1.19.1 Close to the temple [nāos] of Olympian Zeus is a statue [agalma] of the Pythian Apollo. There is also a sanctuary [hieron] of Apollo surnamed Delphinios. They say that when the temple was finished, with the exception of the roof, Theseus arrived in the city, unknown as yet to everybody. When he came to the temple of the Delphinian, wearing a tunic [khitōn] that reached to his feet and with his hair neatly plaited [plekesthai], those who were building the roof by way of mockery [khleuasiā] inquired why a girl [parthénos] who was in the right season [hōrā] for getting married was wandering around all by herself. The only answer that Theseus made was to unyoke, it is said, the oxen from a wagon [hamaxa] close by, and to throw it higher than the roof of the temple they were building.

1.19.2 Concerning the place [khōríon] called The Gardens [Kēpoi], and the temple [nāos] of Aphrodite, there is no word [logos] about them, nothing that is told [legesthai]—nor about the Aphrodite that stands near the temple [nāos]. Now the shape [skhēma] of it is tetragonal, like that of the Hermai, and the inscription [epigramma] indicates [sēmainein] that Aphrodite the celestial one [Ouraniā] is the oldest of what are called the Fates [Moirai]. And the statue [agalma] of Aphrodite in the Gardens [Kēpoi] is the work [ergon] of Alkamenes. It is one of those few things that are most worthy of viewing [théā] in Athens.

1.19.3 There is also the sanctuary [hieron] of Hēraklēs, called ‘Brightness of the Dog’ [Kynosarges]; the things having to do with the bright-white [leukē] dog [kuōn] may be known by reading [epilegesthai] [the pronouncement of] the oracle [khrēsmos]. There are altars [bōmoi] of Hēraklēs and Hebe, who they customarily-think [nomizein] is the daughter of Zeus and lives with [sun-oikeîn] Hēraklēs. An altar [bōmos] has been built to Alkmene and to Iolaos, who shared-in-labors [sun-poneîn] with Hēraklēs with regard to most of his deeds [erga]. The Lyceum [Lukeion] has its name from Lykos [Lukos], the son of Pandion, but it was considered sacred to Apollo from the beginning down to my time, and here was the god first named Lykios [Lukios]. It is said that the Termilai also, to whom Lykos came when he fled from Aigeus, were called Lykioi [Lukioi] after him.

1.19.4 Behind the Lyceum is a tomb [mnēma] of Nisos, who was killed while king of Megara by Minos, and he [= his body] was conveyed [komizein] by the Athenians to this place, and he was buried here. About this Nisos the word [logos] is that his hair was purple [porphurai], and that it had-to-happen [khrē-] that he would die if it was cut off. When the Cretans attacked the land [of Megara], they captured by assault the other cities of the region of Megara, but Nisaia, where Nisos had taken refuge, they besieged. It is said that it was here that the daughter of Nisos, conceiving a passion for [erasthēnai] Minos, cut off her father’s hair.

1.19.5 Anyway, they say that it happened this way. As for the rivers that flow through the land of the Athenians, they are the Ilissos and its tributary the Eridanos, the name of which is the same as that of the Celtic river. This Ilissos is the river by which Oreithyia was playfully-dancing [paizein] when, as they say, she was abducted [harpazesthai] by the North Wind [Boreas]. With Oreithyia he [= Boreas] lived [sun-oikeîn], and because of the tie-as-in-laws [kēdos] between him and the Athenians he helped them by destroying most of the barbarians’ warships [triēreis]. The Athenians concede that the Ilissos is sacred to other deities [theoi] as well, and on its banks is an altar [bōmos] of the Muses of Ilissos. The place too is pointed out [deiknusthai] where the Peloponnesians killed Kodros, son of Melanthos and king of Athens.

1.19.6 Across the Ilissos is a place [khōríon] called Agrai and a temple [nāos] of Artemis Agroterā. They say that Artemis first hunted here when she came from Delos, and for this reason the statue [agalma] holds a bow [toxon]. A marvel [thauma] to the eyes, though not so conducive [epagōgon] to hear of, is a race-course [stadion] of white marble, the size of which can best be estimated from the fact that beginning in a crescent on the heights above the Ilissos it descends in two straight lines to the river banks. This was built by Herodes, an Athenian, and the greater part of the Pentelic quarry was used up in its construction.