1. On the Greek mainland facing the Cyclades Islands and the
Aegean Sea the Sunium promontory stands out from the Attic land. When you have rounded the promontory you see a harbor and a temple to Athena of Sunium on the peak of the promontory. Farther on is
Laurium, where once the Athenians had silver mines, and a small uninhabited island called the Island of Patroclus. For a fortification was built on it and a palisade constructed by Patroclus, who was admiral in command of the Egyptian men-of-war sent by Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy, son of Lagus, to help the Athenians, when Antigonus, son of Demetrius, was ravaging their country, which he had invaded with an army, and at the same time was blockading them by sea with a fleet.
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The Peiraeus was a parish from early times, though it was not a port before Themistocles became an archon of the Athenians.
2 Their port was Phalerum, for at this place the sea comes nearest to
Athens, and from here men say that Menestheus set sail with his fleet for
Troy, and before him Theseus, when he went to give satisfaction to Minos for the death of Androgeos. But when Themistocles became archon, since he thought that the Peiraeus was more conveniently situated for mariners, and had three harbors as against one at Phalerum, he made it the Athenian port. Even up to my time there were docks there, and near the largest harbor is the grave of Themistocles. For it is said that the Athenians repented of their treatment of Themistocles, and that his relations took up his bones and brought them from
Magnesia. And the children of Themistocles certainly returned and set up in the Parthenon a painting, on which is a portrait of Themistocles.
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The most noteworthy sight in the Peiraeus is a precinct of Athena and Zeus. Both their images are of bronze; Zeus holds a staff and a Victory, Athena a spear. Here is a portrait of Leosthenes and of his sons, painted by Arcesilaus. This Leosthenes at the head of the Athenians and the united Greeks defeated the Macedonians in
Boeotia and again outside
Thermopylae forced them into
Lamia over against Oeta, and shut them up there.
3 The portrait is in the long portico, where stands a market-place for those living near the sea—those farther away from the harbor have another—but behind the portico near the sea stand a Zeus and a Demos, the work of Leochares. And by the sea
Conon4 built a sanctuary of Aphrodite, after he had crushed the Lacedaemonian warships off
Cnidus in the Carian peninsula.
5 For the Cnidians hold Aphrodite in very great honor, and they have sanctuaries of the goddess; the oldest is to her as Doritis （Bountiful）, the next in age as Acraea （Of the Height）, while the newest is to the Aphrodite called Cnidian by men generally, but Euploia （Fair Voyage） by the Cnidians themselves.
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The Athenians have also another harbor, at Munychia, with a temple of Artemis of Munychia, and yet another at Phalerum, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary of Demeter. Here there is also a temple of Athena Sciras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown, and of heroes, and of the children of Theseus and Phalerus; for this Phalerus is said by the Athenians to have sailed with Jason to
Colchis. There is also an altar of Androgeos, son of Minos, though it is called that of Heros; those, however, who pay special attention to the study of their country's antiquities know that it belongs to Androgeos.
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Twenty stades away is the Coliad promontory; on to it, when the Persian fleet was destroyed, the wrecks were carried down by the waves. There is here an image of the Coliad Aphrodite, with the goddesses Genetyllides （Goddesses of Birth）, as they are called. And I am of opinion that the goddesses of the Phocaeans in
Ionia, whom they call Gennaides, are the same as those at Colias. On the way from Phalerum to
Athens there is a temple of Hera with neither doors nor roof. Men say that Mardonius, son of Gobryas, burnt it. But the image there to-day is, as report goes, the work of Alcamenes
6 So that this, at any rate, cannot have been damaged by the Persians.
2. On entering the city there is a monument to Antiope the
Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was carried of by Peirithous and Theseus, but Hegias of
Troezen gives the following account of her. Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon, but could not take it, but Antiope, falling in love with Theseus, who was aiding Heracles in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. Such is the account of Hegias. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia, while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. To Molpadia also there is a monument among the Athenians.
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As you go up from the Peiraeus you see the ruins of the walls which
Conon restored after the naval battle off
Cnidus. For those built by Themistocles after the retreat of the Persians were destroyed during the rule of those named the Thirty.
7 Along the road are very famous graves, that of Menander, son of Diopeithes, and a cenotaph of Euripides. He him self went to King Archelaus and lies buried in
Macedonia; as to the manner of his death （many have described it）, let it be as they say.
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So even in his time poets lived at the courts of kings, as earlier still Anacreon consorted with Polycrates, despot of
Samos, and Aeschylus and Simonides journeyed to Hiero at
Syracuse. Dionysius, afterwards despot in
Sicily had Philoxenus at his court, and Antigonus,
8 ruler of
Macedonia, had Antagoras of
Rhodes and Aratus of
Soli. But Hesiod and Homer either failed to win the society of kings or else purposely despised it, Hesiod through boorishness and reluctance to travel, while Homer, having gone very far abroad, depreciated the help afforded by despots in the acquisition of wealth in comparison with his reputation among ordinary men. And yet Homer, too, in his poem makes Demodocus live at the court of Alcinous, and Agamemnon leave a poet with his wife. Not far from the gates is a grave, on which is mounted a soldier standing by a horse. Who it is I do not know, but both horse and soldier were carved by Praxiteles.
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On entering the city there is a building for the preparation of the processions, which are held in some cases every year, in others at longer intervals. Hard by is a temple of Demeter, with images of the goddess herself and of her daughter, and of Iacchus holding a torch. On the wall, in Attic characters, is written that they are works of Praxiteles. Not far from the temple is Poseidon on horseback, hurling a spear against the giant Polybotes, concerning whom is prevalent among the Coans the story about the promontory of Chelone. But the inscription of our time assigns the statue to another, and not to Poseidon. From the gate to the Cerameicus there are porticoes, and in front of them brazen statues of such as had some title to fame, both men and women.
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One of the porticoes contains shrines of gods, and a gymnasium called that of Hermes. In it is the house of Pulytion, at which it is said that a mystic rite was performed by the most notable Athenians, parodying the Eleusinian mysteries. But in my time it was devoted to the worship of Dionysus. This Dionysus they call Melpomenus （Minstrel）, on the same principle as they call Apollo Musegetes （Leader of the Muses）. Here there are images of Athena Paeonia （Healer）, of Zeus, of Mnemosyne （Memory） and of the Muses, an Apollo, the votive offering and work of Eubulides, and Acratus, a daemon attendant upon Apollo
9; it is only a face of him worked into the wall. After the precinct of Apollo
10 is a building that contains earthen ware images, Amphictyon, king of
Athens, feasting Dionysus and other gods. Here also is Pegasus of Eleutherae, who introduced the god to the Athenians. Herein he was helped by the oracle at
Delphi, which called to mind that the god once dwelt in
Athens in the days of Icarius.
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Amphictyon won the kingdom thus. It is said that Actaeus was the first king of what is now
Attica. When he died, Cecrops, the son-in-law of Actaeus, received the kingdom, and there were born to him daughters, Herse, Aglaurus and Pandrosus, and a son Erysichthon. This son did not become king of the Athenians, but happened to die while his father lived, and the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the most powerful of the Athenians. They say that Cranaus had daughters, and among them Atthis; and from her they call the country
Attica, which before was named Actaea. And Amphictyon, rising up against Cranaus, although he had his daughter to wife, deposed him from power. Afterwards he himself was banished by Erichthonius and his fellow rebels. Men say that Erichthonius had no human father, but that his parents were Hephaestus and Earth.
3. The district of the Cerameicus has its name from the hero
Ceramus, he too being the reputed son of Dionysus and Ariadne. First on the right is what is called the Royal Portico, where sits the king when holding the yearly office called the kingship. On the tiling of this portico are images of baked earthenware, Theseus throwing Sciron into the sea and Day carrying away Cephalus, who they say was very beautiful and was ravished by Day, who was in love with him. His son was Phaethon,<afterwards ravished by Aphrodite>. . . and made a guardian of her temple. Such is the tale told by Hesiod, among others, in his poem on women.
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Near the portico stand
Conon, Timotheus his son and Evagoras
11 King of Cyprus, who caused the Phoenician men-of-war to be given to
Conon by King Artaxerxes. This he did as an Athenian whose ancestry connected him with
Salamis, for he traced his pedigree back to Teucer and the daughter of Cinyras. Here stands Zeus, called Zeus of Freedom, and the Emperor Hadrian, a benefactor to all his subjects and especially to the city of the Athenians.
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A portico is built behind with pictures of the gods called the Twelve. On the wall opposite are painted Theseus, Democracy and Demos. The picture represents Theseus as the one who gave the Athenians political equality. By other means also has the report spread among men that Theseus bestowed sovereignty upon the people, and that from his time they continued under a democratical government, until Peisistratus rose up and became despot.
12 But there are many false beliefs current among the mass of mankind, since they are ignorant of historical science and consider trustworthy whatever they have heard from childhood in choruses and tragedies; one of these is about Theseus, who in fact himself became king, and afterwards, when Menestheus was dead, the descendants of Theseus remained rulers even to the fourth generation. But if I cared about tracing the pedigree I should have included in the list, besides these, the kings from Melanthus to Cleidicus the son of Aesimides.
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Here is a picture of the exploit, near
Mantinea, of the Athenians who were sent to help the Lacedaemonians.
13 Xenophon among others has written a history of the whole war—the taking of the Cadmea, the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, how the Boeotians invaded the
Peloponnesus,and the contingent sent to the Lacedacmonians from the Athenians. In the picture is a cavalry battle, in which the most famous men are, among the Athenians, Grylus the son of Xenophon, and in the Boeotian cavalry, Epaminondas the Theban. These pictures were painted for the Athenians by Euphranor, and he also wrought the Apollo surnamed Patrous （Paternal） in the temple hard by. And in front of the temple is one Apollo made by Leochares; the other Apollo, called Averter of evil, was made by Calamis. They say that the god received this name because by an oracle from
Delphi he stayed the pestilence which afflicted the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War.
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Here is built also a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods; the image is by Pheidias
15. Hard by is the council chamber of those called the Five Hundred, who are the Athenian councillors for a year. In it are a wooden figure of Zeus Counsellor and an Apollo, the work of Peisias,
16 and a Demos by Lyson. The thesmothetae （lawgivers） were painted by Protogenes
17 the Caunian, and Olbiades
18 portrayed Callippus, who led the Athenians to
Thermopylae to stop the incursion of the Gauls into
Greece.
19
4. These Gauls inhabit the most remote portion of
Europe, near a great sea that is not navigable to its extremities, and possesses ebb and flow and creatures quite unlike those of other seas. Through their country flows the river
Eridanus, on the bank of which the daughters of Helius （Sun） are supposed to lament the fate that befell their brother Phaethon. It was late before the name “Gauls” came into vogue; for anciently they were called Celts both amongst themselves and by others. An army of them mustered and turned towards the
Ionian Sea, dispossessed the Illyrian people, all who dwelt as far as
Macedonia with the Macedonians themselves, and overran
Thessaly. And when they drew near to
Thermopylae, the Greeks in general made no move to prevent the inroad of the barbarians, since previously they had been severely defeated by Alexander and Philip. Further, Antipater and Cassander
20 afterwards crushed the Greeks, so that through weakness each state thought no shame of itself taking no part in the defence of the country.
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But the Athenians, although they were more exhausted than any of the Greeks by the long Macedonian war, and had been generally unsuccessful in their battles, nevertheless set forth to
Corinth
