1.21.1 In the theater the Athenians have portrait-statues [eikones] of the poets [poiētai] of tragedy [tragōidiā] and comedy [kōmōidiā], but they [= the statues] are mostly of undistinguished persons. With the exception of Menander no poet [poiētēs] of comedy [kōmōidiā] represented here won a reputation [doxa], but tragedy [tragōidiā] has two illustrious representatives, Euripides and Sophocles. It is said that after the death of Sophocles, when the Lacedaemonians invaded Attica, their commander saw in a vision Dionysus, who ordered him to honor [tīmân], with all the customary honors [tīmai] of the dead, the new Siren [Seirēn]. It seemed to him that the dream [onar] referred to Sophocles and his poetry [poiēsis], and down to the present day people are used to liken to a Siren whatever is enchanting [epagōgon] in both poetry [poiēmata] and prose [logoi].

1.21.2 The likeness [eikōn] of Aeschylus is, I think, much later than his death and than the painting [graphē] of the action [ergon] at Marathon. Here is what Aeschylus himself said: that, when he was a young-man [meirakion] and he once fell asleep while he was guarding the grapes in a vineyard, Dionysus appeared to him and ordered him to make [poieîn] tragedy [tragōidiā]. When day came, in obedience to the vision, he made an attempt and started to compose [poieîn] with the greatest of ease.

1.21.3 These are the things that he [= Aeschylus] said. On the South Wall [teikhos], as it is called, of the Acropolis, which faces the theater, there is dedicated a gilded head of Medusa the Gorgon, and around it is crafted an aegis [aigis]. Looming over the theater is a grotto [spēlaion] in the rocks under the Acropolis. This also has a tripod standing over it. In it are [likenesses of] Apollo and Artemis slaying the children of Niobe. This Niobe I myself saw when I went up to the mountain [oros] called Sipylos. When one is close by, it is a rock [petrā], a steep crag [krēmnos], showing not at all the shape [skhēma] of a woman who is lamenting [pentheîn] or the like; but if one gets further away from it one will think one is seeing a woman shedding-tears [dakruein], with-sunken-eyes [katēphēs].

1.21.4 On the way to the Athenian Acropolis from the theater is the tomb of Kálōs. Daidalos killed this Kálōs, who was his sister’s son and a learner of the craft [tekhnē]. Because of this he fled to Crete; afterwards he ran off to the residence of Kokalos in Sicily. The sanctuary [hieron] of Asklepios is worthy of viewing [théā] both for its paintings [graphai] and for the statues [agalmata] of the god and his children. In it there is a spring [krēnē], at which they say that Poseidon’s son Halirrhothios ravished Alkippe the daughter of Ares, who killed the ravisher and was the first to be put on trial [dikē] in-compensation-for [epi + dative] the killing [phonos].

1.21.5 Among the votive offerings there is a breastplate [thōrax] originating from the people known as the Sauromatai. On seeing this, one will say that no less than Greeks [Hellēnes] are barbarians skilled in the arts [tekhnai]. I say this for the following reasons. The Sauromatai have no iron, neither mined by themselves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the [other] barbarians who inhabit the places surrounding them. To meet this deficiency they have invented things [ex-heuriskein]. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades, and cornel-wood for the bows [toxa] from which they shoot arrows, with bone points for the arrows. They throw a lasso around any enemy they encounter, and then, turning around their horses, they up-end the enemy caught in the lasso.

1.21.6 Their breastplates [thōrakes] they make in the following way. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided [merizein] into allotments [klēroi], nor does it bear anything except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but they also sacrifice [thuein] them to the local [epikhōroioi] gods [theoi] and eat them for food. Their hooves they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were scales of serpents [drakontes]. Whoever has never seen a serpent [drakōn] must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he likens the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates [thōrakes] that are as beautiful and strong as those of the Greeks [Hellēnes]. For they can withstand blows of missiles or when struck in close combat.

1.21.7 Linen breastplates [thōrakes] are not so useful to those fighting in battles, for they let the iron pass through, if the blow be a violent one. They aid hunters, however, for the teeth of lions or leopards break off in them. One may see linen breastplates [thōrakes] dedicated in other sanctuaries [hiera], notably in the one at Gryneion, where is found a most beautiful grove [alsos] of Apollo, with cultivated trees, and all those other kinds of trees that, although they bear no fruit, are pleasing to smell or look at.