And the mountains of Attica are Pentelicus, famous for its
stonequarries, and Parnes, which affords good hunting of wild boars
and bears, and Hymettus, which is the best place for bees next to the
territory of the Alazones. For among the Alazones the bees are so tame
that they live with the people, and go freely about for their food
anywhere, and are not confined in hives: and they make honey anywhere,
and it is so firm and compact that you cannot separate it from the
comb. And on the mountains of Attica also are statues of the gods.
At Pentelicus there is a statue of Athene, and at Hymettus one of
Zeus of Hymettus: there are altars also to Rainy Zeus, and Apollo the
Fore-seer. And at Parnes there is a brazen statue of Parnesian Zeus,
and an altar to Semalean Zeus. There is also another altar at Parnes,
and they sacrifice on it sometimes to Zeus the Rainy, sometimes to Zeus
the Averter of Ill. There is also the small mountain called Anchesmus,
and on it the statue of Anchesmian Zeus.
Before I turn to the description of the islands, I will enter
again into the history of the townships. The township of Marathon
is about equidistant from Athens and Carystus in Eubœa. It was this
part of Attica that the Persians landed at, and were defeated, and
lost some of their ships as they were putting out to sea in retreat.
And in the plain is the tomb of the Athenians, and on it are pillars
with the names of the dead according to their tribes. And another
for the Platæans of Bœotia and their slaves: for this was the first
engagement in which slaves fought. And there is apart a monument to
Miltiades the son of Cimon, whose death occurred afterwards, when he
failed to capture Paros, and was on that account put on his trial by
the Athenians. Here every night one may hear horses neighing and men
fighting: those who come on purpose to see the sight suffer for their
curiosity, but if they are there as spectators accidentally the wrath
of the gods harms them not. And the people of Marathon highly honour
those that fell in the battle, calling them heroes, as also they
pay honours to Marathon (from whom the township gets its name), and
Hercules, whom they say they first of all the Greeks worshipped as a
god. And it chanced, as they say, in the battle that a man of rustic
appearance and dress appeared, who slew many of the Persians with a
ploughshare, and vanished after the fight: and when the Athenians made
enquiry of the oracle, the god gave no other answer, but bade them
honour the hero Echetlæus. And a trophy of white stone was erected
there. And the Athenians say that they buried the Persians, (it being
a matter of decency to bury in the ground a man’s corpse,) but I could
find no tomb. For there was no mound nor any other visible trace of
burial. So they must have carried them to some hole and thrown them
in pell mell. And there is at Marathon a fountain called Macaria, and
this is the tradition about it. When Hercules fled from Eurystheus
at Tiryns, he went to his friend Ceyx the king of Trachis. And when
Hercules left mankind Eurystheus asked for his children, and Ceyx sent
them to Athens, pleading his own weakness, and suggesting that Theseus
might be able to protect them. And coming to Athens as suppliants,
they brought about the first war between the Peloponnesians and the
Athenians, as Theseus would not give them up to Eurystheus, though he
begged hard for them. And they say that an oracle told the Athenians
that one of the children of Hercules must voluntarily die, or else they
would not get the victory. Hereupon Macaria, the daughter of Deianira
and Hercules, sacrificed herself that the Athenians might conquer in
the war, and the fountain gets its name from her. And there is at
Marathon a lake for the most part muddy: into it the fugitive Persians
fell not knowing the way, and most of the slaughter happened they say
here. And above the lake are the mangers of the horses of Artaphernes
in stone, and among the rocks vestiges of a tent. And a river flows
from the lake, affording pleasant water to the herds that come to the
lake, but at its outlet into the sea it is salt and full of sea fish.
And at a little distance from the plain is a mountain of Pan, and a
cave well worth seeing. The entrance to it is narrow, but when you get
well in there are rooms and baths, and what is called Pan’s herd of
goats, rocks very like goats in shape.