Greek Texts & Translations

Amphictyon won the kingdom thus. It is said that Actaeus was the first king of what is now Attica. When he died, Cecrops, the son-in-law of Actaeus, received the kingdom, and there were born to him daughters, Herse, Aglaurus and Pandrosus, and a son Erysichthon. This son did not become king of the Athenians, but happened to die while his father lived, and the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the most powerful of the Athenians. They say that Cranaus had daughters, and among them Atthis; and from her they call the country Attica, which before was named Actaea. And Amphictyon, rising up against Cranaus, although he had his daughter to wife, deposed him from power. Afterwards he himself was banished by Erichthonius and his fellow rebels. Men say that Erichthonius had no human father, but that his parents were Hephaestus and Earth.

Near the portico stand Conon, Timotheus his son and Evagoras ^note King of Cyprus, who caused the Phoenician men-of-war to be given to Conon by King Artaxerxes. This he did as an Athenian whose ancestry connected him with Salamis, for he traced his pedigree back to Teucer and the daughter of Cinyras. Here stands Zeus, called Zeus of Freedom, and the Emperor Hadrian, a benefactor to all his subjects and especially to the city of the Athenians.

A portico is built behind with pictures of the gods called the Twelve. On the wall opposite are painted Theseus, Democracy and Demos. The picture represents Theseus as the one who gave the Athenians political equality. By other means also has the report spread among men that Theseus bestowed sovereignty upon the people, and that from his time they continued under a democratical government, until Peisistratus rose up and became despot. ^note But there are many false beliefs current among the mass of mankind, since they are ignorant of historical science and consider trustworthy whatever they have heard from childhood in choruses and tragedies; one of these is about Theseus, who in fact himself became king, and afterwards, when Menestheus was dead, the descendants of Theseus remained rulers even to the fourth generation. But if I cared about tracing the pedigree I should have included in the list, besides these, the kings from Melanthus to Cleidicus the son of Aesimides.

Here is a picture of the exploit, near Mantinea, of the Athenians who were sent to help the Lacedaemonians. ^note Xenophon among others has written a history of the whole war—the taking of the Cadmea, the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, how the Boeotians invaded the Peloponnesus,and the contingent sent to the Lacedacmonians from the Athenians. In the picture is a cavalry battle, in which the most famous men are, among the Athenians, Grylus the son of Xenophon, and in the Boeotian cavalry, Epaminondas the Theban. These pictures were painted for the Athenians by Euphranor, and he also wrought the Apollo surnamed Patrous (Paternal) in the temple hard by. And in front of the temple is one Apollo made by Leochares; the other Apollo, called Averter of evil, was made by Calamis. They say that the god received this name because by an oracle from Delphi he stayed the pestilence which afflicted the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War. ^note

Here is built also a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods; the image is by Pheidias ^note. Hard by is the council chamber of those called the Five Hundred, who are the Athenian councillors for a year. In it are a wooden figure of Zeus Counsellor and an Apollo, the work of Peisias, ^note and a Demos by Lyson. The thesmothetae (lawgivers) were painted by Protogenes ^note the Caunian, and Olbiades ^note portrayed Callippus, who led the Athenians to Thermopylae to stop the incursion of the Gauls into Greece. ^note