Description of Greece

​On one side, Brauron is distant from Marathon, where they say that Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, when fleeing from the Tauri, landed while bringing the image of Artemis; and leaving the image there, she went to Athens and later to Argos. Indeed, there is an ancient wooden image of Artemis there too, but as for the one from the barbarians, which of them in my opinion is that one, I will make clear in another account.

​Rhamnus is about sixty stades distant from Marathon for those going along the sea to Oropus. And the dwellings for the people are on the sea, but a little way up from the sea is a sanctuary of Nemesis, who of the gods is most implacable to insolent men. It seems that a wrath from this goddess also met those of the barbarians who landed at Marathon; for, having despised Athens as though there were nothing in their way to prevent them from taking it, they brought Parian marble for the making of a trophy, as if for deeds already accomplished.

​Pheidias worked this stone into an image of Nemesis, and on the head of the goddess is a crown having stags and images of Victory which are not large; and in her hands she holds in one a branch of an apple tree, and in her right a phiale, and Ethiopians are fashioned upon the phiale. As for the matter concerning the Ethiopians, I myself was unable to conjecture it, nor did I accept the explanation of those who claim to understand, who say that they were fashioned on the phiale because of the river Oceanus; for they say that the Ethiopians dwell upon it, and that Oceanus is the father of Nemesis.

​For it is by Oceanus, which is not a river but the outermost sea sailed by men, that the Iberians and Celts dwell, and Oceanus holds the island of the Britons; but of the Ethiopians beyond Syene, those who dwell furthest along the Red Sea are the Ichthyophagi, and the gulf around which they dwell is called that of the Ichthyophagi. The most righteous of them dwell in the city of Meroe and what is called the Ethiopian plain; these are the ones who show the Table of the Sun, and they have neither sea nor any other river than the Nile.

​And there are also other Ethiopians bordering on the Mauri and extending as far as the Nasamones. For the Nasamones, whom Herodotus calls Atlantes, and whom those who claim to know the measurements of the earth call Lixitae, are the outermost of the Libyans dwelling near Atlas, sowing nothing, but living off wild vines. And there is no river at all either for these Ethiopians or for the Nasamones; for the water near Atlas, though providing beginnings for three streams, makes none of the streams a river, but the sand immediately absorbs it all alike. Thus, the Ethiopians do not dwell near any river, let alone Oceanus.

​The water coming from Atlas is muddy, and near the source there were crocodiles not less than two cubits long, which dived into the source when men approached. It occurred to not a few that this water, appearing again from the sand, makes the Nile for the Egyptians. Mt. Atlas is so high that it is even said to touch the heaven with its peaks, but it is inaccessible because of water and trees which grow everywhere; its parts towards the Nasamones are known, but as for the parts towards the sea, we know of no one who has yet sailed past them.

​Let these matters be said thus far. Neither this image of Nemesis nor any other of the ancient ones has been made having wings, since not even the most sacred wooden images for the Smyrnaeans have wings; but those of later times—for they wish the goddess to appear especially in connection with loving—because of this make wings for Nemesis just as for Eros. But now indeed I will go through all that is fashioned on the pedestal of the image, having beforehand made this much clear for the sake of clarity. The Greeks say that Nemesis is the mother of Helen, and that Leda gave her breast to her and nursed her; and both these and all others likewise believe that the father of Helen is Zeus and not Tyndareus.

​Having heard these things, Pheidias has made Helen being led by Leda to Nemesis, and he has made Tyndareus and his children, and a man standing by with a horse whose name is Hippeus; and there are Agamemnon and Menelaus, and Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, who was the first to take Hermione, the daughter of Helen, as wife. But Orestes was omitted because of his daring deed against his mother, Hermione having remained with him to the end and having borne him a child. Next on the pedestal are also one called Epochus and another youth; as to these, I have heard nothing else than that they were brothers of Oenoe, from whom the deme has its name.