Studies in Greek Scenery, Legend and History: Selected from His Commentary on Pausanias' 'Description of Greece,'Frazer, James George
History
Studies in Greek Scenery, Legend and History: Selected from His Commentary on Pausanias' 'Description of Greece,'
Frazer, James George
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel
These are, I believe, all the existing fragments of Polemo in which he
mentions the same things as Pausanias. Not one of them supports the
theory that Pausanias copied from Polemo. In some of them the writer
mentions the same places, buildings, and works of art that are mentioned
by Pausanias. But this was almost inevitable. When two men describe the
same places correctly they can hardly help mentioning some of the same
things. In no case does the coincidence go beyond a bare mention. Again,
Polemo sometimes referred to the same myth or legend as Pausanias; but
this is no proof that Pausanias copied from Polemo. A multitude of myths
and legends were the commonplaces of every educated Greek, whether he
had read Polemo or not. The passage of Polemo as to the race between
mule-carts at Olympia agrees in substance, not in language, with the
corresponding passage of Pausanias. Both writers, it may be assumed,
derived their information from the best source, the Olympic register,
which, as we have seen, was published and accessible to all. The
Delphian story of the wolf that disclosed the stolen treasure may have
been narrated by both writers in the same way, though from the abridged
form in which Polemo’s version is reported by Aelian we cannot be sure
of this. No doubt the story was told in much the same way by the
Delphian guides to all visitors, who may have been surprised to find a
statue of a wolf dedicated to Apollo, the old mythical relationship of
the god with wolves having long fallen into the background. Again,
Polemo, like Pausanias, remarked on the scrupulous piety of the
Athenians. So, too, for that matter did St. Paul, but nobody suspects
him of having borrowed the remark from Polemo. The mention of the
sculptor Lycius, of the grave of Thucydides, and of the torch-race by
the two writers proves nothing as to the dependence of the one on the
other. Some of the fragments of Polemo show that he described in minute
detail things which Pausanias has merely mentioned. Finally, in a number
of the fragments Polemo makes statements which are explicitly or
implicitly contradicted by Pausanias. This proves that if Pausanias was
acquainted with the works of Polemo, he at least exercised complete
freedom of judgment in accepting or rejecting the opinions of his
predecessor. Another proof of his independence is furnished by his
speaking of the treasuries at Olympia as treasuries, whereas Polemo had
designated the same buildings less correctly as temples.
[Sidenote: Things
mentioned
by Polemo
but not by
Pausanias.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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