Thebes crosses Mt. Cithaeron by the pass of Eleutherae and descends into Boeotia a little to the east of the large and seemingly prosperous village of Kriekouki, which stands on the lower slope of the mountain. In recent years a branch road has been made to the westward; it quits the old highroad on the side of the mountain above Kriekouki, passes through that village, and rejoins the old road about 1 miles below the village. It thus forms a loop to the old highroad, and though it is more circuitous it seems, if I may judge from the signs of traffic on it, to be preferred by drivers. The ancient highroad over Cithaeron to Thebes must have coincided very closely with the line of the present road in the actual pass; while in descending the northern slope of the mountain it may have followed the line either of the present branch road through Kriekouki or, more probably, of the old and more direct road a little farther to the east. The route to Plataea diverges to the left (westward) from the highroad to Thebes at a point close to Eleutherae, and crosses over Mt. Cithaeron by another pass which debouches about a mile to the west of the main pass and about 2 miles to the east of Plataea.1

The sites of Hysiae and Erythrae must accordingly be sought somewhere to the right of this route. That Erythrae lay to the east of Hysiae we learn from Herodotus, who tells us (ix. 15, 19, and 25) that the Persian camp extended along the Asopus from Erythrae past Hysiae to the land of Plataea, and that the Greeks, who had encamped opposite Mardonius at Erythrae, afterwards marched thence through the skirts of Mt. Cithaeron past Hysiae to the territory of Plataea. Erythrae must further have been on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron, not in the plain; for Herodotus says that when the Greek army was at Erythrae it did not go down into the plain (ix. 19 sq.); and he speaks of its subsequent change of position as a descent to Plataea (ix. 25). Though he describes the Persian camp as extending from Erythrae past Hysiae to Plataean territory he probably means no more than that it lay in the plain over against these towns. Thucydides says (iii. 24) that the men who escaped from Plataea when it was besieged by the Peloponnesians first followed the road to Thebes for 6 or 7 furlongs, then turning back took "the road which leads towards the mountains to Erythrae and Hysiae." That Erythrae and Hysiae were near each other and at the foot of Cithaeron is further shown by references made to them by Euripides (Bacchae, 751 sq.) and Strabo

1 In this account of the route from Eleutherae to Plataea I follow Mr. G. B. Grundy (Topography of the battle of Plataea, pp. 6 and 10), who has made a survey of the battlefield, but I do so with some misgivings. For (1) Mr. Grundy has admittedly not traversed the path in question (Pass No. 2, as he calls it). (2) He says (p. 45) that the pass is clearly marked on the Austrian map. But on that map, as well as on the French survey map, the route to Plataea diverges not, as Mr. Grundy says, close to Eleutherae, on the southern side of the pass, but a considerable way to the north of Eleutherae, apparently on the northern side of the pass; in fact it seems to leave the highroad only at the point where the present loop road to Kriekouki (described above) leaves it, and to coincide with the loop road for some distance. (3) My own recollection of the main pass, which I have traversed twice, is that between Eleutherae and the top of the pass the mountains on either hand are steep and unbroken by any other pass leading westward in the direction of Plataea.

(ix. p. 404). Leake believed that he had found the site of Erythrae near Katzoula, a village at the northern foot of Cithaeron, about 3 miles east of Kriekouki. The range is not very high at this point, and there is verdure among the rocks, where goats and sheep feed. At the foot of the rocks, to the eastward of the village, Leake saw some foundations of ancient Greek walls, together with a church containing a Doric column and its capital. These remains he believed to mark the site of Erythrae. To this identification it is objected by Mr. Grundy that Pausanias would not have described as "a little to the right" of the road a place which lay about 3 miles from it, and that the Greeks would not be likely to take up a position so far to the east of the pass, thus leaving the pass open to the enemy and having their own backs to a part of the range through which there was no retreat. Accordingly Mr. Grundy would place Erythrae immediately to the east of Kriekouki, on the ridge round which the modern highroad to Thebes, descending from the pass, makes a loop, the older branch of the road skirting the ridge on the east and the new branch skirting it on the west. This is, according to Mr. Grundy, the traditional site of Erythrae, and there are "signs of remains of ancient buildings" on the spot. The signs he mentions are an ancient well and a heap of stones, in which two stones were found bearing inscriptions which relate to the worship of Demeter (see below). On a height above the site there is, he tells us, an ancient fort, but he does not describe it nor attempt to determine its date, only saying that "though we may possibly infer that it did not exist at the time of the battle, it is very likely to have been constructed by the inhabitants of Erythrae at a later date as a defence for their end of the pass." Against this identification of Erythrae it must be observed that one of the reasons why the Greeks quitted Erythrae was the want of a good supply of water (Herodotus, ix. 25); yet at Kriekouki, close to the supposed site of Erythrae, there are plentiful and permanent springs, which according to Leake are in fact the principal source of the Asopus. As to Hysiae, Leake would place it to the east of Kriekouki, a little beyond the highroad to Thebes, and hence apparently to the east of the site which Mr. Grundy identifies as that of Erythrae. Here at the foot of the mountain Leake observed "a great quantity of loose stones in the fields, together with some ancient walls, and the mouth of a well or cistern, of Hellenic construction, now filled up." These he supposed to be the remains of Hysiae. If he is right the ancient well which he observed may have been the sacred well mentioned by Pausanias whose water was drunk as a means of divination. Mr. Grundy conjectures that Hysiae was a little above Kriekouki, where there is a mound "with a more or less circular enclosure on the top, quite close to the great bend of the loop road above the village." This more or less circular enclosure, he thinks, may mark the site of the foundations of an ancient fort built to command the pass. If Mr. Grundy is right in his identifications, Hysiae was situated within a mile of Erythrae, which seems improbable, though it might be paralleled by the case of Abae and Hyampolis in Phocis.

Beşide a well a little to the east of Kriekouki there have been found, as we have seen, two stones bearing inscriptions which relate to the worship of Demeter. Both inscriptions seem to date from the early part of the fifth century B.C. One of them records a dedication to Demeter; the other is a metrical inscription from the base of an image of the goddess dedicated, according to Prof. Dittenberger, by a certain. Kydadas (not Tisamenus, as the inscription is generally read), perhaps as a first-fruit offering (for references, see below). These inscriptions may perhaps have come from the sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter beside which, at the battle of Plataea, the Spartan division under king Pausanias took up their final position; it was about 10 furlongs from the Gargaphian spring, at a place Argiopius, beside a river called Molois (Herodotus, ix. 57). Here they were attacked by the Persians, and a long and desperate fight took place just beside the sanctuary (id., ix. 62); but though the Persians were defeated and many of them fell outside of the holy ground, we are told that not a man of them entered or died in the sacred grove (id., ix. 65). The sanctuary was on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron, above Plataea; for when the Greeks who were posted at the sanctuary of Hera near Plataea heard of the Spartan success, a body of them marched "along the skirts of the mountain and over the low hills by the way that led straight up to the sanctuary of Demeter" (id., ix. 69). This sanctuary is mentioned also by Plutarch in his description of the battle of Plataea; he says it was a very ancient sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter and the Maid situated at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron near Hysiae, on ground very favourable for infantry, because it was too rugged to allow cavalry to manœuvre on it (Aristides, II). It is possible that the sanctuary stood where the inscriptions were found, namely beside the ancient well close to the direct road to Thebes, a little to the east of Kriekouki. But inscribed stones are so easily and so commonly transported from their original place that the occurrence of the inscriptions here hardly proves more than that the sanctuary was somewhere in the neighbourhood. An American archaeologist who spent some time at Plataea, Mr. W. I. Hunt, supposes that the site of the sanctuary of Demeter is marked by the foundations of a large Byzantine church situated on high ground to the south-east of Plataea, and five or six minutes' walk east of the spring called Vergoutiani. Here have been found some ancient Greek tombstones, inscriptions, and many fragments of marble. Behind the church rises a wall of rock which is visible for miles in the valley, and which Mr. Hunt conjectures to be the place called Argiopius ('bright look ') by Herodotus. These identifications are accepted by Mr. Hauvette. Against them it might be urged that according to Plutarch (1.c.) the sanctuary of Demeter was near the shrine of the hero Androcrates, which we know from Thucydides (iii. 24) to have been in quite a different situation, namely to the right of the road which led from Plataea to Thebes, and not more than 6 or 7 furlongs from the former town. But no weight can be attached to this statement of Plutarch, since it would lead us to place the sanctuary of Demeter somewhere below and to the north of Plataea, whereas we know from Herodotus that it was on high ground

above that city. Mr. Grundy conjectures that the site of the sanctuary of Demeter is now occupied by the church of St. Demetrius or Demetrion, which stands rather more than a mile to the north of Kriekouki. He thinks that in the name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated we have a reminiscence of the name of the goddess, and that the brook which flows beside the church on the east may be the ancient Molois.

See Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 2. pp. 326-329, 333; Bursian, Geogr. 1. p. 248; W. I. Hunt, in American Journal of Archaeology, 6 (1890), p. 467 sqq. ; A. Hauvette, 'Rapport sur une mission scientifique en Grèce,' Nouvelles Archives des Missions scientifiques et littéraires, 2 (1892), p. 365; G. B. Grundy, The topography of the battle of Plataea (London, 1894), pp. 5 sqq., 15 sq., 32 sqq., 45. As to the two inscriptions found near Kriekouki, see C. I. G. G. S. Nos. 1670, 1671; Bulletin de Corresp. hellénique, 3 (1879), p. 134 sqq.; Roehl, I. G. A. Nos. 143, 144; Loewy, Inschriften griech. Bildhauer, No. 44; Collitz, G. D. I. 1. Nos. 860, 861; E. S. Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, No. 223; E. Hoffmann, Sylloge epigrammatum Graecorum, No. 313.

2. I. people divined by drinking of the well. So the priest of the Clarian Apollo at Colophon drank of a secret spring in a cave before he uttered oracles in verse; the priest, who was always chosen from certain families, generally of Miletus, was supposed to shorten his life by drinking of this water. Germanicus and Agrippina both consulted the oracle of the Clarian Apollo. See Tacitus, Annals, ii. 54, xii. 22; Pliny, Nat. hist. ii. 232. Cp. Paus. vii. 3. I note. The oracular spring at Colophon was said to have originated in the tears which the prophetess Manto wept over the destruction of Thebes, her native city (Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonaut. i. 308). It would indeed appear that at every oracle of Apollo the priest or priestess who acted as his mouthpiece drank of a sacred spring before uttering the prophetic words (Lucian, Bis accusatus, 1). At Delphi the priestess drank of the spring Cassotis (Paus. x. 24. 7).

2. 2. the corpse of Mardonius disappeared etc. See Herodotus, ix. 84.

2. 3. On the road from Megara. This implies that the road from Megara to Plataea was different from the road which led over Cithaeron by Eleutherae. The same distinction is made by Xenophon, who says that king Cleombrotus, marching with a Lacedaemonian army from Peloponnese, avoided the pass of Eleutherae, which was guarded by a force of Athenian targeteers under Chabrias, and mounted by the road which led to Plataea (Hellenica, v. 4. 14). The road from Megara probably descended the face of Cithaeron obliquely at a considerable height, and would pass near the fountain Vergoutiani (Leake, Northern Greece, 2. p. 334; as to the fountain Vergoutiani, see the next note). It seems to have crossed the mountain by a pass which debouches somewhat less than a mile to the east of Plataea. The pass is hardly used at the present day. It must have been always difficult, if not quite impracticable, for wheeled vehicles, but quite practicable for infantry. The spring Vergoutiani is near the mouth of the pass. See G. B. Grundy, The topography of the battle of Plataea, p. 7, with his plan.

2. 3. a spring on the right etc. On the rocky slope of Mt. Cithaeron, about twenty-five minutes to the south-east of Plataea, there is a copious fountain called Vergoutiani, gushing from three mouths in an ancient wall. Five minutes farther on and higher up is a jutting rock which now serves as a shelter for cattle, in the midst of a natural theatre of rocks at the head of a green slope above the fountain. The place is at the end of the pass over which goes the footpath to Megara. Hence the fountain may be the one in which Actaeon was said to have seen Artemis bathing; and the rock may be the one under or on which he slept when wearied with the chase. Bursian, however, would identify Actaeon's bed with a small cave in the rock, about 30 feet deep, farther west, above the village of Kokla. See Leake, Northern Greece, 2. pp. 326, 333; Bursian, Geogr. I. p. 247 note 5; Vischer, Erinnerungen, p. 549; Guide-Joanne, 2. p. 25; G. B. Grundy, The topography of the battle of Plataea, p. 7.

On a

2. 3. the goddess threw a deer-skin round Actaeon etc. metope of one of the temples at Selinus the death of Actaeon is represented; the hounds are leaping upon him, and over his back is thrown a deer-skin, the feet hang down before and behind him, and the deer's head and antlers are seen behind and above his head. See MüllerWieseler, Denkmäler, 2. pl. xvii. 184; Roscher's Lexikon, 1. p. 215; Lucy M. Mitchell, Hist. of Ancient Sculpture, p. 423. The common story was that Artemis turned Actaeon into a stag (Apollodorus, iii. 4. 4; Hyginus, Fab. 181; Ovid, Metam. iii. 193 sqq.; Nonnus, Dionys. v. 316 sqq.) Hence in a small marble group in the British Museum and in a painting at Pompeii the transformation is indicated by deer's horns growing from Actaeon's head. See Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler, 2. pl. xvii. 183 a, 186; Daremberg et Saglio, Dict. des Antiquités, 1. p. 53. However, it seems that in the marble group the horns are modern, and the head, though ancient, does not belong to the body (Friederichs-Wolters, Gipsabgüsse, No. 457; cp. Baumeister's Denkmäler, 1. p. 35 sq.) Stesichorus, if Pausanias has reported him aright, would seem to have mixed up two distinct legends, one ascribing Actaeon's death to the wrath of Zeus at him for presuming to woo Semele, the other referring it to Artemis's displeasure at being seen bathing by him. The two legends are treated as distinct by Apollodorus (iii. 4. 4). The names of Actaeon's dogs are given in some verses quoted in the MSS. of Apollodorus (at the end of bk. iii. ch. 4). Bergk has tried to show that these are a fragment of Stesichorus's poem. See Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, p. 83; Apollodorus, ed. R. Wagner, p. 115; Bergk, in Zeitschrift für Alterthumswissenschaft, 8 (1850), pp. 401-408.

2. 4. On what part of Cithaeron Pentheus met his doom. According to a legend mentioned by Strabo (ix. p. 408) Pentheus was caught by the Bacchanals at Scolus, as to which see below ix. 4. 4. Mr. A. G. Bather argues that the legend of the death of Pentheus at the hands of the infuriated Bacchanals is a reminiscence of a custom of annually slaying the human representative of Dionysus with the intention of regenerating, in the person of a new representative, the decaying