Description of Greece

​In Tanagra, next to the sanctuary of Dionysus, is that of Themis, and another of Aphrodite, and the third of the temples is of Apollo, and along with him are Artemis and Leto. As for the sanctuaries of Hermes, both of the Ram-bearer and of the one they call Promachus, regarding the former’s surname they say that Hermes warded off a pestilence from them by carrying a ram around the wall, and because of this Calamis made an image of Hermes carrying a ram on his shoulders; and whichever of the ephebes is judged to be the most beautiful in appearance, he on the festival of Hermes goes around the wall in a circle carrying a lamb on his shoulders.

​And they say that Hermes Promachus, when the Eretrians came with ships from Euboea to the Tanagraean land, led the ephebes out to the battle, and himself, being then an ephebe, defending himself with a strigil, especially brought about the rout of the Euboeans. In the sanctuary of Promachus lies the remainder of the wild strawberry tree; and they believe that Hermes was reared under this tree. Not far off a theatre is built, and next to it a portico. The Tanagraeans seem to me to have established the matters concerning the gods best of all the Greeks; for their houses are apart, and their sanctuaries are apart above them in a clean place and away from men.

​As for Corinna, who was indeed the only one in Tanagra to compose songs, there is a monument to her in a conspicuous part of the city, and in the gymnasium there is a painting of Corinna binding her head with a fillet because of the victory she won in song over Pindar at Thebes. And she seems to me to have won both because of her dialect, because she sang not in the Doric tongue like Pindar but in such as the Aeolians were likely to understand, and because she was at that time the most beautiful of women in appearance, if one must judge from the portrait.

​There are also two breeds of cocks here, those called the fighters and those called the blackbirds. The size of these blackbirds is like that of the Lydian birds, and their color is similar to a crow’s, while their wattles and comb are most like an anemone; and they have small white marks both on the tip of their beak and on the tip of their tail.

​These present such an appearance; and of Boeotia, the part on the left of the Euripus is the mountain called Messapium, and under it is Anthedon, a city of the Boeotians on the sea. Some say that the name was given to the city from the nymph Anthedon, while others say that Anthas ruled here, who was a son of Poseidon and Alcyone, the daughter of Atlas. For the Anthedonians, almost in the middle of the city, there is a sanctuary of the Cabiri and a grove around it, and nearby is a temple of Demeter and her daughter, with statues of white stone.

​A sanctuary of Dionysus and a statue have been made in front of the city in the direction of the mainland. Here are the tombs of the children of Iphimedeia and Aloeus; that the end of their life came from Apollo has been written by Homer and Pindar in the same way, but Pindar adds that their fate overtook them in Naxos, which lies beyond Paros. There are monuments to these in Anthedon, and by the sea is the so-called Leap of Glaucus.

​They say that he was a fisherman, and that when he ate of the grass, he became a deity in the sea and foretells to men what is to come to this day, which other men have regarded as trustworthy, and those who sail the sea speak most of all men concerning the prophecy of Glaucus each year. Pindar and Aeschylus, having inquired from the Anthedonians, for the former it did not occur to sing of the matters concerning Glaucus at great length, but for Aeschylus it was sufficient even for the composition of a drama.