Guide to Greece, Volume 2: Southern Greece

by Pausanias, Peter Levi (Translator)

Pausanias's (c. 143-176) account of every Greek city and sanctuary includes historical introductions and a record of local customs and beliefs. This volume describes southern Greece, including Olympia, Sparta, Arcadia, and Bassae.

Book 3 Lakonia
Book 4 Messinia
Book 5 Eleia I
Book 6 Eleia II
Book 8 Arkadia

Genres: History, Travel, Classics, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Greece, Ancient

534 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 179

About the author

born circa 110
died circa 180

Pausanias, geographer and historian, wrote Description of Greece , a valuable source on the ancient topography.

This traveler of the 2nd century lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. From firsthand observations, his famous lengthy work crucially links classical literature and modern archaeology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pausani...

Reviews

[Illiterate]

As I don’t know the Peloponnese, I found this volume less evocative but more intriguing than the first.

[Evan Leach]

The Guide is divided up into 10 books; this volume contains the five dedicated to the Peloponnesus. Reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[John Yelverton]

An absolutely amazing and in depth look at the history and architecture of ancient Greece. It's really amazing the attention of detail that the author goes in to when you consider the time period in which this book was written.

[David Jones]

Great to compare with modern guides.

[Steven Latour]

Volume 2 covers some very important areas of Ancient Greek culture. In Eleia Pausanias covers Olympia, describing many statues and particularly the statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). There is a particularly interesting series of legends about Aristomenes in the book on Messenia. I had hoped for more interesting information on Sparta but they did not have a predilection for temples or artworks so I should have known better. The translator’s commentaries are helpful and often quite humorous.

[Станислав]

Фундаментальный справочник по местам и людям Древней Греции.
Если звёзлным эпизодом первого тома были Мессенские войны, то во втором это вторжение галлов в Грецию. Нелёгкое чтение, но очень полезное.

[Ryan Schaller]

Would love for a Landmark or other critical edition of Pausanias that includes maps and other visual materials of all the places he's mentioning and describing, but until we have something like that, this is a good and useful edition of the work, if a bit dated.

[Gavin]

Exactly what it says with the added bonus of huge amounts of mythology thrown in. Some of it is even partially true or at least based on stories Pausanias was told as he travelled around. Much the same happens today in Greece. As to whether one should actually believe what one is told there is something I wouldn't care to speculate on here. Let's just say they're somewhat like the Irish of whom I'm a partial.

[Rje]

Somewhat disappointing relative to Penguin's Volume 1 of this work, in that there are no maps attached.

[James Violand]

An ancient travelogue. Interesting because much of what is lost or in ruins in Greece are vibrantly describe from personal observation.