As one enters into the city there is a monument of Antiope the Amazon.
Pindar says that this Antiope was carried off by Pirithous and Theseus,
but the account by Hegias of Trœzen is as follows: that Hercules
besieging Themiscyra near the river Thermodon could not take it; but
that Antiope being enamoured of Theseus, (who was besieging the place
with Hercules), handed the place over to him. This is the account
Hegias has given. But the Athenians say that, when the Amazons came,
Antiope was shot by Molpadia with an arrow, and that Molpadia was slain
by Theseus. There is a monument also to Molpadia among the Athenians.
And as one ascends from the Piræus there are remains of the walls
which Conon re-erected after the sea-fight off Cnidus; for those which
Themistocles had built after the defeat of the Persians had been pulled
down during the rule of The Thirty Tyrants, as they were called. And
along the way the most notable tombs are those of Menander the son of
Diopeithes, and a cenotaph of Euripides without the body. For Euripides
was buried in Macedonia, having gone to the court of King Archelaus;
and the manner of his death, for it has been told by many, let it be as
they say. Poets even in those days lived with kings and earlier still,
for when Polycrates was tyrant at Samos Anacreon lived at his court,
and Æschylus and Simonides journeyed to Syracuse to the court of Hiero;
and to Dionysius, who was afterwards tyrant in Sicily, went Philoxenus;
and to Antigonus, king of the Macedonians, went Antagoras of Rhodes and
Aratus of Soli. On the other hand Hesiod and Homer either did not get
the chance of living at kings’ courts, or of their own accord didn’t
value it, the former because he lived in the country and shrank from
travelling, and the latter, having gone on his travels to very distant
parts, depreciated pecuniary assistance from the powerful in comparison
with the glory he had amongst most men, for from him too we have the
description of Demodocus’ being at the court of Alcinous, and that
Agamemnon left a poet with his wife. There is also a tomb not far from
the gates, with the statue of a soldier standing near a horse; who the
soldier is I don’t know, but Praxiteles modelled both the horse and the
soldier.
As one enters into the city there is a building for the getting
ready of processions, which they conduct some annually, some at
various intervals. And near is the temple of Demeter, and the statues
in it are her and her daughter and Iacchus with a torch; and it is
written on the wall in Attic letters that they are the production of
Praxiteles. And not far from this temple is Poseidon on horseback, in
the act of hurling his spear at the giant Polybotes, in respect to
whom there is a story among the Coans as to the promontory of Chelone;
but the inscription of our days assigns the statue to another and not
to Poseidon. And there are porticoes from the gates to the Ceramicus,
and in front of them brazen statues of women and men who have obtained
some celebrity. And one of the porticoes has not only shrines of the
gods, but also what is called the gymnasium of Hermes; and there is in
it the house of Polytion, in which they say the most notable of the
Athenians imitated the Eleusinian mysteries. But in my time it was
consecrated to Dionysus. And this Dionysus they call Melpomenos for
the same reason that they call Apollo Musagetes. Here are statues of
Pæonian Athene and Zeus and Mnemosyne and the Muses, and Apollo (the
votive offering and work of Eubulides), and Acratus a satellite of
Dionysus: his face alone is worked in the wall. And next to the shrine
of Dionysus is a room with statues of earthenware, Amphictyon the king
of the Athenians feasting Dionysus and all the other gods. Here too is
Pegasus Eleutherensis, who introduced Dionysus to the Athenians; and
he was assisted by the oracle at Delphi, which foretold that the god
would come and settle there in the days of Icarius. And this is the
way Amphictyon got the kingdom. They say that Actæus was first king of
what is now Attica; and on his death Cecrops succeeded to the kingdom
having married Actæus’ daughter, and he had three daughters, Erse, and
Aglaurus, and Pandrosus, and one son, Erysichthon. He never reigned
over the Athenians, for he chanced to die in his father’s lifetime, and
the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the foremost of the Athenians
in power and influence. And they say that Cranaus had among other
daughters Atthis; from her they named the country Attica, which was
before called Actæa. And Amphictyon rose up in insurrection against
Cranaus, although he was married to his daughter, and deposed him from
the kingdom; but was himself afterwards ejected by Erichthonius and
his fellow conspirators. And they say that Erichthonius had no mortal
father, but that his parents were Hephæstus and Mother Earth.