ws of no other,
being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The vestibules have a roof
of white marble, and even now are remarkable for both their beauty and
size. As to the statues of the horsemen, I can not say with precision
whether they are the sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for
decoration. On the right of the vestibules is the shrine of the Wingless
Victory. From it the sea is visible; and there AEgeus drowned himself, as
they say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails, but
Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril in attacking
the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he should sail back a
conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And AEgeus,
seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw
himself in and was drowned. And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his
memory. And on the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings;
and among those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and
Odysseus--the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other
taking the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is AEgisthus
being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius that
came to AEgisthus's aid. And Polyxena about to have her throat cut near
the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well not to mention this savage act....

And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which
they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the
name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with
many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me
that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by
the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail.
And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild
men; and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had
landed there before and had experience of the natives; but they were
obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the
sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had
tails at their loins not much smaller than horses....

And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as you enter it
everything portrayed on the gables relates to the birth of Athene, and
behind is depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athene for the soil
of Attica. And this work of art is in ivory and gold. In the m