The Description of Greece is a ten-book travel guide composed in Greek by Pausanias during the second century CE, likely between 150 and 180. Structured as a systematic tour of mainland Greece, the work begins in Attica with Athens and proceeds region-by-region, offering detailed accounts of cities, sanctuaries, and notable landmarks. Pausanias concentrates on meticulously recording art, architecture, local myths, and religious customs, thereby creating an antiquarian record of the Greek world as it existed under Roman administration. The books follow the regions in turn: Attica and the Megarid (I), Corinth and the Argolid (II), Laconia (III), Messenia (IV), Elis with Olympia (V and VI), Achaea (VII), Arcadia (VIII), Boeotia (IX), and Phocis with Delphi and Ozolian Locris (X). Into the tour he sets long histories of each people, such as the Messenian wars with Sparta and the Achaean League's war with Rome, and he records the statues of Olympic victors at Olympia and the paintings of Polygnotus at Delphi. The complete text survives in medieval manuscripts. Many of the statues, temples and rites he describes are known from no other source.
Pausanias Periegete Description of Greece: summary and contents (PDF)
Pausanias Periegete Description of Greece: summary and contents (Markdown)
Contents
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Αʹ Book I
Attica is the first region on Pausanias's tour, approached by sea past Sunium and the Piraeus. In Athens he walks the Agora, the Acropolis with the Parthenon and Athena's statue of ivory and gold, the Areopagus and the road to the Academy, then visits the demes of Attica, among them Marathon and Eleusis, and ends in the Megarid at the border with Corinthian land.
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Βʹ Book II
Corinth and its isthmus come first, followed by Sicyon, Phlius and the Argolid. Pausanias describes Mycenae, Argos with its theatre and the relief of the poet Telesilla, Tiryns, the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, Aegina, Troezen and Hermione, and ends in the Thyreatis, where herms on Mount Parnon mark the frontier with Laconia.
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Γʹ Book III
Laconia, entered from the herms on the Argive border, begins with the descendants of Lelex and the two royal houses of Sparta, traced king by king. Pausanias then describes Sparta's agora, the Dromos where the young still trained, and its shrines, before following the coast round Cape Taenarum and the towns of the Free Laconians to Gerenia and Alagonia.
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Δʹ Book IV
Messenia's history takes up most of the account: the early kings, the wars with Sparta, the exploits and captures of Aristomenes, the exile of the Messenians and their return under Epaminondas. The tour then covers Messene, Pylos and Sphacteria, and Cyparissia, ending at the river Neda on the border of Elis.
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Εʹ Book V
Olympia is the centre of this first of two books on Elis. After the Eleans' legends and history and the origins of the Olympic festival, Pausanias describes the Altis: the temple of Zeus with its sculptures and Phidias's statue, the order of the altars, the wild olive that gives the victors' crowns, and the dedications of cities, among them an offering of the Mendaeans with its inscription.
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Ϛʹ Book VI
Statues of Olympic victors at Olympia are recorded here, chosen, Pausanias says, as an account of dedications rather than a list of winners. Athletes, horse-owners and boxers pass in turn, among them Milo of Croton with his feats of strength. He then describes the city of Elis, digresses on the Seres and the silk they produce, and sets out on the road to Achaea.
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Ζʹ Book VII
Achaea, once called Aegialus, opens with the Ionians who held it and their move to Asia, where Pausanias describes the Ionian cities. The rise of the Achaean League and its war with Rome follow, through Metellus, Diaeus and Mummius to the fall of Corinth, before the tour of Patrae, Aegium and the coastal towns ends at the river Sythas on the Sicyonian border.
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Ηʹ Book VIII
Arcadia, the inland heart of the Peloponnese, begins with the genealogy of its kings from Pelasgus. Pausanias describes Mantinea, Megalopolis and its history, including the tyrant Aristodemus called the Good, the sanctuary of Despoina at Lycosura, Phigalia and Tegea. He ends on Mount Parthenion, where Pan appeared to Philippides, and closes his account of the Peloponnese.
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Θʹ Book IX
Boeotia begins at Plataea, then Thebes with its gates, its legends of Cadmus and Oedipus, and Pindar's tomb, where Pausanias tells of Persephone's visit to the poet in a dream. He goes on to Thespiae, Helicon and its Muses, Orchomenus and the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea, and ends at Chaeronea with the sceptre made by Hephaestus and the town's perfumes of lily and rose.
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Ιʹ Book X
Phocis and Ozolian Locris close the work. After the Phocians' wars and the Sacred War, Pausanias describes Delphi: the oracle's history, the temple, the treasuries and dedications, and the paintings of Polygnotus, and he narrates the Gauls' invasion of Greece and their attack on Delphi. The book ends at Naupactus, with the story of Anyte bringing Phalysius a sealed tablet from Asclepius that cured his eyes.