CHAPTER XXXIX.
And another road leads from Eleusis to Megara: as you go along this road is a well called the Well of Flowers. Pamphus records that it was at this well that Demeter sat in the guise of an old woman after the rape of Proserpine: and that she was taken thence as an old woman of the country by the daughters of Celeus to their mother, and that Metanira entrusted her with the education of her son. And not far from the well is the temple of Metanira, and next to it the tombs of those that fell at Thebes. For Creon, who was at that time the ruler at Thebes (being Regent for Laodamas the son of Eteocles), would not allow their relations to bury the dead: and Adrastus having supplicated Theseus, and a battle having been fought between the Athenians and Bœotians, when Theseus was the victor, he conveyed the dead bodies to Eleusis and there buried them. But the Thebans say that they surrendered the dead bodies of their own free will, and did not fight on this question. And next to the tombs of the Argives is the monument of Alope, who they say was the mother of Hippothoon by Poseidon, and was in consequence put to death by her father Cercyon. Now this Cercyon is said in other respects to have been harsh to strangers, and especially to those who would not contend with him in wrestling: and this place was called even in my day Cercyon’s wrestling ground, at a little distance from the tomb of Alope. And Cercyon is said to have killed all that wrestled with him but Theseus. But Theseus wrestled against him cunningly throw for throw and beat him: for he was the first who elevated wrestling into a science, and afterwards established training schools for wrestling: for before the time of Theseus only size and strength were made use of in wrestling.
Such in my opinion are the most noteworthy among Athenian traditions or sights. And in my account I have selected out of a mass of material that only which was important enough to be considered history.
Next to Eleusis is the district called Megaris: it too belonged originally to the Athenians, having been bequeathed to Pandion by (its) king Pylas. Proofs of what I assert are the tomb of Pandion in that district, and the fact that Nisus, though he conceded the kingdom of Attica to Ægeus the head of the family, yet himself was selected to be king of Megara and the whole district up to Corinth: and even now the Megarians have a dockyard called Nisæa after him. And afterwards, when Codrus was king, the Peloponnesians marched against Athens: and not having any brilliant success there they went home again, but took Megara from the Athenians, and gave it to the Corinthians and others of their allies that wished to dwell in it. Thus the Megarians changed their customs and dialect and became Dorians. And they say the city got its name in the days of Car, the son of Phoroneus, who was king in this district: in his day they say first temples were built to Demeter among them, and the inhabitants called them Halls.[11] This is at any rate the tradition of the Megarians. But the Bœotians say that Megareus the son of Poseidon lived at Onchestus, and went with an army of Bœotians to aid Nisus in his war against Minos, and that he fell in the battle, and got buried there, and the city which had been formerly called Nisa, got its name Megara from him. And years afterwards, in the 12th generation from Car, the son of Phoroneus, the Megarians say Lelex came from Egypt and became king, and during his reign the Megarians were called Leleges. And he had a son Cleson, and a grandson Pylas, and a great-grandson Sciron, who married the daughter of Pandion, and afterwards, (Sciron having a controversy with Nisus the son of Pandion about the sovereignty), Æacus was arbitrator, and gave his decision that the kingdom was to belong to Nisus and his descendants, but the command of the army was to devolve upon Sciron. And Megareus the son of Poseidon, having married Iphinoe the daughter of Nisus, succeeded Nisus they say in the kingdom. But of the Cretan war, and the capture of the city in the days of King Nisus, they pretend to know nothing.