Description of Greece

​But concerning Cylon, I cannot say anything for certain as to why they dedicated a bronze statue of him, although he had plotted a tyranny; but I conjecture it for these reasons, because he was most beautiful in appearance and became not obscure in reputation by winning an Olympic victory in the double-course, and it was possible for him to marry the daughter of Theagenes, who was tyrant of Megara.

​Apart from those I have enumerated, there are two tithes for the Athenians from their wars: a bronze statue of Athena from the Medes who landed at Marathon, the work of Phidias—and they say that Mys chased for him the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs on her shield and all the other things that are wrought upon it, and that Parrhasius the son of Evenor drew these and the rest of his works for Mys; the spearpoint of this Athena and the crest of her helmet are already visible to those sailing in from Sunium—, and a bronze chariot stands as a tithe from the Boeotians and Chalcidians in Euboea. And there are two other dedications: Pericles the son of Xanthippus, and a statue of Athena, most well worth seeing of the works of Phidias, called the Lemnian after those who dedicated it.

​As for the Acropolis, except for as much of it as Cimon the son of Miltiades built, the Pelasgians who once dwelt under the Acropolis are said to have built the rest of the wall around it; for they say that Agrolas and Hyperbius were those who built it. But on inquiring who they were, I could learn nothing else than that they were originally Sicels and migrated into Acarnania.

​To those going down, not into the lower city but as far as below the Propylaea, there is a spring of water, and near it a sanctuary of Apollo in a cave; and they believe that Apollo united there with Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus. They say that when Philippides was sent as a messenger to Lacedaemon when the Medes had landed in the country, on his return he said that the Lacedaemonians deferred their departure, for indeed it was a law with them not to go out to battle before the circle of the moon was full; and Philippides said that Pan met him around Mount Parthenius and said both that he was well-disposed to the Athenians and that he would come to Marathon to fight as an ally. This god, then, has been honored because of this message.

​And there is the place called Areopagus, because Ares was first tried there, and the story has already made clear to me these things as well, how he slew Halirrothius and for what reason he killed him. And they say that later Orestes also was tried for the murder of his mother; and there is an altar of Athena Areia, which he dedicated after escaping his trial. And the unhewn stones on which stand those who undergo trial and those who prosecute, they call one the stone of Hubris and the other the stone of Anaideia.

​And near it is a sanctuary of the goddesses whom the Athenians call Semnai, but Hesiod in the Theogony calls Erinyes. And Aeschylus was the first who made snakes to be present with them together with the hair on their heads; but there is nothing fearsome on these statues, nor on any of the other statues of the underworld gods that stand there. And there stand statues of Pluto, Hermes, and Earth; there those who have been acquitted of their charge in the Areopagus sacrifice, and others also sacrifice likewise, both strangers and citizens.