American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Benjamin Dean Meritt

William Kendrick Pritchett

The Chronology of Hellenistic Athens

The author's second volume on Pausanias focuses on a collection of over fifty examples where Pausanias is alleged by modern scholars to have made errors in his topographical descriptions of sites and monuments, debating the pros and cons. He vindicates the Periegetes in most cases, finding his most serious error is duplicated in Strabo and Pliny. Tables are offered of figures where distances are given in stades, leading to the observation that various scholars independently hypothesize that alphabetical numerals, easily corruptable, were used at some stage in the transmission of the text. Following his earlier study of wooden cult statues, called xoana, the author collects examples of other statues of wood where the word is not used, noting that wooden statues of athletes are attested as early as 544 BC. Tables of bronze statues are also presented, leading to the conclusion that, although favored by the Romans as booty in war, many bronzes by famous artists still remained in Greece in the second century of our era. A third chapter is devoted to Pausanias' description of ruins, including towns and temples. The Periegete reported more ruins in Arkadia than in any other province. A final chapter collects Pausanias' record of sixty-one festivals and panegyreis. This book will be of interest to topographers, art-historians, and students of Greek religion.

William Kendrick Pritchett

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