Greek Texts & Translations

some such evidence as this from Homer as a pretext, and the Megarians to have replied in an opposite strain of this kind; Ajax conducted ships from Salamis, from Polichna, from Aegirussa, from Nisaea, and from Tripodes, ^note which are places in Megaris, of which Tripodes has the name of Tripodiscium, situated near the present forum of Megara. 11

Some say, that Salamis is unconnected with Attica, because the priestess of Minerva Polias, who may not eat the new cheese of Attica, but the produce only of a foreign land, yet uses the Salaminian cheese. But this is a mistake, for she uses that which is brought from other islands, that are confessedly near Attica, for the authors of this custom considered all produce as foreign which was brought over sea.

It seems as if anciently the present Salamis was a separate state, and that Megara was a part of Attica.

On the sea-coast, opposite to Salamis, the boundaries of Megara and Attica are two mountains called Cerata, or Horns. ^note 12

Next is the city Eleusis, ^note in which is the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and the Mystic Enclosure (Secos), ^note which Ictinus built, ^note capable of containing the crowd of a theatre. It was this person that built ^note the Parthenon in the Acropolis, in honour of Minerva, when Pericles was the superintendent of the public works. The city is enumerated among the demi, or burghs. 13

Then follows the Thriasian plain, and the coast, a demus of the same name, ^note then the promontory Amphiale, ^note above which is a stone quarry; and then the passage across the sea to Salamis, of about 2 stadia, which Xerxes endeavoured to fill up with heaps of earth, but the sea-fight and the flight of the Persians occurred before he had ac- complished it.