Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
however, Roman officials and traders were not alone in enjoying the
advantages of safe communications. 7
Many of the travellers we hear about in the ancient sources were
comparatively wealthy, but it was not just the well-off who travelled on a
regular basis. 8
Some sanctuaries, particularly those of Asklepios, attracted
constant streams of visitors from all backgrounds. Prime historical
sites saw an increase in visitors, and high profile festivals such as the
Olympic Games drew larger crowds than ever before. The historical sites
of Greece and Asia Minor were particularly attractive, especially those
that could boast an important role in the Greek past. Egypt offered safe
and comfortable access to an exotic culture and impressive ancient monuments.
9 Famous sites had many visitors from all parts of the Roman
empire as is best documented in visitors’ graffiti from Philae in Upper
Egypt and in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, called Syringes (‘Pipes’)
in antiquity. This epigraphical evidence also supports the impression that
the second century AD offered the best opportunity to travel: a majority of
the inscriptions are from this period. 10 This phenomenon is often described
as ‘ancient tourism’, but this term is problematic, because it conjures up
images of modern mass tourism. The Grand Tours of the eighteenth
century offer a better comparison to the activities of educated ancient
travellers who went to see significant sites. 11 Pausanias’ trip to Egypt,
mentioned in the passage that opens this chapter, was certainly not
exceptional. He went to Thebes and saw the Valley of the Kings and the
‘statue of Memnon’, a colossal statue of Amenhotep III which broke apart
around 27 BC and subsequently emitted a sound at sunrise which quickly
turned it into a first-rate visitor attraction. It, too, has admirers’ inscriptions
on it, but apparently only high-class travellers were allowed to leave
their mark there, usually an expression of their amazement at hearing the
statue’s sound. 12 By identifying the statue as Memnon, a hero who featured
prominently in the epic tradition surrounding the Trojan War, Greek
visitors had brought their own myths to explain the statue and its unique
properties. Pausanias, probably deliberately responding to Herodotos’
description of Egypt, turns to local, ostensibly older traditions to challenge
this Greek interpretation.
In spite of the dangers of shipping in antiquity, long voyages were
usually undertaken by ship, which was faster and more comfortable than
travel on land. 13 Pausanias’ itinerary in the Periegesis sometimes takes to
the sea and follows the coastline in the manner of a periplous (literally
‘circumnaviagation’), an archaic Greek mode of describing geographical
features and settlements along a coast. As Hutton points out, Pausanias
has a tendency to make unusual topographical mistakes when he describes
sea routes, quite possibly because he copied some of these passages
from existing geographical works. 14 Most of the Periegesis stays firmly on
land, following roads from one site to the next. As a whole the itinerary
used to organise the text is clearly artificial, but it seems that at some
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