There is also another citadel at Megara that gets its name from
Alcathous. As one goes up to it, there is on the right hand a monument
of Megareus, who started from Onchestus to aid the Megarians in the
Cretan War. There is also shown an altar of the gods called Prodromi:
and they say that Alcathous first sacrificed to them when he was
commencing to build his wall. And near this altar is a stone, on which
they say Apollo put his harp down, while he assisted Alcathous in
building the wall. And the following fact proves that the Megarians
were numbered among the Athenians: Peribœa the daughter of Alcathous
was certainly sent by him to Crete with Theseus in connection with the
tribute. And Apollo, as the Megarians say, assisted him in building the
wall, and laid his harp down on the stone: and if one chances to hit
it with a pebble, it sounds like a harp being played. This inspired
great wonder in me, but not so much as the Colossus in Egypt. At
Thebes in Egypt, when you cross the Nile, at a place called the Pipes
(_Syringes_), there is a seated statue that has a musical sound, most
people call it Memnon: for he they say went from Ethiopia to Egypt and
even to Susa. But the Thebans say it was a statue not of Memnon, but
Phamenophes a Theban, and I have heard people say it was Sesostris.
This statue Cambyses cut in two: and now the head to the middle of
the body lies on the ground, but the lower part remains in a sitting
posture, and every morning at sunrise resounds with melody, and the
sound it most resembles is that of a harp or lyre with a chord broken.
And the Megarians have a council chamber, which was once as they say
the tomb of Timalcus, who, as I said a little time back, was killed
by Theseus. And on the hill where the citadel stands is a temple of
Athene, and a brazen statue of the goddess, except the hands and the
toes, which as well as the face are of ivory. And there is another
temple here of Athene called Victory, and another of her as Aiantis.
As regards the latter, all mention of it is passed over by the
interpreters of curiosities at Megara, but I will write my own ideas.
Telamon the son of Æacus married Peribœa the daughter of Alcathous. I
imagine then that Aias, having succeeded to the kingdom of Alcathous,
made this statue of Athene Aiantis.
The old temple of Apollo was made of brick: but afterwards the
Emperor Adrian built it of white stone. The statues called Apollo
Pythius and Apollo Decataphorus are very like Egyptian statues, but the
one they call Archegetes is like Æginetan handiwork. And all alike are
made of ebony. I heard a Cyprian, a cunning herbalist, say that the
ebony has neither leaves nor fruit, and that it is never seen exposed
to the sun, but its roots are underground, and the Ethiopians dig them
up, and there are men among them who know how to find it. There is
also a temple of Law-giving Demeter. And as you go down from thence
is the tomb of Callipolis the son of Alcathous. Alcathous had also an
elder son called Ischepolis, whom his father sent to assist Meleager in
Ætolia against the Calydonian boar. And when he was killed Callipolis
heard the news first in this place: and he ran to the citadel, where
his father was sacrificing to Apollo, and threw down the wood from the
altar. And Alcathous, not having yet heard the news about Ischepolis,
was vexed with Callipolis for his irreverence, and in his wrath killed
him instantaneously by striking him on the head with one of the pieces
of wood he had thrown down from the altar.
On the road to the Prytaneum there is a hero-chapel of Ino, and
a cornice of stone round it. Some olive-trees also grow there. The
Megarians are the only Greeks that say that the dead body of Ino was
cast on the shore of Megaris, and that Cleso and Tauropolis, the
daughters of Cleso and granddaughters of Lelex, found it and buried
it. And they say that Ino was called by them first Leucothea, and they
sacrifice to her every year.