Description of Greece

​Pindar also composed in the same way as these, and that Theseus, wishing to be a brother-in-law to the Dioscuri, guarded the ravished Helen, until he went away to help Pirithous in his so-called marriage. But whoever made this genealogy, it is clear that he is conscious of great foolishness in the Megarians, if indeed Theseus was a descendant of Pelops; but in fact the Megarians, knowing the true story, conceal it, not wishing their city to seem to have been captured during the rule of Nisus, but that Megareus, the son-in-law of Nisus, and in turn Alcatheus, the son-in-law of Megareus, succeeded to the kingship.

​But it appears that when Nisus died and the affairs of the Megarians were ruined, Alcatheus arrived from Elis at this very time; and my evidence is this: for he built the wall from the beginning, inasmuch as the ancient circuit-wall had been destroyed by the Cretans. Of Alcatheus and the lion, whether he killed it in Cithaeron or elsewhere and made the temple of Artemis Agrotera and Apollo Agraeus, let there be remembrance thus far; and for those descending from this sanctuary, there is a hero-shrine of Pandion. And that Pandion was buried on the cliff called that of Athena of the gannet, my narrative has already shown; but he also has honors in the city from the Megarians.

​Near the hero-shrine of Pandion is the monument of Hippolyte; and I will write also what kind of things the Megarians say about her. When the Amazons, having campaigned against the Athenians because of Antiope, were conquered by Theseus, it happened that most of them died fighting, but Hippolyte, who was the sister of Antiope and then led the women, escaped with a few to Megara, and having fared so badly with her army and being despondent at the present circumstances, and being still more at a loss about her safe return home to Themiscyra, died of grief; and they buried her when she died, and the shape of her monument is similar to an Amazonian shield.

​Not far from this is the tomb of Tereus, who married Procne, the daughter of Pandion. Tereus ruled, as the Megarians say, around the place called Pagae of Megaris, but as I think, and evidence is left for this, he ruled Daulis above Chaeronea; for in ancient times barbarians inhabited most of what is now called Greece. But when the deeds against Philomela had been done to Tereus, and those concerning Itys by the women, Tereus was unable to catch them;

​and he died in Megara by his own hand, and they immediately heaped up a tomb for him, and they sacrifice every year, using pebbles in the sacrifice instead of barley-groats, and they say that the hoopoe, the bird, first appeared there; but the women arrived in Athens, and lamenting what they suffered and what they did in return, they wasted away with tears, and they rumored their transformation into a nightingale and a swallow, because, I think, these birds also sing a mournful song similar to a lament.