CHAPTER II
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If you turn off a little to the right from the high road in the Platæan district near Mount Cithæron, you come to the ruins of Hysiæ and Erythræ. They were formerly cities, and among the ruins of Hysiæ there is still a temple of Apollo half-finished, and a Holy Well, of which whoever drank in former days prophesied, if we may believe the tradition of the Bœotians. And on your return to the high road on the right is what is said to be the tomb of Mardonius. It is admitted that the dead body of Mardonius was missing after the battle, but as to who buried him there are different traditions. What is certain is that Artontes the son of Mardonius gave many gifts to the Ephesian Dionysophanes, and also to several Ionians, for not having neglected his father’s burial. And this road leads from Eleutheræ to Platæa.
As you go from Megara there is a spring on the right hand, and a little further a rock called the bed of Actæon, because they say he used to sleep on that rock when tired with hunting, and in that spring they say he saw Artemis bathing. And Stesichorus of Himera has represented the goddess as dressing Actæon in a deerskin, so that his dogs should devour him, that he should not be married to Semele. But I think that madness came upon the dogs of Actæon without the intervention of the goddess, and if they were mad and did not distinguish him they would rend in pieces whoever they met. In what part of Mount Cithæron Pentheus the son of Echion met with his fate, or where they exposed Œdipus after his birth, no one knows, as we do know the cross-roads on the way to Phocis where Œdipus slew his father. Mount Cithæron is sacred to Zeus of Cithæron, but I shall enter into all that more fully when I come to that part of my subject.
Near the entrance to Platæa is the tomb of those who fell fighting against the Medes. The other Greeks have one common tomb. But the Lacedæmonians and Athenians who fell have separate burial-grounds, and some elegiac lines of Simonides as their epitaph. And not far from the common tomb of the Greeks is the altar of Zeus Eleutherius. The tombs are of brass, but the altar and statue of Zeus are of white stone. And they celebrate still every fifth year the festival called Eleutheria, in which the chief prizes are for running: they run in heavy armour in front of the altar. And the Greeks set up a trophy about 15 stades from the town for the battle at Platæa.
In the town of Platæa, as you go on from the altar and statue erected to Zeus Eleutherius, is a hero-chapel to Platæa, I have already stated the traditions about her and my own views. There is also a temple of Hera, well worth seeing for its size and the beauty of the statues. As you enter it Rhea is before you carrying to Cronos the stone wrapt up in swaddling-clothes, pretending it was the child she had just given birth to. And the Hera here they call Full-Grown, her statue is a large one in a standing position. Both these statues are in Pentelican marble by Praxiteles. There is also another statue of Hera in a sitting position by Callimachus, they call this statue The Bride for the following reason.
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