Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
of gold and hippopotamus teeth or one of amber. 28 In this latter case the
ambiguous meaning of the Greek word for amber, êlektron, leads to a
comment on amber and on the alloy of gold and silver that was known
under the same name. Pausanias also examines the properties of other
materials: for example there is a list of the types of wood that could be used
for statues and a discussion of the merit of brick walls for defence purposes.
29 The description of the Zeus of Olympia ends with an excursus on
the upkeep of ivory statues followed by an enquiry into the nature of
ivory. 30 He was interested in the technical process involved in the making
of sculpture, and sometimes he discusses how a statue was made, especially
if the technique was ancient or unusual. 31 A special technique could
raise a statue into the category ‘worth seeing’ and therefore earn it an
entry in the Periegesis: once he even recommends a statue to ‘anyone who
prefers workmanship to mere antiquity’, and another is noteworthy because
it is made of iron, which is especially difficult to work. 32
Many references to works of art in the Periegesis are, as has been said,
very short; if an object is described at all, the text often includes only a few
essential aspects. As soon as Pausanias embarked on a more extensive
description, however, he was following an ancient literary tradition
which would have been familiar to his audience. Ekphrasis was an
ingredient of Greek literature from its very beginning in the Homeric
epics. The most impressive example is the extensive description of
Achilles’ shield in the Iliad, but there are many passages in the Iliad as
well as in the Odyssey which give some details about a variety of
artefacts. 33 Hellenistic poetry added to the tradition by emphasising the
experience of an observer discovering and decoding a work of art. 34 In
Pausanias’ time ekphrasis became part of the well-stocked literary
toolkit of orators and writers. Rhetorical exercises (progymnasmata) for
aspiring sophists included such descriptive accounts which could be
useful in many contexts, because they did not only deal with works of
art but also with places, circumstances, events, persons, animals and
various objects. 35 There are, however, a number of works of the Second
Sophistic period in which the description of art takes pride of place.
Ekphrasis was probably a routine part of the activities of a performing
orator: it would be useful in the standard topic of praising a city, but
references to art could serve to illustrate an argument in many contexts
and were easy to include because speeches would usually be delivered in
public places filled with works of art. Lucian’s De Domo presents a
rhetorical contest between orators who discuss the influence of a magnificent
building on their performance. Their arguments include references to
their surroundings and one participant provides short descriptions of the
paintings displayed in the hall. 36 Ekphrasis, however, primarily has the
power to create an image of an object that is not present, and it was
therefore not dependent on a particular location or context. In historiography
the description of buildings in particular can be useful to set the
110