geography
Periēgēsis (Guided Description of Places)
περιήγησις
The literary 'guided tour' that walks the reader along a route, describing each site's monuments, sanctuaries, and local legends in the order they are reached.
A periēgēsis is a 'leading-around': the author conducts the reader along an itinerary, pausing at each place to describe its temples, artworks, and tombs, along with the myths and history attached to them. The form goes back to Hecataeus of Miletus, whose lost Periēgēsis (or Periodos gēs, c. 500 BCE) traced a circuit of the known world. Its finest surviving example is Pausanias' Description of Greece (2nd century CE), which weaves topography together with religious and antiquarian lore.
Where this idea shows up
4 Greek sourcesWhere to read it
- Fragments & Testimonia500 BCEHecataeus of Miletus· Miletus
- Fragmenta370 BCE
- Anonymous· Amaseia