Pausanias Analysis

In the temple of Polias there stands a wooden image of Hermes, said to have been dedicated by Cecrops, which is not clearly visible due to the myrtle boughs. Of the votive offerings that are worthy of mention, among the ancient ones there is a folding chair, the work of Daedalus. Among spoils taken from the Persians are the breastplate of Masistius, who commanded their cavalry at Plataea, and a dagger said to have belonged to Mardonius. I know that Masistius was killed by the Athenian horsemen. As for Mardonius, however, after fighting against the Lacedaemonians he fell by the hand of a Spartan; and I do not think that the Lacedaemonians would have allowed the Athenians to possess his dagger if they themselves had acquired it.

Concerning the olive tree, they have nothing else to say but that this was a testimony given by the goddess herself regarding the contest for the land. They also relate the following: when the Mede set fire to the city of the Athenians, the olive tree was burned down; however, on the very same day that it was burned, it sprouted anew, growing as much as two cubits. Adjacent to the temple of Athena stands the temple of Pandrosos. Pandrosos alone among her sisters was guiltless regarding the trust she had received.

But what caused me the greatest wonder—though it is not fully understandable to all—I will nevertheless describe as it occurs. Two maidens dwell not far from the temple of Athena Polias, whom the Athenians call Arrephoroi. They remain for a certain period in service to the goddess, and when the festival arrives, they perform the following rite at night. They put upon their heads what is handed to them by the priestess of Athena, who gives without knowing herself exactly what it is she gives, nor do the maidens themselves comprehend what they carry. Within the city, not far away, is an enclosure sacred to the goddess known as Aphrodite in the Gardens, and there, descending through it, is a natural underground passage. By this way the maidens go down. Below they leave what they carried, and take up some other hidden object, bringing it back covered up. Afterward they are released and depart, and other maidens are chosen in their stead and taken up to the Acropolis.

Near the temple of Athena stands a small, elderly woman, about a cubit high, called the handmaid of Lysimache. There are also large bronze statues of men arrayed against each other for battle: one is named Erechtheus, the other Eumolpus. Yet those among the Athenians who have knowledge of ancient tradition have not forgotten that it was in fact Immaradus, son of Eumolpus, who was slain by Erechtheus.

Upon the pedestal are also statues of Theaenetus, who gave prophecies to Tolmides, and of Tolmides himself. It was Tolmides who, commanding the Athenian fleet, did great harm to various peoples and ravaged those regions of Peloponnesus inhabited along the coast. He burned the Lacedaemonians' dockyards at Gythium, captured Boeae from the Perioeci, and also took the island of Cythera. After making a landing in the territory of the Sicyonians, he encountered resistance while devastating the land; he defeated his opponents and pursued them closely up to the city itself. Later, upon returning to Athens, he sent out Athenian colonists to settle in Euboea and Naxos. Then he invaded Boeotia with an army and, having ravaged much of the land there and attacked Chaeroneia with siege, proceeded to the territory of Haliartus, where he fell in battle himself, and his entire army was decisively defeated. Such, I learned, were the actions of Tolmides. There are also statues of Athena here.

These sculptures are very ancient, and although none of them melted, they became darker in color and weaker to withstand blows. For these too were touched by flames when the Persian king captured a city deserted by all those of military age, since the Athenians had already embarked upon their ships. Among them is depicted a boar hunt, about which I do not know for sure whether it represents the Calydonian one. Also shown is Cycnus fighting against Heracles. This Cycnus, it is said, killed various other men, including Lycus the Thracian, competing in contests of single combat set before them, but near the river Peneius he himself was slain by Heracles.

Among the stories told in Troezen about Theseus, they say that when Heracles came to Troezen as a guest of Pittheus, he laid down the lion's skin during dinner. Then some of the Troezenian children entered the room, including Theseus, who was just reaching his seventh year. All the other boys, on seeing the skin, fled in fear, but Theseus, slipping out quietly and without great fright, seized an axe from one of the attendants and quickly returned toward it, believing the lion skin to be a living lion.

This is the first of the traditions held concerning him by the Troezenians. The one following it is that Aegeus placed sandals and a sword under a rock as tokens for his child, and sailed away to Athens; and that Theseus, when he reached his sixteenth year, pushed the rock aside, departed, and carried with him the deposit left by Aegeus. A representation of this story has been made on the Acropolis; all of it is of bronze alike, except the rock.

They also dedicated another deed of Theseus; and the account runs thus. In Crete a bull was ravaging both the main land and the region around the river Tethris. In olden times, indeed, wild beasts were more terrifying to men, such as the lion at Nemea, the serpent of Parnassus, and dragons in many places throughout Greece, and the boars around Calydon and Erymanthus, and at Crommyon in the territory of Corinth. Therefore it was said that some beasts appeared to torment the land, others were sacred to gods, and still others were sent forth as punishments upon mortals. And the Cretans say that Poseidon sent this bull upon their land, because although Minos ruled the sea, he honored no other deity among the Greeks more than Poseidon himself.

They say that this bull was brought from Crete into the Peloponnese, and that capturing it was also one of the so-called twelve labours of Heracles. When it was set free in the plain belonging to the Argives, it fled through the Isthmus of Corinth and made its way into Attica, finally reaching the territory of Marathon. There it slew whomever it encountered, including Androgeos, a son of Minos. Consequently Minos, sailing with his fleet against Athens—since he refused to accept that the Athenians were blameless in the death of Androgeos—caused them so much distress that it was ultimately agreed that they would send seven maidens and an equal number of youths to Crete, to feed the bull reputedly belonging to Minos that inhabited the Labyrinth in Knossos. Later, they say, Theseus drove the bull from Marathon to the Acropolis and sacrificed it to the goddess, and the offering belongs to the people of Marathon.