Who was Pausanias, and what is his Description of Greece?

Pausanias

Pausanias was a Greek traveller of the second century AD whose ten-book Description of Greece records what stood at hundreds of sites across Attica, the Peloponnese and central Greece, giving Books 5 and 6 wholly to Olympia and most of Book 10 to Delphi. He fixes his own dates only by accident, noting in passing that one book was already finished before a building he mentions in a later one had gone up. Archaeologists have used his account as a guide since excavation began at both sites in the nineteenth century, confirming some of what he recorded and leaving other claims unmatched on the ground.

In short

Pausanias gives no date for the Description of Greece, but at Patrae he says his account of Athens was already finished before Herodes Atticus began the Odeon there, proving that the books were completed in stages.
Pausanias dated his own work by accident: in Achaia he wrote that his account of Athens was already finished before the Athenian Herodes Atticus built a music hall there in memory of his wife (7.20.6).
Books 5 and 6 of Pausanias's Description of Greece are given wholly to Olympia; Book 10 gives most of its length to Delphi, including seven chapters on paintings by Polygnotus that survive nowhere else.
Pausanias reports that a man is said to change into a wolf at the sacrifice to Lycaean Zeus, then adds that those drawn to the miraculous tend to embellish it and "ruin truth by mixing it with falsehood" (8.2.6-8.2.7).
Of the fifteen treasury buildings Pausanias names at Olympia, only five have been securely identified among the foundations excavators have found there.
The École française d'Athènes has excavated Delphi against Pausanias's description of the sanctuary since 1892, and by its own account the comparison is still unfinished.

Pausanias begins at the edge of Attica

Pausanias approaches Greece from the sea and begins where Cape Sounion projects from Attica, before naming a temple. His ten books then move region by region through Attica, Corinth, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, Phocis and Ozolian Locri. Olympia receives both books on Elis; Delphi occupies most of the tenth. The circuit is deliberate but incomplete: Attica, the Peloponnese and central Greece are covered, while Aetolia and the islands remain outside it.

A later building dates an earlier book

Pausanias gives no date for the work. His clearest chronological marker is an accident. At Patrae, he explains that he omitted a music hall from the Attica book because that account was already finished before Herodes Atticus began the building. Pausanias had therefore closed Book 1 before the Athenian Odeon was raised in memory of Herodes’ wife, then continued travelling and writing until at least Book 7.

What he chose to record, and what he passed over

He is selective on purpose. Temples, statues, tombs, and the customs and stories attached to them fill the books; buildings raised by Rome or paid for with Roman money are, with one clear exception, passed over in silence. The exception is Hadrian, whom he credits by name for the temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens (1.18.6) and, among the other buildings the emperor gave the city, for “a hundred pillars of Phrygian marble” (1.18.9) — a favour Pausanias extends to no other emperor. The effect, deliberate or not, is a description of Greece in which Rome has left less of a mark than it had.

A story he does not quite believe

Where a tale strains belief, Pausanias reports it without either endorsing or dismissing it outright. In Arcadia he writes: “It is said, for instance, that ever since the time of Lycaon a man has changed into a wolf at the sacrifice to Lycaean Zeus” (8.2.6), sets it beside a claim that Niobe still weeps on Mount Sipylus, and then states his own rule for handling both: “Those who like to listen to the miraculous are themselves apt to add to the marvel, and so they ruin truth by mixing it with falsehood” (8.2.7). A few lines earlier, describing men said to have been changed into gods in an earlier age, he had written the opposite: “I for my part believe this story” (8.2.4). The two judgements sit within the same chapter, and neither is a formula he applies automatically.

Where the spade has checked him

At Delphi, the École française d’Athènes has excavated the sanctuary since the “grande fouille” of 1892 to 1902, working, as the school’s own account of the site puts it, from “the confrontation of the archaeological remains with the description that Pausanias gave of the sanctuary” in the second century AD — a confrontation the school says is still unfinished. Seven of his chapters in Book 10 describe paintings by Polygnotus that once hung in the Lesche of the Cnidians, beyond the spring Cassotis (10.25.1); the paintings themselves have not survived in any form, so his description is the only full record of them that exists. At Olympia, where German excavation began in 1875 and where he names the sanctuary’s treasury buildings (6.19.1), the ground has been kinder to some of his claims than others: only five of the fifteen treasuries have been securely identified among the foundations excavators have found, and of the gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus he describes at length, signed “Pheidias, son of Charmides, an Athenian, made me” (5.10.2), nothing survives beyond its image on coins of Elis.

Where to stand

Delphi

Cultural Sites

Pausanias gives most of Book 10 to Delphi, including seven chapters on paintings by Polygnotus that once hung in the Lesche of the Cnidians, beyond the spring Cassotis (10.25.1). The paintings have not survived in any form, so his description is the only full record of them left, and the École française d'Athènes has excavated the sanctuary against his account since 1892.
Delphi
Olympia

Peloponnese

Books 5 and 6 are given wholly to Olympia, room by room around the Altis. German excavation, begun there in 1875, has matched some of what Pausanias catalogued and left the rest unconfirmed: of the fifteen treasuries he names (6.19.1), only five are securely identified, and of the gold-and-ivory Zeus by Pheidias he describes at length (5.10.2), nothing survives beyond its image on coins of Elis.
Olympia