Pausanias_Travel_Writing_in_Ancient Greece [Maria_Pretzler]

6. A Sense of Time: Pausanias as Historian
written record presented special challenges for Pausanias as a historiographer.
33 He had to evaluate his material, and he needed to make sure that
his readers would be able to understand and appreciate these local stories
in the context of mainstream Greek history. Such accounts were of variable
quality, and there were often different, even contradictory, versions
of the same events. 34 Wherever possible Pausanias uses alternative evidence
to reconstruct ‘what really happened’ and then he assesses whether
a particular account is a truthful representation of these ‘actual events’. 35
Pausanias’ ultimate criterion in any assessment of historical information
is his sense of what is plausible, probable or possible. If a story does not
seem plausible he tries to reconstruct the ‘historical truth’ by rational
interpretation, a widely accepted method with a long tradition in Greek
scholarly writing. 36 Pausanias believes that the tradition is often manipulated
by individual writers and the general public who desire to make their
history more impressive by adding exaggerations and miracles, and he
tries to reconstruct the ‘original version’ by removing what he identifies as
later inappropriate additions. 37 Many details are included in the Periegesis
although they are identified as implausible or wrong, and often there are
alternative versions of a story; readers are invited to come to their own
conclusions. 38 This approach is clearly modelled on Herodotos’ Histories,
but it is particularly appropriate for the Periegesis because many of the
stories it records enhance the site descriptions and give meaning to
specific monuments, regardless of their value as historical evidence.
During his research in Greece Pausanias learned to deal with a wide
range of historical material, and he shows exceptional versatility in combining
diverse types of sources. He appreciated the potential of buildings,
art works and inscriptions as historical sources and sometimes he also
considers local customs, rituals or dialects to support his arguments. 39
Pausanias found additional historical information in the literary sources,
especially historical texts and epic poetry, and he stresses his particular
trust in Homer as a work of historical reference. 40 We as readers can know
only as much about Pausanias’ historical research as he allows us to see,
namely the material he did consider worth recording, together with occasional
comments on the value of particular sources and on the efforts he
made to present a full and truthful account. Such remarks are designed to
fill the reader with confidence and perhaps admiration, and they are
therefore likely to present Pausanias’ ideas about the ideal way of approaching
history and a selection of what he thought his best arguments. 41
I wanted to make the effort to find out which children where born to
Polykaon by Messene, and I read the so-called Eoiai and the epic Naupaktia,
as well as the genealogies by Kinaithon and Asios. However, they do not
provide any information about this matter, and although I know that the
Great Eoiai says that Polykaon, son of Boutes, married Euaichme, daughter
of Hyllos, son of Herakles, it makes no mention of the husband of Messene
or of Messene herself. 42 (Paus. 4.2.1)
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