ἡ μὲν Ἠπειρωτῶν ἀκμὴ κατέστρεψεν ἐς τοῦτο· ἐς δὲ τὸ Ἀθήνῃσιν ἐσελθοῦσιν Ὠιδεῖον ἄλλα τε καὶ Διόνυσος κεῖται θέας ἄξιος. πλησίον δέ ἐστι κρήνη, καλοῦσι δὲ αὐτὴν Ἐννεάκρουνον, οὕτω κοσμηθεῖσαν ὑπὸ Πεισιστράτου· φρέατα μὲν γὰρ καὶ διὰ πάσης τῆς πόλεώς ἐστι, πηγὴ δὲ αὕτη μόνη. ναοὶ δὲ ὑπὲρ τὴν κρήνην ὁ μὲν Δήμητρος πεποίηται καὶ Κόρης, ἐν δὲ τῷ Τριπτολέμου κείμενόν ἐστιν ἄγαλμα· τὰ δὲ ἐς αὐτὸν ὁποῖα λέγεται γράψω, παρεὶς ὁπόσον ἐς Δηιόπην ἔχει τοῦ λόγου.
Ἑλλήνων οἱ μάλιστα ἀμφισβητοῦντες Ἀθηναίοις ἐς ἀρχαιότητα καὶ δῶρα, ἃ παρὰ θεῶν φασὶν ἔχειν, εἰσὶν Ἀργεῖοι, καθάπερ βαρβάρων Φρυξὶν Αἰγύπτιοι. λέγεται οὖν ὡς Δήμητρα ἐς Ἄργος ἐλθοῦσαν Πελασγὸς δέξαιτο οἴκῳ καὶ ὡς Χρυσανθὶς τὴν ἁρπαγὴν ἐπισταμένη τῆς Κόρης διηγήσαιτο· ὕστερον δὲ Τροχίλον ἱεροφάντην φυγόντα ἐξ Ἄργους κατὰ ἔχθος Ἀγήνορος ἐλθεῖν φασιν ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν καὶ γυναῖκά τε ἐξ Ἐλευσῖνος γῆμαι καὶ γενέσθαι οἱ παῖδας Εὐβουλέα καὶ Τριπτόλεμον. ὅδε μὲν Ἀργείων ἐστὶ λόγος Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ καὶ ὅσοι παρὰ τούτοις ἴσασι Τριπτόλεμον τὸν Κελεοῦ πρῶτον σπεῖραι καρπὸν ἥμερον.
ἔπη δὲ ᾄδεται Μουσαίου μέν, εἰ δὴ Μουσαίου καὶ ταῦτα, Τριπτόλεμον παῖδα Ὠκεανοῦ καὶ Γῆς εἶναι, Ὀρφέως δέ, οὐδὲ ταῦτα Ὀρφέως ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ὄντα, Εὐβουλεῖ καὶ Τριπτολέμῳ Δυσαύλην πατέρα εἶναι, μηνύσασι δέ σφισι περὶ τῆς παιδὸς δοθῆναι παρὰ Δήμητρος σπεῖραι τοὺς καρπούς· Χοιρίλῳ δὲ Ἀθηναίῳ δρᾶμα ποιήσαντι Ἀλόπην ἔστιν εἰρημένα Κερκυόνα εἶναι καὶ Τριπτόλεμον ἀδελφούς, τεκεῖν δὲ σφᾶς θυγατέρα Ἀμφικτύονος, εἶναι δὲ πατέρα Τριπτολέμῳ μὲν Ῥᾶρον, Κερκυόνι δὲ Ποσειδῶνα. πρόσω δὲ ἰέναι με ὡρμημένον τοῦδε τοῦ λόγου καὶ †ὁπόσα ἐξήγησιν †ἔχει τὸ Ἀθήνῃσιν ἱερόν, καλούμενον δὲ Ἐλευσίνιον, ἐπέσχεν ὄψις ὀνείρατος· ἃ δὲ ἐς πάντας ὅσιον γράφειν, ἐς ταῦτα ἀποτρέψομαι.
πρὸ τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦδε, ἔνθα καὶ τοῦ Τριπτολέμου τὸ ἄγαλμα, ἔστι βοῦς χαλκοῦς οἷα ἐς θυσίαν ἀγόμενος, πεποίηται δὲ καθήμενος Ἐπιμενίδης Κνώσσιος, ὃν ἐλθόντα ἐς ἀγρὸν κοιμᾶσθαι λέγουσιν ἐσελθόντα ἐς σπήλαιον· ὁ δὲ ὕπνος οὐ πρότερον ἀνῆκεν αὐτὸν πρὶν ἤ οἱ τεσσαρακοστὸν ἔτος γενέσθαι καθεύδοντι, καὶ ὕστερον ἔπη τε ἐποίει καὶ πόλεις ἐκάθηρεν ἄλλας τε καὶ τὴν Ἀθηναίων. Θάλης δὲ ὁ Λακεδαιμονίοις τὴν νόσον παύσας οὔτε ἄλλως προσήκων οὔτε πόλεως ἦν Ἐπιμενίδῃ τῆς αὐτῆς· ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν Κνώσσιος, Θάλητα δὲ εἶναί φησι Γορτύνιον Πολύμναστος Κολοφώνιος ἔπη Λακεδαιμονίοις ἐς αὐτὸν ποιήσας.
—ἔτι δὲ ἀπωτέρω ναὸς Εὐκλείας, ἀνάθημα καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ Μήδων, οἳ τῆς χώρας Μαραθῶνι ἔσχον. φρονῆσαι δὲ Ἀθηναίους ἐπὶ τῇ νίκῃ ταύτῃ μάλιστα εἰκάζω· καὶ δὴ καὶ Αἰσχύλος, ὥς οἱ τοῦ βίου προσεδοκᾶτο ἡ τελευτή, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ἐμνημόνευσεν οὐδενός, δόξης ἐς τοςοῦτο ἥκων ἐπὶ ποιήσει καὶ πρὸ Ἀρτεμισίου καὶ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ναυμαχήσας· ὁ δὲ τό τε ὄνομα πατρόθεν καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἔγραψε καὶ ὡς τῆς ἀνδρίας μάρτυρας ἔχοι τὸ Μαραθῶνι ἄλσος καὶ Μήδων τοὺς ἐς αὐτὸ ἀποβάντας.
ὑπὲρ δὲ τὸν Κεραμεικὸν καὶ στοὰν τὴν καλουμένην Βασίλειον ναός ἐστιν Ἡφαίστου. καὶ ὅτι μὲν ἄγαλμά οἱ παρέστηκεν Ἀθηνᾶς, οὐδὲν θαῦμα ἐποιούμην τὸν ἐπὶ Ἐριχθονίῳ ἐπιστάμενος λόγον· τὸ δὲ ἄγαλμα ὁρῶν τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς γλαυκοὺς ἔχον τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς Λιβύων τὸν μῦθον ὄντα εὕρισκον· τούτοις γάρ ἐστιν εἰρημένον Ποσειδῶνος καὶ λίμνης Τριτωνίδος θυγατέρα εἶναι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο γλαυκοὺς εἶναι ὥσπερ καὶ τῷ Ποσειδῶνι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς.
πλησίον δὲ ἱερόν ἐστιν Ἀφροδίτης Οὐρανίας. πρώτοις δὲ ἀνθρώπων Ἀσσυρίοις κατέστη σέβεσθαι τὴν Οὐρανίαν, μετὰ δὲ Ἀσσυρίους Κυπρίων Παφίοις καὶ Φοινίκων τοῖς Ἀσκάλωνα ἔχουσιν ἐν τῇ Παλαιστίνῃ, παρὰ δὲ Φοινίκων Κυθήριοι μαθόντες σέβουσιν· Ἀθηναίοις δὲ κατεστήσατο Αἰγεύς, αὑτῷ τε οὐκ εἶναι παῖδας νομίζων—οὐ γάρ πω τότε ἦσαν— καὶ ταῖς ἀδελφαῖς γενέσθαι τὴν συμφορὰν ἐκ μηνίματος τῆς Οὐρανίας. τὸ δὲ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἔτι ἄγαλμα λίθου Παρίου καὶ ἔργον Φειδίου· δῆμος δέ ἐστιν Ἀθηναίοις Ἀθμονέων, οἳ Πορφυρίωνα ἔτι πρότερον Ἀκταίου βασιλεύσαντα τῆς Οὐρανίας φασὶ τὸ παρὰ σφίσιν ἱερὸν ἱδρύσασθαι. λέγουσι δὲ ἀνὰ τοὺς δήμους καὶ ἄλλα οὐδὲν ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ τὴν πόλιν ἔχοντες.
On entering the Music Hall at Athens we observe, among other things, an image of Dionysus which is worth seeing. Near the Music Hall is a fountain called Enneacrunus (‘with nine jets’). It was adorned as at present by Pisistratus. For though there are wells throughout all the city, this is the only spring. Above the fountain are temples: one of them is a temple of Demeter and the Maid (Kore), in the other there is an image of -Triptolemus.
I will tell the story of Triptolemus, omitting what relates to Deiope. Of all the Greeks it is the Argives who most dispute the claim of the Athenians to antiquity and to the possession of gifts of the gods, just as among the barbarians it is the Egyptians who dispute the claims of the Phrygians. The story runs that when Demeter came to Argos, Pelasgus received her in his house, and that Chrysanthis, knowing the rape of the Maid, told it to her. They say that afterwards Trochilus, a priest of the mysteries, fled from Argos on account of the enmity of Agenor, and came to Attica, where he married an Eleusinian wife, and there were born to him two sons, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. This is the Argive story. But the Athenians and those who take their side know that Triptolemus the son of Celeus was the first who sowed cultivated grain. However, some verses of Musaeus (if his they are) declare Triptolemus to be a child of Ocean and Earth; while other verses, which are attributed, in my opinion, with just as little reason, to Orpheus, assert that Eubuleus and Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that, as a reward for the information they gave her about her daughter, Demeter allowed them to sow the grain. Choerilus the Athenian, in a drama called Alope, says that Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was a daughter of Amphictyon, but that the father of Triptolemus was Rarus, and that the father of Cercyon was Poseidon. I purposed to pursue the subject, and describe all the objects that admit of description in the sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinium, but I was prevented from so doing by a vision in a dream. I will therefore turn to what may be lawfully told to everybody.
In front of this temple, in which is the image of Triptolemus, stands a bronze ox as in the act of being led to sacrifice; and Epimenides the Cnosian is portrayed sitting, of whom they say that going into the country he entered a cave and slept, and did not awake till forty years had come and gone, and afterwards he made verses and purified cities, Athens among the rest. Thales, who stayed the plague at Lacedaemon, was in no way related to Epimenides, nor did he belong to the same city; for Epimenides was a Cnosian, but Thales was a Gortynian, according to Polymnastus the Colophonian, who composed verses on him for the Lacedaemonians.
Farther on is a temple of Good Fame, another offering from the spoils of the Medes who landed at Marathon in Attica. I surmise that this is the victory of which the Athenians were proudest. Even Aeschylus, in the prospect of death, though his reputation as a poet stood so high, and he had fought in the sea-fights of Artemisium and Salamis, recorded nothing but his father’s name, and his own name, and his city, and that the grove at Marathon and the Medes who landed in it were the witnesses of his manhood.
Above the Ceramicus and the Royal Colonnade is a temple of Hephaestus. Knowing the story about Erichthonius, I was not surprised that an image of Athena stood beside Hephaestus; but observing that Athena’s image had blue eyes, I recognised the Libyan version of the myth. For the Libyans say that she is a daughter of Poseidon and the Tritonian lake, and that therefore she, like Poseidon, has blue eyes.
Hard by is a sanctuary of Heavenly Aphrodite. The first people to worship the Heavenly Goddess were the Assyrians, and next to them were the inhabitants of Paphos in Cyprus and the Phoenicians of Ascalon in Palestine. The Cytherians learnt the worship from the Phoenicians. Aegeus introduced it into Athens, deeming that his own childlessness (for up to that time he had no offspring) and the misfortune of his sisters were due to the wrath of the Heavenly Goddess. The image still existing in my time is of Parian marble, and is a work of Phidias. However, there is an Athenian township, Athmonia, the inhabitants of which say that their sanctuary of the Heavenly Goddess was founded by Porphyrion, who reigned before Actaeus. There are other stories which the people of the townships tell quite differently from the people of the capital.
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