1.42.1 The Megarians have another citadel, which is named after Alkathoos. As you ascend this citadel you see on the right the tomb of Megareus, who at the time of the Cretan invasion came as an ally from Onkhestos. There is also shown a hearth of the gods called Prodomeis (Builders before). They say that Alkathoos was the first to sacrifice to them, at the time when he was about to begin the building of the wall.

1.42.2 Near this hearth is a stone, on which they say Apollo laid his lyre when he was helping Alkathoos in the building. I am confirmed in my view that the Megarians used to be tributary to the Athenians by the fact that Alkathoos appears to have sent his daughter Periboia with Theseus to Crete in payment of the tribute. On the occasion of his building the wall, the Megarians say, Apollo helped him and placed his lyre on the stone; and if you happen to hit it with a pebble it sounds just as a lyre does when struck.

1.42.3 This made me marvel, but the colossus in Egypt made me marvel far more than anything else. In Egyptian Thebes, on crossing the Nile to the so-called Pipes, I saw a statue [agalma], still sitting, which gave out a sound. The many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue [agalma], not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, and I have heard some say that it is Sesostris. This statue [agalma] was broken in two by Cambyses, and at the present day from head to middle it is thrown down; but the rest is seated, and every day at the rising of the sun it makes a noise, and the sound one could best liken to that of a harp or lyre when a string has been broken.

1.42.4 The Megarians have a council chamber which once, they say, was the tomb of Timalkos, who just now I said was not killed by Theseus. On the top of the citadel is built a temple of Athena, with a statue [agalma] gilded except the hands and feet; these and the face are of ivory. There is another sanctuary built here, of Athena Nike, and yet a third of Athena Aiantis. About the last the Megarian guides have omitted to record anything, but I will write what I take to be the facts. Telamon the son of Aiakos married Periboia the daughter of Alkathoos; so my opinion is that Ajax, who succeeded to the throne of Alkathoos, made the statue [agalma] of Athena.

1.42.5 The ancient temple of Apollo was of brick, but ‘King’ [basileus] Hadrian afterwards built it of white marble. The Apollo called Pythian and the one called Dekatephoros [’he who wins Tithes as a prize’] are very like the Egyptian wooden-statues [xoana] , but the one surnamed Arkhegetes [‘Founder’] resembles Aeginetan works. They are all alike made of ebony. I have heard a man of Cyprus, who was skilled at sorting herbs for medicinal purposes, say that the ebony does not grow leaves or bear fruit, or even appear in the sunlight at all, but consists of underground roots which are dug up by the Aethiopians, who have men skilled at finding ebony.

1.42.6 There is also a sanctuary [hieron] of Demeter Thesmophoros. As one goes down from it there is the tomb [mnēma] of Kallipolis, son of Alkathoos. Alkathoos had also an elder son, Iskhepolis, whom his father sent to help Meleagros to destroy the wild-beast [thērion] in Aetolia. There he died, and Kallipolis was the first to hear of his death. Running up to the acropolis, at the moment when his father was lighting a fire for Apollo, he flung the logs [xula] from the altar [bōmos]. Alkathoos, who had not yet heard of the fate of Iskhepolis, judged that Kallipolis was guilty of impiety, and forthwith, angry as he was, killed him by striking his head with one of the logs [xula] that had been flung from the altar [bōmos].

1.42.7 On the road to the Prytaneion [‘City Hall’] [of Megara] is the hero-shrine [hērōion] of Ino, around which is a fencing [thrinkos] of stones. Olive trees grow there. The people of Megara are the only Greeks [Hellēnes] who say that the corpse [nekros] of Ino had washed ashore on their coast; more, they say that Klēsō and Tauropolis, the daughters of Klēsōn son of Lelex, found and buried it; even more, they say that it was in their locale [= Megara] that Ino was for the first time named White Goddess [Leukotheā], and every year a sacrificial-feast [thusiā] is celebrated [agein] in her honor.