Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

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The Importance of Travelling
In Egyptian Thebes I crossed the Nile to the so-called Pipes (Syringes), and
I saw a seated statue which gives out a sound. The many (hoi polloi) call it
Memnon, and they say that he advanced into Egypt and even as far as Susa.
The Thebans, however, say that it is not a statue of Memnon, but of a native
named Phamenoph, and I have also heard that it is Sesostris. Kambyses
broke the statue in two, and now it has been cast down from the head to the
middle. What remains, however, is seated and every day at sunrise it makes
a noise which is best compared to the sound of a kithara or lyre when a string
has been broken. 1 (Paus. 1.42.3)
Pausanias was a seasoned traveller who had visited many places outside
his native Ionia and the part of Greece covered in the Periegesis. He refers
to journeys through most of Asia Minor and Syria as far east as the
Euphrates. In the west he visited Sicily and parts of Italy, especially Rome,
which he knew relatively well. In Egypt he went to the sanctuary of
Ammon at Siwah, saw the pyramids and travelled up the Nile at least as
far as Thebes. 2
We can assume that for the man who embarked on the
project to describe Greece, travelling was nothing unusual, and in this he
was not alone: travel was a standard part of élite life in the Roman empire.
The Periegesis is not a travelogue, but the text is in many ways influenced
by the realities of travel at the time. Sometimes it is possible to see
how Pausanias’ actual experiences in Greece influenced his work, and he
provides some insights into the process of collecting information on site.
This line of enquiry is limited by his reluctance to speak about the actual
process of travelling or to mention specific incidents on his journeys.
Beyond Pausanias’ own experience his informed assumptions about the
collective habits and interests of the educated Greek traveller also had an
influence on the shaping of the Periegesis. The whole book is arranged as
an itinerary which subtly invites readers to imagine themselves journeying
along those routes, and individual site descriptions respond to the
interests of educated travellers of the period. Pausanias also had to bear
in mind that many of his potential readers might know at least some of
the sites he was describing. The role of travel as an integral part of Second
Sophistic culture will be at the centre of this discussion: I investigate the
habits and preferences of ancient travellers, and relate them to corresponding
features of the Periegesis.
Travelling had been a part of the common Greek consciousness as long
as anyone could remember. There had been Greeks overseas since the
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