1.30.2
In the Academy is an altar to Prometheus, and from it they run to the city carrying burning torches. The contest is while running to keep the torch still alight; if the torch of the first runner goes out, he has no longer any claim to victory, but the second runner has. If his torch also goes out, then the third man is the victor. If all the torches go out, no one is left to be winner. There is an altar to the Muses, and another to Hermes, and one within to Athena, and they have built one to Heracles. There is also an olive tree, accounted to be the second that appeared.
1.30.3
Not far from the Academy is the monument of Plato, to whom heaven foretold that he would be the prince of philosophers. The manner of the foretelling was this. On the night before Plato was to become his pupil Socrates in a dream saw a swan fly into his bosom. Now the swan is a bird with a reputation for music, because, they say, a musician of the name of Swan became king of the Ligyes on the other side of the Eridanus beyond the Celtic territory, and after his death by the will of Apollo he was changed into the bird. I am ready to believe that a musician became king of the Ligyes, but I cannot believe that a bird grew out of a man.
1.30.4
In this part of the country is seen the tower of Timon, the only man to see that there is no way to be happy except to shun other men. There is also pointed out a place called the Hill of Horses, the first point in Attica, they say, that Oedipus reached—this account too differs from that given by Homer, but it is nevertheless current tradition—and an altar to Poseidon, Horse God, and to Athena, Horse Goddess, and a chapel to the heroes Peirithous and Theseus, Oedipus and Adrastus. The grove and temple of Poseidon were burnt by Antigonus note when he invaded Attica, who at other times also ravaged the land of the Athenians.
ch. 31
1.31.1
The small parishes of Attica, which were founded severally as chance would have it, presented the following noteworthy features. At Alimus is a sanctuary of Demeter Lawgiver and of the Maid, and at Zoster (Girdle) on the coast is an altar to Athena, as well as to Apollo, to Artemis and to Leto. The story is that Leto did not give birth to her children here, but loosened her girdle with a view to her delivery, and the place received its name from this incident. Prospalta has also a sanctuary of the Maid and Demeter, and Anagyrus a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods. At Cephale the chief cult is that of the Dioscuri, for the in habitants call them the Great gods.
1.31.2
At Prasiae is a temple of Apollo. Hither they say are sent the first-fruits of the Hyperboreans, and the Hyperboreans are said to hand them over to the Arimaspi, the Arimaspi to the Issedones, from these the Scythians bring them to Sinope, thence they are carried by Greeks to Prasiae, and the Athenians take them to Delos. The first-fruits are hidden in wheat straw, and they are known of none. There is at Prasiae a monument to Erysichthon, who died on the voyage home from Delos, after the sacred mission thither.
1.31.3
How Amphictyon banished Cranaus, his kinsman by marriage and king of Athens, I have already related. They say that fleeing with his supporters to the parish of Lamptrae he died and was buried there, and at the present day there is a monument to Cranaus at Lamptrae. At Potami in Attica is also the grave of Ion the son of Xuthus—for he too dwelt among the Athenians and was their commander-in-chief in the war with Eleusis.
1.31.4
Such is the legend. Phlya and Myrrhinus have altars of Apollo Dionysodotus, Artemis Light-bearer, Dionysus Flower-god, the Ismenian nymphs and Earth, whom they name the Great goddess; a second temple contains altars of Demeter Anesidora (Sender-up of Gifts), Zeus Ctesius (God of Gain), Tithrone Athena, the Maid First-born and the goddesses styled August. The wooden image at Myrrhinus is of Colaenis.
1.31.5
Athmonia worships Artemis Amarysia. On inquiry I discovered that the guides knew nothing about these deities, so I give my own conjecture. Amarynthus is a town in Euboea, the inhabitants of which worship Amarysia, while the festival of Amarysia which the Athenians celebrate is no less splendid than the Euboean. The name of the goddess, I think, came to Athmonia in this fashion and the Colaenis in Myrrhinus is called after Colaenus. I have already written that many of the inhabitants of the parishes say that they were ruled by kings even before the reign of Cecrops. Now Colaenus, say the Myrrhinusians, is the name of a man who ruled before Cecrops became king.
1.31.6
There is a parish called Acharnae, where they worship Apollo Agyieus (God of Streets) and Heracles, and there is an altar of Athena Health. And they call upon the name of Athena Horse-goddess and Dionysus Singer and Dionysus Ivy, saying that the plant ivy first appeared there.
