As you descend from the Acropolis in a Northerly direction, you come
to the sepulchre of Alcmene near the Olympieum. She died they say at
Megara on her journey from Argos to Thebes, and the sons of Hercules
had a dispute, some wishing to take her dead body to Argos, others to
Thebes: for the sons of Hercules by Megara were buried at Thebes, as
also Amphitryon’s sons. But Apollo at Delphi gave the oracular response
that it would be better for them to bury Alcmena at Megara. From this
place the interpreter of national Antiquities took me to a place called
Rhun (_Flow_), so called because some water flowed here from the hills
above the city, but Theagenes when he was king diverted the water
into another direction, and erected here an altar to Achelous. And at
no great distance is the monument of Hyllus the son of Hercules, who
fought in single combat with the Arcadian Echemus, the son of Aeropus.
Who this Echemus was that slew Hyllus I shall shew in another place,
but Hyllus is buried at Megara. The expedition to the Peloponnese, when
Orestes was king, might rightly be called an expedition of the sons
of Hercules. And not far from the monument of Hyllus is the temple of
Isis, and near it the temple of Apollo and Artemis. This last they say
was built by Alcathous, after he had slain the lion that was called
the lion of Mount Cithæron. This lion had they say devoured several
Megarians and among them the king’s son Euippus: whose elder brother
Timalcus had been killed by Theseus still earlier, when he went
with Castor and Pollux to the siege of Aphidna. Megareus therefore
promised his daughter in marriage, and the succession to the kingdom,
to whoever should kill the lion of Mount Cithæron. So Alcathous (the
son of Pelops) attacked the beast and slew him, and, when he became
king built this temple, dedicating it to Huntress Artemis and Hunter
Apollo. This at any rate is the local tradition. But though I don’t
want to contradict the Megarians, I cannot find myself in agreement
with them entirely, for though I quite admit that the lion of Mount
Cithæron was killed by Alcathous, yet who ever recorded that Timalcus
the son of Megareus went to Aphidna with Castor and Pollux? And how (if
he had gone there) could he have been thought to have been killed by
Theseus, seeing that Alcman in his Ode to Castor and Pollux, recording
how they took Athens, and carried away captive the mother of Theseus,
yet says that Theseus was away? Pindar also gives a very similar
account, and says that Theseus wished to be connected by marriage with
Castor and Pollux, till he went away to help Pirithous in his ambitious
attempt to wed Proserpine. But whoever drew up the genealogy plainly
knew the simplicity of the Megarians, since Theseus was the descendant
of Pelops. But indeed the Megarians purposely hide the real state of
things, not wishing to own that their city was captured when Nisus was
king, and that Megareus who succeeded to the kingdom was the son in law
of Nisus, and that Alcathous was the son in law of Megareus. But it is
certain that it was not till after the death of Nisus, and a revolution
at Megara, that Alcathous came there from Elis. And this is my proof.
He built up the wall anew, when the whole of the old wall had been
demolished by the Cretans. Let this suffice for Alcathous and the lion,
whether he slew the lion on Mount Cithæron or somewhere else, before he
erected the temple to Huntress Artemis and Hunter Apollo.
As you descend from this temple is the hero-chapel of Pandion, who,
as I have already shewn, was buried at what is called the rock of
Athene the Diver. He has also divine honours paid to him at Megara.
And near the hero-chapel of Pandion is the monument of Hippolyta. This
is the Megarian tradition about her. When the Amazons, on account of
Antiope, made an expedition against the Athenians, they were beaten
by Theseus, and most of them (it so happened) fell in battle, but
Hippolyta (the sister of Antiope), who was at that time leader of the
Amazons, fled to Megara with the remnant of them, and there, having
been unsuccessful with her army, and dejected at the present state
of things, and still more despondent about getting safe home again to
Themiscyra, died of grief and was buried. And the device on her tomb
is an Amazon’s shield. And not far distant is the tomb of Tereus, who
married Procne the daughter of Pandion. Tereus was king (according to
the Megarian tradition) of Pagæ in Megaris, but in my opinion (and
there are still extant proofs of what I state) he was king of Daulis
N.W. of Chæronea: for most of what is now called Hellas was inhabited
in old time by barbarians. And his subjects would no longer obey
Tereus after his vile conduct to Philomela, and after the murder of
Itys by Procne and Philomela. And he committed suicide at Megara, and
they forthwith piled up a tomb for him, and offer sacrifices to him
annually, using pebbles in the sacrifice instead of barley. And they
say the hoopoe was first seen here. And Procne and Philomela went to
Athens, and lamenting what they had suffered and done melted away in
tears: and the tradition that they were changed into a nightingale
and swallow is, I fancy, simply that these birds have a sorrowful and
melancholy note.