Pausanias Analysis

Within Plataean territory, after turning a short distance to the right from the direct path on Mt. Cithaeron, lie the ruins of Hysiae and Erythrae. These cities once belonged to the Boeotians, and even now among the ruins of Hysiae there remains a half-built temple of Apollo and a sacred well. In ancient times, according to the Boeotian account, those who drank from this well practiced divination.

When one returns to the main road, there is again on the right hand side a tomb said to be that of Mardonius. It is agreed that immediately after the battle the body of Mardonius was nowhere to be found; but accounts differ as to who it was that buried him. However, it seems that Artontes son of Mardonius gave abundant gifts to Dionysophanes, a man of Ephesus, and bestowed gifts also upon other Ionians, so that they too did not neglect the burial of Mardonius.

This road goes from Eleutherae to Plataea; but for those who travel from Megara, there is on the right hand a spring, and a little further on, a rock. They call the rock the "bed of Actaeon," saying that Actaeon used to rest here when weary from hunting, and they assert that it was into this spring that he looked and saw Artemis bathing. The poet Stesichorus of Himera wrote that the goddess threw a deer-skin around Actaeon, thereby bringing about his death at the jaws of his own dogs, in order that he might not marry Semele.

But I myself, without divine intervention, am inclined to believe that madness, a disease, seized the dogs of Actaeon, and that, driven insane and incapable of distinguishing their master, they would have torn apart whomever they encountered. Now, no one knows precisely where on Mount Cithaeron Pentheus son of Echion met disaster or where Oedipus was exposed at birth. Unlike these places, we do know the Schiste road which leads toward Phocis, on which Oedipus killed his father. Mount Cithaeron is sacred to Zeus Cithaeronius; concerning these matters I shall return and speak more fully as soon as my account reaches that point.

Along the road as one enters Plataea are tombs of those who fought against the Medes. For the rest of the Greeks, there is a common memorial; but for the Lacedaemonians and Athenians who fell, there are separate tombs, upon which elegiac verses composed by Simonides are inscribed. Not far from the common tomb of the Greeks stands an altar of Zeus Eleutherios; this altar is made of bronze, while the altar and statue of Zeus himself are crafted from white marble.

Even now they still hold a contest every fifth year called the Eleutheria, in which the greatest honours are awarded in the footrace; the competitors run fully armed before the altar. The trophy that the Greeks dedicated after the battle for the Plataeans stands roughly fifteen stadia outside the city.

Within the city itself, as you proceed onward from the altar and the statue dedicated to Zeus Eleutherios, there is a heroic shrine of Plataea. The matters concerning this city—both the traditions related to it and the conjectures I myself formed about them—have already been stated. The Plataeans have a temple of Hera that is worthy of viewing, both for its great size and for the splendor of its statues. As you enter, there is Rhea, depicted holding the stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, as though she were bringing to Cronus the child she had supposedly given birth to. Hera they call "Teleia" (the Perfect), and her statue, upright in posture and very large in size, is carved, like both statues, from Pentelic marble, the work of Praxiteles. Another statue of Hera here is seated and was made by Callimachus; this goddess they call the "Bride," naming her thus due to the following story.