198 ATHENS! 
CHAP, other causes, the lakes and marshes which 
< .. v . . / remained in antient times were so many relics 
O ' ' f 
the Fabu- of the retreating flood. Hence, perhaps, the 
t" origin of the antiquated and popular fable, 
SiTiiSr amon g tae earliest settlers in Attica, of the 
Minerva, contest between Neptune and Minerva for the 
country, rather than that which Plutarch has 
assigned ; who believed it to have been founded 
on the endeavours of the kings to withdraw the 
people from a sea-faring life to the labours of 
agriculture 1 . After this contest is said to have 
happened, Neptune is described as endeavouring 
to regain the territory by subsequent inunda- 
tions. Some of the lakes noticed by historians 
are now become marshes, and the marshes they 
mention are become dry land. There is now 
little appearance of marshy land between the 
Piraeus and Athens*: the road lies through 
vineyards, olive-grounds, and plantations of fig- 
trees. Several plants were in flower; and the 
specimens we collected were fresher than those 
Antient we gathered in the islands. In one of the 
Sepulchral t . 
Menu- vineyards, we saw a Tumulus, which is undoubt- 
ment. 
(1) Vid. Plutarch, in Themist. torn. I. p. 268. Lend. 1729. 
(2) We did not observe any thing of this nature in the road from 
the Pirtreus ; but in the map of Attica, as surveyed by Stuart, there 
is notice of a marshy soil bordering the Plutlttrum, now called Porto 
Phanari. See Stuart's Athens, vol. III. Lond. 1794. 
