Why they erected a brazen statue to Cylon, although he plotted for the
sovereignty, I cannot clearly tell. But I conjecture the reason was
that he was very handsome in person and not unknown to fame, as he
had won the victory at Olympia in the double course, and it was his
good fortune to wed the daughter of Theagenes the king of Megara. And
besides those I have mentioned there are two works of art especially
famous, made out of Athenian spoil, a brazen statue of Athene, the
work of Phidias, made out of spoil taken from the Persians who landed
at Marathon: (the battle of the Lapithæ with the Centaurs, and all the
other things represented on her shield, are said to have been carved by
Mys, but Parrhasius is said to have drawn for Mys the outline of these
and of his other works.) The spearpoint of this Athene, and the plume
of her helmet, are visible from Sunium as you sail in. And there is a
brazen chariot made out of spoil of the Bœotians and Chalcidians in
Eubœa. And there are two other votive offerings, a statue of Pericles
the son of Xanthippus, and, (one of the finest works of Phidias,)
a statue of Athene, called the Lemnian Athene because an offering
from the people of Lemnos. The walls of the Acropolis, (except what
Cimon the son of Miltiades built,) are said to have been drawn out by
Pelasgians who formerly lived under the Acropolis. Their names were
Agrolas and Hyperbius. When I made enquiries who they were, all that I
could learn of them was that they were originally Sicilians, who had
emigrated to Acarnania.
As you descend, not into the lower part of the city but only below
the Propylæa, there is a well of water, and near it a temple of Apollo
in a cave. Here they think Apollo had an amour with Creusa the daughter
of Erechtheus. And as to Pan, they say that Philippides, (who was sent
as a messenger to Lacedæmon when the Persians landed), reported that
the Lacedæmonians were deferring their march: for it was their custom
not to go out on a campaign till the moon was at its full. But he
said that he had met with Pan near the Parthenian forest, and he had
said that he was friendly to the Athenians, and would come and help
them at Marathon. Pan has been honoured therefore for this message.
Here is also the Areopagus, so called because Ares was first tried
here. I have before stated how and why he slew Halirrhothius. And they
say that subsequently Orestes was tried here for the murder of his
mother. And there is an altar of Athene Area, which Orestes erected
when he escaped punishment. And the two white stones, on which both
defendants and plaintiffs stand in this court, are respectively called
_Rigour-of-the-law_ and _Impudence_.
And not far off is the temple of the Goddesses whom the Athenians
call _The Venerable Ones_, but Hesiod in his Theogony calls them the
Erinnyes. And Æschylus first represented them with snakes twined in
their hair: but in the statues here, either of these or of any other
infernal gods, there is nothing horrible. Here are statues of Pluto
and Hermes and Earth. Here all that have been acquitted before the
Areopagus offer their sacrifices, besides foreigners and citizens
occasionally. Within the precincts is also the tomb of Œdipus. After
many enquiries I found that his bones had been brought there from
Thebes: for I could not credit Sophocles’ account about the death of
Œdipus, since Homer records that Mecisteus went to Thebes after the
death of Œdipus and was a competitor in the funeral games held in his
honour there.[5]
The Athenians have other Courts of Law, but not so famous as the
Areopagus. One they call Parabystum and another Trigonum, [that is
_Crush_ and _Triangle_,] the former being in a low part of the city
and crowds of litigants in very trumpery cases frequenting it, the
other gets its name from its shape. And the Courts called _Froggy_ and
_Scarlet_ preserve their names to this day from their colours. But
the largest Court, which has also the greatest number of litigants,
is called Heliæa. Murder-cases are taken in the Court they call
the Palladium, where are also tried cases of manslaughter. And that
Demophon was the first person tried here no one disputes: but why he
was tried is debated. They say that Diomede, sailing home after the
capture of Ilium, put into Phalerum one dark night, and the Argives
landed as on hostile soil, not knowing in the dark that it was Attica.
Thereupon they say Demophon rushed up, being ignorant that the men in
the ships were Argives, and slew several of them, and went off with the
Palladium which he took from them, and an Athenian not recognized in
the melée was knocked down and trodden underfoot by Demophon’s horse.
For this affair Demophon had to stand his trial, prosecuted some say by
the relations of this Athenian, others say by the Argives generally.
And the Delphinium is the Court for those who plead that they have
committed justifiable homicide, which was the plea of Theseus when he
was acquitted for killing Pallas and his sons who rose up against him.
And before the acquittal of Theseus every manslayer had to flee for his
life, or if he stayed to suffer the same death as he had inflicted. And
in the Court called the Prytaneum they try iron and other inanimate
things. I imagine the custom originated when Erechtheus was king of
Athens, for then first did Ox-killer kill an ox at the temple of Zeus
Guardian of the City: and he left the axe there and fled the country,
and the axe was forthwith acquitted after trial, and is tried annually
even nowadays. Other inanimate things are said to have spontaneously
committed justifiable homicide: the best and most famous illustration
of which is afforded by the scimetar of Cambyses.[6] And there is at
the Piræus near the sea a Court called Phreattys: here fugitives, if
(after they have once escaped) a second charge is brought against them,
make their defence on shipboard to their hearers on land. Teucer first
(the story goes) thus made his defence before Telamon that he had had
no hand in the death of Ajax. Let this suffice for these matters, that
all who care may know everything about the Athenian law-courts.