marking territories; 5. City descriptions; 6. The landscapes of language; 7. Sui generis; 8. A periegete's progress. Itlã.