Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
what he has seen, and when he demonstrates how he uses his informed
judgement to evaluate and interpret his material. This particular mode of
imitating Herodotos was by no means a conventional or safe choice. After
all, Herodotos was respected for his graceful style, but many doubted his
credibility, and his manner of presenting and juxtaposing stories had
become a particular cause for suspicion. 62
Journeys recorded in travel texts usually led to distant, strange places
which needed to be understood by highlighting how different they were to
Greek cultural norms. There were also stories about travellers who had
come the other way, most famously the legendary Scythian sage Anacharsis,
which allowed Greek writers to reverse their standards of
ethnographical interpretation by presenting a barbarian’s view of Greece.
Either way, travel accounts allowed Greeks to reflect upon their own
identity by exploring differences between foreign cultures and their own. 63
Pausanias’ Periegesis introduces a new angle to this cultural discourse: it
is the account of an outside observer, but one who essentially shares his
cultural background with the local people. 64 He is therefore able to relate
all but the most unusual aspects of local tradition to a common Greek
history and heritage. Whatever might appear strange here is actually
Greek by definition. The observer cannot distance himself from what he
does not understand, but whatever he sees, however strange, is an aspect
of his own culture because it is, after all, located in the old motherland of
Greece. Unlike most travellers before him, Pausanias seeks, and finds,
answers about the nature of Greek culture where it is most at home: in the
most ancient heartlands of the Greek world.
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