Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/92

 84 STRABO, CASAUB. 394. some such evidence as this from Homer as a pretext, and the Megariaos to have replied in an opposite strain of this kind ; '' Ajax conducted ships from Salamis, from Polichna, from ^Egirussa, from Nisaea, and from Tripodes," 1 which are places in Megaris, of which. Tripodes has the name of Tripodiscium, situated near the present forum of Megara. 11. Some say, that Salamis is unconnected with Attica, be- cause the priestess of Minerva Polias, who may not eat the new cheese of Attica, but the produce only of a foreign land, yet uses the Salaminian cheese. But this is a mis- take, for she uses that which is brought from other islands, that are confessedly near Attica, for the authors of this custom considered all produce as foreign which was brought over sea. It seems as if anciently the present Salamis was a separate state, and that Megara was a part of Attica. On the sea-coast, opposite to Salamis, the boundaries of Megara and Attica are two mountains called Cerata, or Horns. 2 12. Next is the city Eleusis, 3 in which is the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and the Mystic Enclosure (Secos), 4 which Ictinus built, 5 capable of containing the crowd of a theatre. It was this person that built 6 the Parthenon in the Acropolis, in honour of Minerva, when Pericles was the superintendent of the public works. The city is enumerated among the demi, or burghs. 13. Then follows the Thriasian plain, and the coast, a demus of the same name, 7 then the promontory Amphiale, 8 above which is a stone quarry ; and then the passage across the sea to Salamis, of about 2 stadia, which Xerxes en- deavoured to fill up w^ith heaps of earth, but the sea-fight and the flight of the Persians occurred before he had ac- complished it. 1 II. ii. 557. 2 These horns, according to Wheler, are two pointed rocks on the sum- mit of the mountain situated between Eleusis and Megara. On one of these rocks is a tower, called by the modern Greeks Cerata or Kerata-Pyrga. 3 Lepsina. 4 SJJKOC- 5 Kareffictvacrev. 6 7roi/jff. Ictinus was also the architect of the temple of Apollo Epicurius near Phigalia in Arcadia. 7 Thria. 8 Scaramandra ; from the height above Mgaleos, Xerxes witnessed the battle of Salamis.