A text-cherished relic about Greece, from a traveler in 1837, translated into Greek for the first time. The archaeologist and Hellenist Greverus visited Greece in 1837 in search of the monuments described by Thucydides, Pausanias, and other Greek writers, and recorded in his book an image of Greek society that... perhaps is not far from today's.

The keen insight of Greverus can be attributed to the fact that, before visiting Greece, he had undertaken two other "social radiographies": of France and Italy. Greverus aimed to decode the temporal context and geographical factors that shaped the identity of the Greeks in the 19th century, believing that this would be useful to his compatriots.

The truth is that, at the time it was published, his book would really have served the Greeks—if they could read it. However, perhaps today it is even more useful to modern Greeks, as it allows us to compare and realize the course of our contemporary history.

The information conveyed by Greverus is so engaging that one feels compelled to continue drawing on it, satisfying their thirst for knowledge. It is like discovering oneself through the eyes of another.

The book contains engravings from the book Greece: Pictorial, Descriptive, And Historical by Christopher Wordsworth, D.D. Excerpt from the translator's preface, Savvas Mavridis: "The reader who is genuinely interested in the past, the present, but primarily the future of Greece will reflect fruitfully discovering themselves or their fellow citizens, who think and act today as irrationally as their ancestors did around two hundred years ago."

Johann Paul Ernst Greverus was born in 1789 in Germany and died in 1859. He attended the Gymnasium of Oldenburg and in 1808 began his university studies. He studied Philology and Theology. In 1815, answering the call of his homeland, he resigned and volunteered on the battlefield. After returning from the war, he lived for a long time in Paris and traveled through southern France, northern Italy, and Switzerland. In 1837, he fulfilled his desire to travel to southern Italy and Greece.