Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XLI.

As you descend from the Acropolis in a Northerly direction, you come to the sepulchre of Alcmene near the Olympieum. She died they say at Megara on her journey from Argos to Thebes, and the sons of Hercules had a dispute, some wishing to take her dead body to Argos, others to Thebes: for the sons of Hercules by Megara were buried at Thebes, as also Amphitryon’s sons. But Apollo at Delphi gave the oracular response that it would be better for them to bury Alcmena at Megara. From this place the interpreter of national Antiquities took me to a place called Rhun (Flow), so called because some water flowed here from the hills above the city, but Theagenes when he was king diverted the water into another direction, and erected here an altar to Achelous. And at no great distance is the monument of Hyllus the son of Hercules, who fought in single combat with the Arcadian Echemus, the son of Aeropus. Who this Echemus was that slew Hyllus I shall shew in another place, but Hyllus is buried at Megara. The expedition to the Peloponnese, when Orestes was king, might rightly be called an expedition of the sons of Hercules. And not far from the monument of Hyllus is the temple of Isis, and near it the temple of Apollo and Artemis. This last they say was built by Alcathous, after he had slain the lion that was called the lion of Mount Cithæron. This lion had they say devoured several Megarians and among them the king’s son Euippus: whose elder brother Timalcus had been killed by Theseus still earlier, when he went with Castor and Pollux to the siege of Aphidna. Megareus therefore promised his daughter in marriage, and the succession to the kingdom, to whoever should kill the lion of Mount Cithæron. So Alcathous (the son of Pelops) attacked the beast and slew him, and, when he became king built this temple, dedicating it to Huntress Artemis and Hunter Apollo. This at any rate is the local tradition. But though I don’t want to contradict the Megarians, I cannot find myself in agreement with them entirely, for though I quite admit that the lion of Mount Cithæron was killed by Alcathous, yet who ever recorded that Timalcus the son of Megareus went to Aphidna with Castor and Pollux? And how (if he had gone there) could he have been thought to have been killed by Theseus, seeing that Alcman in his Ode to Castor and Pollux, recording how they took Athens, and carried away captive the mother of Theseus, yet says that Theseus was away? Pindar also gives a very similar account, and says that Theseus wished to be connected by marriage with Castor and Pollux, till he went away to help Pirithous in his ambitious attempt to wed Proserpine. But whoever drew up the genealogy plainly knew the simplicity of the Megarians, since Theseus was the descendant of Pelops. But indeed the Megarians purposely hide the real state of things, not wishing to own that their city was captured when Nisus was king, and that Megareus who succeeded to the kingdom was the son in law of Nisus, and that Alcathous was the son in law of Megareus. But it is certain that it was not till after the death of Nisus, and a revolution at Megara, that Alcathous came there from Elis. And this is my proof. He built up the wall anew, when the whole of the old wall had been demolished by the Cretans. Let this suffice for Alcathous and the lion, whether he slew the lion on Mount Cithæron or somewhere else, before he erected the temple to Huntress Artemis and Hunter Apollo.

As you descend from this temple is the hero-chapel of Pandion, who, as I have already shewn, was buried at what is called the rock of Athene the Diver. He has also divine honours paid to him at Megara. And near the hero-chapel of Pandion is the monument of Hippolyta. This is the Megarian tradition about her. When the Amazons, on account of Antiope, made an expedition against the Athenians, they were beaten by Theseus, and most of them (it so happened) fell in battle, but Hippolyta (the sister of Antiope), who was at that time leader of the Amazons, fled to Megara with the remnant of them, and there, having been unsuccessful with her army, and dejected at the present state of things, and still more despondent about getting safe home again to Themiscyra, died of grief and was buried. And the device on her tomb is an Amazon’s shield. And not far distant is the tomb of Tereus, who married Procne the daughter of Pandion. Tereus was king (according to the Megarian tradition) of Pagæ in Megaris, but in my opinion (and there are still extant proofs of what I state) he was king of Daulis N.W. of Chæronea: for most of what is now called Hellas was inhabited in old time by barbarians. And his subjects would no longer obey Tereus after his vile conduct to Philomela, and after the murder of Itys by Procne and Philomela. And he committed suicide at Megara, and they forthwith piled up a tomb for him, and offer sacrifices to him annually, using pebbles in the sacrifice instead of barley. And they say the hoopoe was first seen here. And Procne and Philomela went to Athens, and lamenting what they had suffered and done melted away in tears: and the tradition that they were changed into a nightingale and swallow is, I fancy, simply that these birds have a sorrowful and melancholy note.