Description of Greece

​After the sanctuary of Asclepius, for those going this way toward the Acropolis there is a temple of Themis. Before it a tomb has been heaped up for Hippolytus; they say that the end of his life came about from curses. Clear, even to anyone of the barbarians who has learned the tongue of the Greeks, are the love of Phaedra and the bold deed of the nurse in her service. There is also a tomb of Hippolytus for the Troezenians, and their account is as follows.

​Theseus, when he was about to marry Phaedra, not wishing, if children should be born to him, that Hippolytus either should be ruled by them or should rule as king instead of them, sent him to Pittheus to be brought up and to rule Troezen. Sometime later Pallas and his sons rebelled against Theseus; having killed them, he went to Troezen for purification, and there Phaedra first saw Hippolytus, and having fallen in love, planned the things leading to his death. There is a myrtle for the Troezenians having its leaves pierced all through; they say that it did not grow so from the beginning, but that the deed was done by her distress in love and the pin which Phaedra had in her hair.

​Aphrodite of all the people (Pandemos), after Theseus had brought the Athenians from their demes into a single city, he established for worship, along with Peitho. The ancient statues indeed did not exist in my time, but those in my time were by craftsmen of the most famous. There is also a sanctuary of Earth the Nurse of Youth (Kourotrophos) and of Demeter of the Green Shoots (Chloe); the things concerning their titles one can be taught by coming into conversation with the priests.

​Into the Acropolis there is one entrance; it affords no other, being entirely steep and having a strong wall. The Propylaea has its roof of white stone, and in the beauty and size of the stones it excelled down even to my time. Now concerning the statues of the horsemen, I cannot say clearly whether they are the sons of Xenophon or made in some other way for ornament. On the right of the Propylaea is a temple of Wingless Victory (Apteros Nike). From here the sea is visible, and here Aegeus threw himself down, as they say, and died.

​For the ship carrying the children to Crete was sailing with black sails, but Theseus—for he sailed with some daring against the bull called Minos—had forewarned his father that he would use white sails if he should sail back after conquering the bull. Of these things he had forgetfulness because he had been deprived of Ariadne. There Aegeus, when he saw the ship being carried with black sails, thinking that his son was dead, threw himself down and perished; and there is for him among the Athenians what is called the Hero-shrine of Aegeus.

—On the left of the Propylaea is a chamber containing paintings; among those which time has not caused to be obscure, there was Diomedes, in one taking the bow of Philoctetes in Lemnos, and in another taking away the Athena from Ilium. Here among the paintings is Orestes slaying Aegisthus, and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius who had come to help Aegisthus; and near the tomb of Achilles, Polyxena is about to be slaughtered. Homer indeed wisely omitted this so cruel deed; and he seems to me to have done well in making Scyros taken by Achilles, unlike those who say that Achilles lived in Scyros along with the maidens, which things Polygnotus also painted. He also painted Odysseus standing by the river near Nausicaa and the women washing clothes together, in the same way as Homer also wrote. There are also other paintings, and Alcibiades, ​and there are in the painting symbols of his victory of horses in Nemea. And there is Perseus being carried to Seriphos, bringing to Polydectes the head of Medusa. Now the things concerning Medusa I am not eager to write in the Attic description; but passing by, of the paintings, the boy carrying the water-jars and the wrestler whom Timaenetus painted, there is Musaeus. I indeed read verses in which Musaeus flies as a gift from Boreas, but they seem to me to have been made by Onomacritus, and there is nothing certainly of Musaeus except only the hymn to Demeter for the Lycomidae.

​Right at the very entrance into the Acropolis, the Hermes whom they name Propylaeus and the Graces are said to have been made by Socrates the son of Sophroniscus, to whose being the wisest of men the Pythian priestess is witness—a thing she did not address to Anacharsis, though he wished it and came to Delphi for this very purpose.