Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

Pausanias: Travel Writing in Ancient Greece
readers will soon discover many shortcomings in Pausanias’ topographies,
but it is important to understand his efforts in the context of ancient
attitudes to geography. It is hardly possible to overestimate the influence
of maps on how descriptions of landscapes are perceived today. To us, the
outlines of continents and countries have become familiar icons, and we
are used to thinking of landscapes with that overview in mind. 22 The
Greeks created their first maps of the world in the sixth century BC, and
it seems that early cartography was particularly important in philosophical
discussions about the shape of the world and the definition of the
continents. More commonly, however, geography depended on verbal description
rather than on maps. 23 During the Hellenistic and Roman period
geographical knowledge was refined, particularly after many areas became
more accessible and better known through conquest and exploration.
The Geography of Pausanias’ close contemporary Ptolemy summarises the
results of this long process as a set of co-ordinates and cartographical
instructions, and, while the areas close to the edges are vague, the resulting
outline of the Mediterranean regions bears a close resemblance to the
familiar contours of modern maps. 24 As we can see in Strabo’s work,
geographical overviews could also be provided by comparing regions and
coastlines with geometrical shapes to which one could add measurements
of crucial distances.
The shape of the Peloponnese resembles the leaf of a plane tree. Its length
and width are nearly equal, each about 1400 stadia, that is from west to east,
namely from Cape Chelonatas through Olympia and the territory of Megalopolis
to the Isthmos, and, from south to north, from Maliai though Arkadia
to Aigion. The circumference, without counting the bays, is 4000 stadia. …
At the Diolkos where they draw ships overland from one sea to the other the
Isthmos is 40 stadia wide. 25 (Strabo 8.2.10)
Strabo’s description of the Peloponnese coincides relatively well with the
visual impression we get from maps, but this system of describing regional
geography can become rather cumbersome. The complex topography of
Greece as a whole, for example, proves a major challenge for Strabo, who
opts to divide it into a sequence of ‘peninsulas’ divided by imaginary lines
from coast to coast (see Fig. 7).
The first of these peninsulas is the Peloponnese, closed in by an isthmus
which is forty stadia wide. The second includes the first, and its isthmus
extends from Pagai in the Megarid to Nisaia, which is the naval station of
the Megarians; the passage across this isthmus is 120 stadia from sea to sea.
The third peninsula also comprises the last, and its isthmus reaches from
the interior of the Krisaian Gulf to Thermopylai. The line we imagine
between these is about 508 stadia, including within it the whole of Boiotia
and cutting through Phokis and the territory of the Epiknemidians. The
fourth peninsula has its isthmus between the Ambrakian Gulf, through
Mount Oita and Trachinia to the Malian Gulf, about eight hundred stadia.
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