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After the tomb of Kephisodoros is the tomb of Heliodoros Halis. A portrait of this man is also to be seen in the great temple of Athena. Here too is the tomb of Themistocles, son of Poliarkhos, and grandson of the Themistocles who fought the sea fight against Xerxes and the Persians. Of the later descendants I shall mention none except Akestion. She, her father Xenokles, his father Sophocles, and his father Leon, all of them up to her great-grandfather Leon won the honor of being torch-bearers [dāidoukhoi], and in her own lifetime she saw as torch-bearers, first her brother Sophocles, after him her husband Themistocles, and after his death her son Theophrastus. Such was the fortune [tukhē], they say, that happened to her.

A little way past the tomb of Themistocles is a precinct [temenos] that is sacred [hieron] to Lakios, a hero [hērōs], and there is a deme [dēmos] called after him, Lakiadai; also the tomb [mnēma] of Nikokles of Tarentum, who won a unique reputation as a citharode [kitharōidos

kitharā-singer]. There is also an altar [bōmos] of Zephyrus and a sanctuary [hieron] of Demeter and her daughter. With them Athena and Poseidon have honors [tīmai]. They say that in this place [khōrion] Phytalos welcomed Demeter in his home, for which act the goddess [theos (feminine)] gave him the fig tree. This story is borne out by the inscription on the tomb of Phytalos:

Hero [hērōs] and king [anax], Phytalos here received the one who is Semnē [‘holy’],

Demeter, when she first created revealed [phainein] the fruit-of-the-harvest [karpos] that comes in the season of harvesting.

It is the sacred [hierē] fig-tree [sukē], that is what the generation of mortals [thnētoi] have have given it as a name.1

Whence Phytalos and his lineage have received honors immortal.

Footnotes

  1. I find it striking that the last word of the Oath of the Ephebes is sukaî ‘fig-trees’. I give a translation of the Oath at https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/the-oath-of-the-ephebes-as-a-symbol-of-democracy-and-of-environmentalism/. The last five witnesses of the Oath are: wheat, barley, grape

    vines, olive-trees, fig-trees. [[GN 2018.07.15.]]

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Before crossing the Kephisos one comes to the tomb of Theodoros, the best tragic actor of his day.1 By the river is a statue [agalma] of Mnesimakhe, and a votive statue [anathēma] of her son cutting his hair as a gift for Kephisos. That this habit has existed from ancient times among all the Greeks [Hellēnes] may be inferred from the poetry of Homer,2 who makes Peleus vow that on the safe return of Achilles from Troy he will cut off the young man’s hair as a gift for the Sperkheios.

Footnotes

  1. floruit circa 370 BCE.

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  2. Iliad 23.141f.

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Across the Kephisos is an ancient altar of Zeus Meilikhios [‘benign’]. At this altar Theseus obtained purification at the hands of the descendants of Phytalus after killing brigands, including Sinis who was related to him through Pittheus. Here is the tomb of Theodektes1 of Phaselis, and also that of Mnesitheus. They say that he was a skillful physician and dedicated statues [agalmata], among which is a representation of Iakkhos. On the road stands a small temple called that of Cyamites.2 I cannot state for certain whether he was the first to sow beans, or whether they gave this name to a hero because they may not attribute to Demeter the discovery of beans. Whoever has been initiated at Eleusis or has read what are called the Orphika knows what I mean.

Footnotes

  1. A pupil of Isocrates.

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  2. Cyamos means “bean.”

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Of the tombs, the largest and most beautiful are that of a Rhodian who settled in Athens, and the one made by the Macedonian Harpalos, who ran away from Alexander and crossed with a fleet from Asia to Europe. On his arrival in Athens he was arrested by the citizens, but ran away after bribing among others the friends of Alexander. But before this he married Pythonikē, whose family I do not know, but she was a courtesan in Athens and in Corinth. His love for her was so great that when she died he made her a tomb [mnēma] which is of all the old tombs of the Greeks [Hellēnes] the most worthy of viewing [théā]. .

There is a sanctuary in which are set statues [agalmata] of Demeter, her daughter, Athena, and Apollo. At the first it was built in honor of Apollo only. That is because, as they say, Kephalos the son of Deion, having helped Amphitryon to destroy the Teleboans, was the first to dwell [oikeîn] in the island that now is called after him Kephallenia, and they say that he resided [met-oikeîn] till that time at Thebes, exiled from Athens because he had killed his wife Procris. In the tenth generation afterwards Khalkinos and Daitos, descendants of Kephalos, sailed to Delphi and asked the god for permission to return to Athens.

He ordered them first to sacrifice to Apollo in that spot in Attica where they should see a man-of-war running on the land. When they reached the mountain called the Many-colored Mountain a snake was seen hurrying into its hole. In this place they sacrificed to Apollo; afterwards they came to Athens and the Athenians made them citizens. After this is a temple of Aphrodite, before which is a wall worthy of viewing [théā], made of unfinished stone.