1.27.1 In the temple [nāos] of Athena Poliás [‘of the Polis’] is set up a wooden Hermes, said to have been a dedication [anathēma] by Kekrops, but not clearly visible because of sprays of myrtle [mursinē]. The votive-offerings [anathēmata] worthy of taking-account [logos] are, of the old ones, a folding chair, the making [poiēma] of which is by Daidalos; also spoils taken from the Persians [Mēdoi], namely the breastplate [thōrax] of Masistios, who commanded the cavalry at Plataea,^* and a scimitar [akinakēs] said to have belonged to Mardonios. Now Masistios I know was killed by the Athenian cavalry. But Mardonios was facing in battle the Lacedaemonians and was killed by a Spartan; so, the Athenians could not have taken the scimitar to begin with, and, furthermore, the Lacedaemonians would scarcely have let them carry it off [pheresthai].

1.27.2 About the olive tree [elaiā] they have nothing to say except that it was evidence [marturion] adduced by the goddess [theós (feminine)] for the contest [agōn] [with Poseidon] for the land. They also say that, when the the Mede [= ho Mēdos, = the Persians] set Athens on fire, the olive tree [elaiā] was burned down, but on the very day it was burned it grew again to the height of two cubits. Adjoining the temple [nāos] of Athena is the temple [nāos] of Pandrosos, the only one of the sisters who was not-guilty [an-aitios] with regard to what-had-been-entrusted [parakatathēkē].

1.27.3 The things about this that most of all cause-wonder [thaumazein] for me are not completely knowable [gnōrima], but I will write down what kinds of things take place. Two maidens [parthenoi] dwell [oikeîn] not far from the temple [nāos] of Athena Poliás. The Athenians call them Arrhephoroi [arrhēphoroi]. For a time they live a regulated-life [diaita] [there] at the place of the goddess [theos (feminine)], but when the festival [heortē] comes round they ritually-perform [drân] at night the following. They place on their heads what the priestess [hiereia] of Athena gives them to carry [pherein]—neither she who gives it knows [eidénai] what it is that she is giving nor do they who carry [pherein] it understand [epistasthai] what it is. Now, there is an enclosure [peribolos] in the city, the enclosure of Aphrodite in the Gardens [kēpoi], as she is called. It is not far away, and there is an underground descending-passage [kathodos] that goes through it [= the enclosure]. This descending-passage is not-artificial-but-natural [automatē]. By way of this passage the maidens descend [katienai], and, [when they arrive] down below [katō], they leave behind the things they were carrying [pherein] and [replacing those things] they take [lambanein] something else, which they bring-back [komizein]—something that is covered [kaluptesthai]. These maidens [parthenoi], after this, are dismissed, and then there are other maidens led [agein] up to the Acropolis as replacements for them.

1.27.4 Near the temple [nāos] of Athena is [...] the likeness of an old woman about a cubit high. She is called an attendant [diakonos] of Lysimakhe. And there are large bronze statues [agalmata] of men facing each other for a fight, one of whom they call Erekhtheus, the other Eumolpos. But those Athenians who are acquainted with antiquity [ta arkhaia] must surely know that the man killed by Erekhtheus was Immarados, the son of Eumolpos.

1.27.5 On the pedestal [bathron] are also statues of Theainetos, who was seer to Tolmides, and of Tolmides himself, who when in command of the Athenian fleet inflicted severe damage upon the enemy, especially upon the Peloponnesians who dwell along the coast. He burned the dock-yards [neōria] at Gythion and captured Boiai, belonging to the ‘peripheral-dwellers’ [perioikoi], and the island of Cythera. He made a descent on Sikyonia, and, attacked by the citizens as he was ravaging the country, he put them to flight and chased them to the city. Returning afterwards to Athens, he conducted Athenian colonists to Euboea and Naxos and invaded Boeotia with an army. Having ravaged the greater part of the land and reduced Khairōneia by way of a siege, he advanced into the territory of Haliartos, where he was killed in battle and all his army defeated.^* Such were the things I learned about Tolmides.

1.27.6 There are also old statues [agalmata] of Athena, no limbs of which indeed are missing, but they are rather black and too fragile to bear a blow. For they too were caught by the flames when the Athenians had gone on board their ships and the King [Basileus] [of the Persian Empire] captured the city, which had been emptied of its able-bodied inhabitants. There is also a boar-hunt (I do not know for certain whether it is the Calydonian boar) and Kyknos fighting with Hēraklēs. This Kyknos is said to have killed, among others, Lykos the Thracian, a prize having been proposed for the winner of the duel, but near the river Peneios he was himself killed by Hēraklēs.

1.27.7 One of the Troizenian stories [logoi] about Theseus is the following. When Hēraklēs visited Pittheus at Troizen, he laid aside his lion’s skin to eat his dinner, and there came in to see him some Troizenian children together with Theseus, then about seven years of age. It is said that when they saw the skin the other children ran away, but Theseus slipped out not much afraid, seized an axe [pelekus] from the attendants [diakonoi], and straightway attacked the skin in earnest, thinking it to be a lion.

1.27.8 This is the first Troizenian story [logos] about Theseus. The next is that Aigeus placed boots and a sword under a rock as tokens for the child, and then sailed away to Athens; Theseus, when sixteen years old, pushed the rock away and departed, taking what Aigeus had deposited. There is a representation [eikōn] of what is said in this story [logos] on the Acropolis, everything in bronze except the rock.

1.27.9 There is another deed [ergon] that they [= the Athenians] have represented-in-the-form-of-a-dedicatory-offering [ana-tithenai], and here is the tale [logos] that pertains to that deed. The land of the Cretans and especially the part that is next to the river Tethris was ravaged by a bull. I say-this-because [gar] beasts [thēria] in ancient times were much more formidable for humans. For example, there is the Nemean lion. And the lion of Parnassus. And so many serpents [drakontes] in many parts of Greece [Hellas]. And then there are the boars of Calydon and Erymanthos.

1.27.10 Anyway, they say that this bull was conveyed [komizesthai] from Crete to the Peloponnesus, and became one of what are called the Twelve Labors [āthloi] of Hēraklēs. When he was set loose on the Plain of the Argives he fled [pheugein] through the isthmus of Corinth and then fled [pheugein] further into the land of Attica as far as the Attic deme [dēmos] of Marathon, killing everyone he encountered, including Androgeōs, son of Minos. Minos then sailed against Athens with his navy, not believing that the Athenians were guiltless [an-aitioi] in the death of Androgeōs, and oppressed them so badly that it was finally agreed that they [= the Athenians] would bring seven girls [parthenoi] and seven boys [paides] to the Minotaur who was said to dwell [oikeîn] in the Labyrinth [laburinthos] at Knossos. But, later on, Theseus is said to have driven the bull of Marathon to the Acropolis, where he sacrificed [thuein] it to the goddess [theos (feminine), = Athena]. And the dedicatory-offering [ana-thēma] [that signals this deed] is from the deme [dēmos] of Marathon.