They also lay claim to the possession of a mortuary-chapel of
Iphigenia, for she too they say died at Megara. But I have heard a
different account of Iphigenia from the Arcadians, and I know that
Hesiod in his Catalogue of Women describes Iphigenia as not dying, but
being changed into Hecate by the will of Artemis. And Herodotus[12]
wrote not dissimilarly to this, that the Tauric people in Scythia after
shipwreck sacrifice to a virgin, who is they say Iphigenia the daughter
of Agamemnon. Adrastus also has divine honours among the Megarians:
he too they say died among them (when he was leading the army back
after the capture of Thebes), of old age and sorrow for the death of
Ægialeus. And Agamemnon erected an altar to Artemis at Megara, when he
went to Calchas, a native of the place, to persuade him to join the
expedition to Ilium. And in the Prytaneum they say Euippus the son of
Megareus was buried, and also Ischepolis the son of Alcathous. And
there is a rock near the Prytaneum called _The Calling Rock_, because
Demeter (if there is any truth in the tale), when she wandered about
seeking her daughter, called out for her here. And the Megarian women
still perform a kind of mimic representation of this. And the Megarians
have tombs in the city: one they erected for those who fell fighting
against the Medes, the other, called Æsymnian, is a monument to heroes.
For when Hyperion, the last king of Megara, the son of Agamemnon, was
killed by Sandion on account of his greed and haughtiness, they chose
no longer to be under kingly government, but to have chief magistrates
annually chosen, so as to be under one another’s authority by turn.
Then it was that Æsymnus, second to none of the Megarians in fame and
influence, went to Apollo at Delphi, and asked how they were to have
prosperity. And the god among other things told them they would fare
well if they deliberated on affairs with the majority. Thinking these
words had reference to the dead, they built here a council chamber,
that the tomb of the heroes might be inside their council chamber. As
you go from thence to the hero-chapel of Alcathous, which the Megarians
now use as a Record Office, there are two tombs, one they say of
Pyrgo, the wife of Alcathous before he married Euæchma the daughter of
Megareus, the other of Iphinoe the daughter of Alcathous, who they say
died unmarried. At her tomb it is the custom of maidens before marriage
to pour libations, and sacrifice some of their long hair, as the
maidens of Delos used to do to Hecaerge and Opis. And near the entrance
to the temple of Dionysus are the tombs of Astycratea and Manto, the
daughters of Polyidus, (the son of Cœranus, the son of Abas, the son of
Melampus,) who went to Megara, and purged Alcathous for the murder of
his son Callipolis. And Polyidus also built the temple of Dionysus, and
erected a statue of the god veiled in my day except the face: that is
visible. And a Satyr is near Dionysus, the work of Praxiteles in Parian
marble. And this they call Tutelary Dionysus, and another they call
Dionysus Dasyllius (_the Vine-ripener_), and this statue they say was
erected by Euchenor the son of Cœranus the son of Polyidus. And next to
the temple of Dionysus is the shrine of Aphrodite, and a statue of the
goddess in ivory, under the title Praxis (_Action_). This is the oldest
statue in the shrine. And _Persuasion_ and another goddess whom they
call _Consolation_ are by Praxiteles: and by Scopas _Love_ and _Desire_
and _Yearning_, each statue expressing the particular shade of meaning
marked by the words. And near the shrine of Aphrodite is the temple
of Chance: this too is by Praxiteles. And in the neighbouring temple
Lysippus has made the Muses and a brazen Zeus.
The Megarians also have the tomb of Corœbus: the verses about him I
shall relate here though they are also Argive intelligence. In the days
when Crotopus was king in Argos, his daughter Psamathe they say had
a child by Apollo, and being greatly afraid of her father knowing it
exposed the child. And some sheep dogs of Crotopus lit upon the child
and killed it, and Apollo sent upon the city _Punishment_, a monster
who took children away from their mothers (they say), till Corœbus
killed it to ingratiate himself with the Argives. And after killing it,
as a second plague came on them and vexed them sore, Corœbus of his own
accord went to Delphi, and offered to submit to the punishment of the
god for killing _Punishment_. The Pythian priestess forbade Corœbus
to return to Argos, but told him to carry a tripod from the temple,
and wherever the tripod should fall, there he was to build a temple to
Apollo and himself dwell. And the tripod slipt out of his hand and fell
(without his contrivance) on the mountain Gerania, and there he built
the village Tripodisci. And his tomb is in the market-place at Megara:
and there are some elegiac verses on it that relate to Psamathe and
Corœbus himself, and a representation on the tomb of Corœbus killing
Punishment. These statues are the oldest Greek ones in stone that I
have myself seen.