In the temple are paintings: one of them, by Polygnotus, represents Odysseus after he has killed the wooers; the other, painted by Onasias, is the former expedition of the Argives, under Adrastos, against Thebes. These paintings are on the walls of the fore-temple, while at the feet of the image is a portrait of Arimnestos, who commanded the Plataeans at the battle against Mardonios, and yet before that at Marathon.

There is also at Plataea a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Eleusinian, and a tomb of Leitos, who was the only one to return home of the chiefs who led Boeotians to Troy. The spring Gargaphia was filled in by the Persian cavalry under Mardonios, because the Greek army encamped against them got therefrom their drinking-water. Afterwards, however, the Plataeans recovered the water.

On the road from Plataea to Thebes is the river Oiroe, said to have been a daughter of the Asopos. Before crossing the Asopos, if you turn aside to lower ground in a direction parallel to the river, after about forty stadium-lengths you come to the ruins of Scolus. The temple of Demeter and the Maiden among the ruins is not finished, and only half-finished are the images of the goddesses. Even today the Asopos is the boundary between Thebes and Plataea.