Description of Greece

​There is another road from Eleusis which leads to Megara; for those traveling along this road, there is a well called Anthium. Pamphos represented in his poetry that Demeter, after the abduction of her daughter, sat by this well, having likened herself to an old woman; and that from there, she was conducted to the mother by the daughters of Celeus as though she were an Argive woman, and that Metaneira thus entrusted to her the rearing of the child.

​A little further from the well is a sanctuary of Metaneira, and after it are the tombs of those who went against Thebes. For Creon, who ruled then in Thebes as guardian of Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, did not permit their relatives to take up and bury them; but when Adrastus supplicated Theseus, and a battle took place between the Athenians and the Boeotians, Theseus, having prevailed in the battle, carried the dead to the Eleusinian land and buried them here. But the Thebans say that they voluntarily gave up the dead for burial, and they deny that they joined battle.

—After the tombs of the Argives is the monument of Alope, who, they say, died here at the hands of her father Cercyon, after she had given birth to Hippothoon by Poseidon. Cercyon is said to have been unjust to strangers in other respects also, and to have wrestled with those who did not wish to; and this place was called the wrestling-ground of Cercyon even down to my time, being a little distant from the tomb of Alope. Cercyon is said to have destroyed those who entered into wrestling with him except Theseus, but Theseus wrestled him down mostly by skill; for Theseus first invented the art of wrestling, and after him the teaching of wrestling was established; previously they had used only size and strength for wrestling. These things, according to my opinion, were the most famous among the Athenians both in stories and in sights, but from the beginning my narrative has separated from the many things those that belong to history.

​Bordering on Eleusis is already the territory called Megaris; this too belonged to the Athenians in ancient times, since King Pylas had left it to Pandion. My witnesses are the tomb of Pandion in the land, and Nisos, who yielded to Aegeus, the eldest of all the family, to rule over the Athenians, while he himself was deemed worthy to rule over Megara and the land as far as Corinth; and Nisaea is still called even now the harbor of the Megarians after him. Later, while Codrus was reigning, the Peloponnesians marched against Athens; and since they showed nothing brilliant and were returning back, they took Megara from the Athenians and gave it to the Corinthians and those of the other allies who wished to inhabit it.

​The Megarians, having thus changed their customs and speech, became Dorians, and they say the city was named in this way during the reign of Car, the son of Phoroneus, in this land; they say that then first temples of Demeter were established for them, and then men named it Megara. Thus the Megarians themselves speak about themselves; but the Boeotians say that Megareus, the son of Poseidon, who dwelt in Onchestus, arrived with an army of Boeotians to Nisos to help bear the war against Minos, and that having fallen in the battle he was buried there, and from him the city received the name Megara, having previously been called Nisa.

​Twelve generations later than Car, the son of Phoroneus, the Megarians say that Lelex arrived from Egypt and became king, and that the people were called Leleges during his reign; and that Pylas was born to Cleson, the son of Lelex, and Sciron to Pylas; this Sciron married a daughter of Pandion, and later Sciron came into dispute with Nisos, the son of Pandion, concerning the rule, and Aeacus judged for them, giving the kingdom to Nisos and his descendants, and to Sciron the leadership in war. They say that Megareus, the son of Poseidon, who had married Iphinoe, the daughter of Nisos, succeeded to the rule of Nisos; but the Cretan war and the capture of the city during the reign of Nisos they do not wish to know.