Pausanias Analysis

There is in the city a fountain, built for them by Theagenes, whom I previously mentioned as having married his daughter to Cylon the Athenian. This Theagenes, while ruling as a tyrant, constructed the fountain of such great size and splendour, and with such numerous pillars, that it is worthy of being seen. Into it flows water called by the name of the nymphs Sithnides. The Megarians say that these Sithnian nymphs are local to their land, and that Zeus once lay with one of their daughters, and that Megaros, the child born of Zeus and this nymph, escaped the floods in the age of Deucalion by fleeing to the heights of Geraneia. At that time, the mountain did not yet have that name, but—it is said—he was guided by the cries of cranes flying above, and thus from these birds it came to be named Geraneia.

Not far from this spring there stands an ancient sanctuary. In my day there stand in it statues of Roman emperors, and also there is set up a bronze image of Artemis, called "Soteira" (Savior). It is said that certain men from the army of Mardonius who had made incursions into the Megarid were attempting to retreat back toward Mardonius at Thebes, but through Artemis' will night overtook them as they went, and losing their way, they turned instead into the mountainous regions. As they tried to find out if a hostile army was nearby, they released arrows, and when a nearby rock, upon being struck, emitted a groaning noise, they shot again at it with even greater zeal.

They believe that, in their eagerness, they finally exhausted their arrows by shooting them against their enemies. Daylight was already breaking, and the Megarians advanced upon them. Since armored hoplites fought against unarmed men who no longer even had sufficient supply of missiles, most of these were slain. In consequence of this event, they erected a statue of Artemis bearing the name "Saviour." In this place also stand statues of the deities called "the Twelve Gods," said to be works of Praxiteles; but the statue of Artemis herself was made by Strongylion.

After this, if you enter the precinct of Zeus, called the Olympieion, there is a temple worth seeing. However, the statue of Zeus was never completed, as the Peloponnesian War had broken out against the Athenians. During this war, the Athenians with their fleet and army annually ravaged the Megarians' territory, thereby harming their public affairs and reducing the inhabitants' private households to extreme weakness. Of this statue of Zeus, the face is made of ivory and gold, but the rest is of clay and plaster. They say the creator of the statue was a local man named Theokosmos, assisted by Phidias. Above the head of Zeus stand the Horae ("Hours") and the Moirai ("Fates"). It is obvious to everyone that this god alone obeys destiny, and that he allots the appropriate seasons. Behind the temple lie pieces of partially-worked wood; with these, Theokosmos intended to complete the statue of Zeus, later adorning it with ivory and gold.

Within the temple itself is dedicated a bronze ram of a trireme. They say that they captured this ship during a naval battle off Salamis, when fighting against the Athenians. Even the Athenians agree that for a certain period the Megarians held the island. Later, according to the Athenians, Solon composed elegiac verses urging them to take it back; a dispute arose from these events, and after prevailing in war, the Athenians occupied Salamis again. The Megarians, however, claim on their part that some exiled men from Megara, called Dorycleans, went to the Athenian cleruchs stationed at Salamis and betrayed the island to Athens.

After the precinct of Zeus, on ascending to the acropolis which from Car, the son of Phoroneus, is called Caria even to our day, there is a temple of Dionysus Nyctelius. There is also a sanctuary of Aphrodite Epistrophia, an oracle called the Oracle of Night, and a temple of Zeus Conius which has no roof. The statue of Asclepius and that of Hygieia there were both made by Bryaxis. Here also is the building called the Megaron of Demeter; it is said that Car built it when he ruled as king.