Pausanias's Description of Greece

Sir James Frazer's 1898 six-volume translation of and commentary on Pausanias, the second-century CE traveller and antiquarian.

This six-volume translation of and commentary on the works of Pausanias, the second-century CE traveller and antiquarian, was published in 1898 by Sir James Frazer (1854–1941), best remembered today for his study of religion, The Golden Bough. Volume 5 leaves the Peloponnese and turns to Boeotia and Phocis.Sir James Frazer (1854–1941) is best remembered today for The Golden Bough, widely considered to be one of the most important early texts in the fields of psychology and anthropology. Originally a classical scholar, whose entire working life was spent at Trinity College, Cambridge, Frazer also produced this translation of and commentary on the works of Pausanias, the second-century CE traveller and antiquarian whose many references to myths and legends provided Frazer with material for his great study of religion. The six-volume work was published in 1898, after the first edition of The Golden Bough (also reissued in this series), and while Frazer was working on material for the second. Volume 5 is a detailed commentary on Pausanias' Books IX–X, on Boeotia and Phocis, using both the experience of Frazer's own travels in Greece and the reports of other antiquarians and archaeologists.