Description of Greece

​In the territory of Plataea, on Mount Cithaeron, for those who turn aside a little from the straight road to the right, there are the ruins of Hysiae and Erythrae. These were once cities of the Boeotians, and even now among the ruins of Hysiae there is a half-finished temple of Apollo and a sacred well; in ancient times, according to the account of the Boeotians, they used to prophesy by drinking from the well.

​For those returning to the highway, there is again on the right what is said to be the tomb of Mardonius. Now, that the corpse of Mardonius was missing immediately after the battle is agreed; but as to who buried him, they do not tell the same story. However, it appears that Artontes, the son of Mardonius, gave very many gifts to Dionysophanes, an Ephesian man, and also gave gifts to others of the Ionians, so that the burial of Mardonius should not be neglected even by them.

​This road leads from Eleutherae to Plataea, but for those coming from Megara, there is a spring on the right, and a little further on, a rock; the latter they call the Bed of Actaeon, saying that Actaeon slept on this rock whenever he was tired from hunting, and they say that he looked into the spring while Artemis was bathing in it. But Stesichorus of Himera wrote that the goddess threw a stag’s skin around Actaeon, preparing for him the death by his dogs, so that indeed he might not take Semele as wife.

​But I believe that, without the intervention of a deity, the disease of madness overtook the dogs of Actaeon; and having gone mad and being unable to recognize him, they were bound to tear to pieces anyone they fell in with. But in what part of Cithaeron the disaster befell Pentheus, the son of Echion, or where Oedipus was exposed when he was born, no one knows, just as we know the Schiste Way on the road to Phocis, where Oedipus killed his father, which matters I shall go into at greater length when my account brings me to them.

​Just at the entrance into Plataea are the graves of those who fought against the Persians. For the rest of the Greeks there is a common monument, but for the fallen of the Lacedaemonians and Athenians there are separate graves, and elegies written by Simonides are inscribed on them. Not far from the common monument is an altar of Zeus Eleutherios; this altar is of bronze, but the altar and the image of Zeus they made of white stone.

​And they still hold the Eleutheria festival every fifth year, in which the greatest prizes are offered for the foot-race; and they run in armor before the altar. The trophy which the Greeks set up for the battle at Plataea stands about fifteen stades away from the city.

​In the city itself, for those going forward from the altar and the image which were made for Zeus Eleutherios, there is a hero-shrine of Plataea; and my account has already dealt with her, both what is said and what I myself conjectured. The Plataeans also have a temple of Hera, worth seeing for its size and for the decoration of the statues. For those entering, Rhea is bringing to Cronus the stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, as if it were the child she had borne; and they call Hera “Teleia”, and it is made as a large standing statue. Both are of Pentelic marble and are the works of Praxiteles. Here there is also another seated statue of Hera, which Callimachus made; and they name the goddess “Nympheuomene” for the following reason.