The Hymn to Ammon composed by Pindar and sent to Siwa where Pausanias, some centuries later, will se
We know from Pausanias that, in Thebes, in Boeotia, Pindar offered a Statue by the sculptor Kalamis in a temple dedicated to Ammon. Pindar had also expressed his personal devotion to Ammon in a hymn sent to the Ammonian of the oasis and later engraved on a triangular stele.
This stele is still "on site" when Pausania visits Siwa around 160 AD.
The Pindar hymn to Ammon it is now lost. Two fragments are known with the probability of belonging to the hymn:
1) Fr. 36 Snell-Maehler (Αμμων 'Ολύμπου δέσποτα)
2) Pap. Vat. Gr. 11, col. VII 44-46 "Un nuovo frammento pindarico dell'Inno ad Ammone? Pap. Vat. Gr. 11, col. VII 44-46 (Favorino, Sull'esilio) In “Revue des Études Grecques, tome 110, Juillet-décembre 1997”. pp. 353-361 by Adèle Tepedino Guerra
Pausanias - Periegesis of Greece 9,16,1
Such were the claims to fame of Epaminondas. Not far away is a temple of Ammon; the image, a work of Calamis, was dedicated by Pindar, who also sent to the Ammonians of Libya a hymn to Ammon. This hymn I found still carved on a triangular slab by the side of the altar dedicated to Ammon by Ptolemy the son of Lagus. After the sanctuary of Ammon at Thebes comes what is called the bird-observatory of Teiresias, and near it is a sanctuary of Fortune, who carries the child Wealth.
οὐ πόρρω δέ ἐστι ναὸς Ἄμμωνος, καὶ τὸ ἄγαλμα ἀνέθηκε μὲν Πίνδαρος, Καλάμιδος δέ ἐστινἔργον. ἀπέπεμψε δὲ ὁ Πίνδαρος καὶ Λιβύης ἐς Ἀμμωνίους τῷ Ἄμμωνι ὕμνον: οὗτος καὶ ἐς ἐμὲ ἦνὁ ὕμνος ἐν τριγώνῳ στήλῃ παρὰ τὸν βωμόν, ὃν Πτολεμαῖος ὁ Λάγου τῷ Ἄμμωνι ἀνέθηκε. Θηβαίοις δὲ μετὰ τοῦ Ἄμμωνος τὸ ἱερὸν οἰωνοσκοπεῖόν τε Τειρεσίου καλούμενον καὶ πλησίονΤύχης ἐστὶν ἱερόν:
The "Periegesis of Greece"
In Greek literature the genre of periegesi (literally "journey around") concerns the topographic description of a territory, in the form of an itinerary, almost always accompanied by historical information, antiquarian erudition and information on customs and traditions of peoples, people and locations verified, as far as possible, by direct experience. The first representative of this kind was Hecataeus of Miletus who, with his work, of which only a few fragments remain, wanted to give a scientific idea of the land he knew in his day.
The work of Pausanias, which testifies to the knowledge of Greece he visited far and wide and described in great detail, is the only example in prose of the Greek periegetic literature.
The work describes in a clockwise sense almost all the Greek regions with the exception of Eubea and Thessaly which are however quickly treated with excursus and comments of various kinds.
It is as follows:
book I - Attica book II - Corinth and Argolis book III - Laconia book IV - Messenia book V - Elide (first part) book VI - Elide (second part) book VII - Achaia book VIII - Arcadia book IX - Boeotia book X - Phocis and Locris
