Description of Greece

​As for the mountains for the Athenians, there are Pentelikos, where there are quarries, and Parnes, which provides hunting of wild boars and bears, and Hymettos, which grows the most suitable pastures for bees, except for that of the Alazones. For among the Alazones, the bees also, being released, are accustomed to go out to the pastures along with the other animals, nor do they keep them shut up in hives; and they work in whatever part of the country they happen to be, and the work is natural to them, but you cannot make wax or honey from it individually. This indeed is so, but for the Athenians the mountains also have images of the gods.

​In Pentele there is one of Athena, and on Hymettos there is an image of Hymettian Zeus, and there are also altars of Zeus Ombrios and of Apollo Proopsios. And on Parnes there is a bronze Parnethian Zeus and an altar of Zeus Semaleos; and there is also another altar on Parnes, and they sacrifice upon it, calling upon Zeus sometimes as Ombrios and sometimes as Apemios. There is also Mt. Anchesmos, which is not large, and an image of Anchesmian Zeus.

​But before turning to the narrative of the islands, I will again go through the matters concerning the demes. There is a deme called Marathon, distant equally from the city of the Athenians and from Karystos in Euboea; at this place of Attica the barbarians landed, and they were defeated in battle and lost some of their ships as they were putting out to sea. And there is a tomb of the Athenians in the plain, and upon it are stelae containing the names of those who died according to their respective tribes, and another for the Boeotian Plataeans and for the slaves; for then for the first time slaves also fought.

​And there is a private monument of Miltiades the son of Cimon, his death having occurred to him later after he had failed at Paros and because of this had been brought to trial by the Athenians. Here through every night one can perceive both horses neighing and men fighting; but as for standing there for a clear view, it has never turned out well for anyone who did so on purpose, but for one who hears it without intending to or in some other accidental way, there is no anger from the spirits. And the Marathonians worship both those who died in the battle, calling them heroes, and Marathon, from whom the deme has its name, and Heracles, saying that Heracles was first regarded by them as a god among the Greeks.

​And it happened, as they say, that a man was present in the battle, rustic in appearance and equipment; having slaughtered many of the barbarians with a plow, he vanished after the action; and when the Athenians inquired, the god gave no other oracle concerning him, but ordered them to honor Echetlaeus as a hero. And a trophy of white stone has also been made. As for the Medes, the Athenians say that they buried them, since it is by all means a sacred duty to hide a human corpse in the earth, but I was unable to find any tomb; for there was neither a mound nor any other sign to be seen, but carrying them to a pit, they threw them in as they happened.

​And there is in Marathon a spring called Macaria, and they say the following about it. When Heracles was fleeing Eurystheus from Tiryns, he migrated to Ceyx who was his friend and who ruled over Trachis. But when, after Heracles had departed from men, Eurystheus demanded his children, the Trachinian sent them to Athens, mentioning his own weakness and saying that Theseus was not unable to help them; and the children, having arrived as suppliants, then for the first time caused a war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, since Theseus did not surrender them to Eurystheus when he demanded them. And they say that an oracle came to the Athenians that one of the children of Heracles must die voluntarily, since otherwise there could be no victory for them; thereupon Macaria, the daughter of Deianira and Heracles, slaughtered herself and gave both victory in the war to the Athenians and her own name to the spring.

​And there is in Marathon a lake which is for the most part marshy; into this, through ignorance of the roads, the barbarians fell while fleeing, and they say that the great slaughter occurred to them because of this; and above the lake are stone mangers of the horses of Artaphernes and marks of a tent on the rocks. And a river also flows out of the lake, providing water suitable for cattle near the lake itself, but near its outlet into the sea it becomes already salty and full of sea fish. A little further from the plain is a mountain of Pan and a cave worth seeing; the entrance into it is narrow, but to those who have entered there are rooms and baths and what is called “Pan’s flock of goats,” which are for the most part rocks resembling goats.