Book 9
1.11
Some say that Salamis is foreign to Attica, citing the fact that the priestess of Athena Polias does not touch the fresh cheese made in Attica, but eats only that which is brought from a foreign country, yet uses, among others, that from Salamis. Wrongly, for she eats cheese brought from the other islands that are admittedly attached to Attica, since those who began this custom considered as “foreign” any cheese that was imported by sea. But it seems that in early times the present Salamis was a separate state, and that Megara was a part of Attica. And it is on the seaboard opposite Salamis that the boundaries between the Megarian country and AtthisAttica. are situated—two mountains which are called Cerata.“Horns.” Two horn-shaped peaks of a south-western spur of Cithaeron, and still called Kerata-Pyrgos or Keratopiko (Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographie, iii. 631, note 97).
1.12
Then one comes to the city Eleusis, in which is the temple of the Eleusinian Demeter, and the mystic chapel which was built by Ictinus, a chapel which is large enough to admit a crowd of spectators. This Ictinus also built the Parthenon on the Acropolis in honor of Athena, Pericles superintending the work. Eleusis is numbered among the demes.
1.13
Then one comes to the Thriasian Plain, and the shore and deme bearing the same name. Then to Cape Amphiale and the quarry that lies above it, and to the passage to Salamis, about two stadia wide, across which Xerxes attempted to build a mole,So Ctesias Persica 26, but in the account of Hdt. 8.97 it was after the naval battle that “he attempted to build a mole.” In either case it is very improbable that he made a serious attempt to do so. See Smith and Laird, Herodotus, Books vii and viii, p.381 (American Book Co.), note on χῶμα. but was forestalled by the naval battle and the flight of the Persians. Here, too, are the Pharmacussae, two small islands, on the larger of which is to be seen the tomb of Circe.
