1.38.1 The streams called Rheitoi are rivers only in so far as they have a flow [rheuma]. I say this because the water [of these streams] is sea water. It is a reasonable belief that they flow beneath the earth from the Euripos of the people of Kalkhis, and plunge into a sea of a lower level. The streams called Rheitoi are said to be sacred [hieroi] to the Maiden [Korē] and to Demeter, and only the priests [hiereîs] [of these goddesses] are permitted to catch the fish in them. In ancient times, I learn, these streams were the boundaries [horoi] between the land of the Eleusinians and that of the other Athenians,

1.38.2 and the first to dwell [oikeîn] on the other side of the Rheitoi was Krokon, where at the present day is what is called the royal-palace [basíleia] of Krokon. This Krokon the Athenians say shared-his-welling [sun-oikeîn] with Saisara, daughter of Keleus. Not all of them say this, but only those who belong to the deme [dēmos] of Skambonidai. I could not find the tomb [taphos] of Crocon, but Eleusinians and Athenians both agreed in identifying the tomb of Eumolpos. This Eumolpos they say came from Thrace, being the son of Poseidon and Khione. Khione they say was the daughter of the wind Boreas and of Oreithyia. Homer poetically-says [poieîn] nothing about the lineage [genos] of Eumolpos, but in his verses [epē] he calls him agēnōr [‘very manly’].

1.38.3 When the Eleusinians fought with the Athenians, Erekhtheus, king [basileus] of the Athenians, was killed, as was also Immarados, son of Eumolpos. These were the terms on which they concluded the war: the Eleusinians were in all ways to be subject to the Athenians—except that would be on their own in ritually-conducting [teleîn] the [Eleusinian] mysteries [teletē]. The sacred-rites [hiera] for the Two Goddesses [theai] would be performed [drân] by Eumolpos and by the daughters of Keleus, whom Pamphos and Homer agree in naming Diogénia, Pammerope, and, the third, Saisara. Eumolpos was survived by Keryx, the younger of his sons whom the Kerykes themselves say was a son of Aglauros, daughter of Kekrops, and of Hermes, not of Eumolpos.

1.38.4 There is also a hero-shrine [hērōion] of Hippothoön, after whom the civic-lineage [phulē] is named, and, close by, one of Zarex. The latter they say learned the art-of-the-Muses [mousikē] from Apollo, but my opinion is that he was a Lacedaemonian who came as a stranger [xenos] to the land, and that after him is named Zarax, a town in the Laconian territory near the sea. If there is a local [epikhōrios] Athenian hero [hērōs] called Zarex, I have nothing to say concerning him.

1.38.5 At Eleusis flows a [stream named] Kephisos that is more-violent [biaioteron] than the stream [rheuma] by the same name as mentioned above, and by the side of it is the place they call Erineus. They say that Pluto [Ploutōn] descended [katabainein] there [to the lower world] after abducting [harpazein] the Maiden [Korē]. Near this Kephisos Theseus killed a brigand [lēistēs] named Polypemon and surnamed Procrustes.

1.38.6 The Eleusinians have a temple [nāos] of Triptolemos, of Artemis Propulaia [‘of the Portal’], and of Poseidon Patēr [‘father’], also a well [phrear] called Kallikhoron [‘beautiful place-for-dance-and-song’), where first the women of the Eleusinians set up [histanai] a khoros ‘place for song-and-dance’, and they sang [āidein], directing the song at the goddess [(he) theā, = Artemis]. They say that the plain [pedíon] called Rharion was the first to be sown and the first to grow crops-for-harvest [karpos], and for this reason it is the custom to use sacrificial-barley [oulai] from its produce and to make cakes [pemmata] for the sacrifices [thusiai]. Here is shown what is called the threshing-floor [halōs] of Triptolemos, and an altar [bōmos].

1.38.7 As for the things inside the wall [teikhos] of the sanctuary [hieron], I had a dream [oneiros] about them, but this dream did not permit me to write it down. Those who are not initiated [telesthentes] are of course unable to learn of the vision [théā] what they are prevented from seeing. Some say that the hero [hērōs] Eleusis, after whom the city is named, is a son of Hermes and of Daeira, daughter of Okeanos; It has been said-poetically [poieîn] by others, however, that Ogygos is the father of Eleusis. Ancient stories [logoi], not backed up by poetry [epē], have given rise to many things that people make-up [plasasthai], especially with regard to the genealogies [genē] of heroes [hērōes].

1.38.8 When you have turned from Eleusis to Boeotia you come to the Plataean land, which borders on Attica. Formerly Eleutherai formed the boundary on the side towards Attica, but when it came over to the Athenians henceforth the boundary of Boeotia was Kithairon. The reason why the people of Eleutherai came over was not because they were reduced by war, but because they desired to share Athenian citizenship and hated the Thebans. In this plain is a temple of Dionysus, from which the old wooden image was carried off to Athens. The image at Eleutherai at the present day is a copy of the old one.

1.38.9 A little farther on is a small cave, and beside it is a spring [pēgē] of cold water. It is said about the cave that Antiope, after her labor, placed her babies into it; as to the spring [pēgē], it is said that the shepherd who found the babies washed them there for the first time, taking off their swaddling clothes. Of Eleutherai there were still left the ruins of the wall and of the houses. From these it is clear that the city was built a little above the plain close to Kithairon.