Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

THE BATTLEFIELD OF PLATAIA.

283

taia are the tombs of those who fought against the Modes. The rest
of the Greeks have a common monument; but the Lakedaimoniana
and Athenians who fell have separate tombs, and on them are inscribed
epitaphs by Simonides. Not far from the common tomb of the Greeks
is the altar of Zeus Eleutherios." Plutarch relates that this altar was
dedicated to the Zeus of Freedom in honor of the battle for freedom
at Plataia;55 and, in describing the ceremonies which were performed
every year at these tombs, he uses language which seems to place them
near the city. He says : " They form a procession, which the trum-
peter, sounding the charge, leads on at dawn. Wagons, loaded with
myrtle and garlands follow. A black bull is led in the procession,
and free-born youths advance bearing drink-offerings of wine and milk,
vessels of olive-oil and myrrh. No slave is allowed to touch any
of the things connected with that service because the men died for free-
dom. Finally, the archon of the Plataians, who is not allowed at
any other time to touch iron,56 or to put on any but a white garment,
then clad in a purple tunic, and armed with a sword, taking up a
water-jar from the place where the records are kept, leads on through
the midst of the city. Then, taking water from the spring,57 he him-
self washes the steles,58 and anoints them with myrrh. Slaughtering
the bull upon the altar for burnt sacrifice, and, praying to Zeus and
Hermes Chthonios, he invites the brave men who died in behalf of
Greece to the banquet and the offering of blood. Then mixing a bowl
of wine and pouring it out, he says: ' I drink to the men who died
for the freedom of the Greeks.'"

W. Irving Hunt.

55Plutarch, Arist., 19-21. Inscription on the altar:

T6v5e TroB'"ZWrtves v'ikos «paT«i, Zpyy'Ap-nos,

£VT6\fiu> ipvxus \t)ixari Treid6p.efOi
Tlep(Tas e'£6Aa<rat"j-cs, tAevBepa 'EAAaSi KOivhv
ISpvaavTO Aihs &(cp.hv iAcudcp'tov.
Strabo speaks of it as a Up6v, which Leake translates " temple." Here they cele-
brated games called the'EAeu0f>ia. Strabo,412; Plutarch, ^Irisi., 21; Patjs., ix. 2.6.

50 Perhaps it would be better to say " a weapon of iron ;" cf. cnSnpofyopiw in Tiiouky-
dides; or simply "a weapon."

5' Dodwell ( Tour through Greece, vol. i, p. 280) makes this spring Gargaphia (?).
The tombs were just at the entrance to Plataia, as Pausanias came from Megara.
Hence the spring referred to by Plutarch is probably that on the eastern side
of the ruins of Plataia, which flows out of a terrace wall, in which are Greek
sepulchral steles and a piece of an Ionic cornice. The spring a mile southeast of
Plataia, now called Vergoutiani, lias been confounded with Gargaphia, but it is prob-
ably the spring of Artemis. Leake, Northern Greece, n, 333 f.
58 Of bronze, Pausanias, ix. 2. 5.