Cithaeron

Now he knew that unless one first gained possession of Mount Cithaeron, it would not be easy to effect an entrance into the country of Thebes;

After Agesilaus had crossed Cithaeron and had arrived at Thespiae, he made that his base of operations and proceeded against the country of the Thebans.

And when his sacrifices at the frontier had proved favourable, before he had himself reached Tegea he sent to the commander of the mercenaries at Cletor, gave them pay for a month, and ordered them to occupy Cithaeron in advance.

and afterwards, conscious of his sin and of the god’s warning, he gave the child to shepherds to expose in Hera’s meadow and the crag of Cithaeron, after piercing his ankles with iron spikes;

O snow-capped Cithaeron, dear to Artemis, holy vale of leaves, crowded with wild animals, would that you had never reared the one exposed to die, Oedipus, Jocasta’s child, when as a baby he was cast forth from his home, marked with a golden brooch;

I escaped from that— would that Cithaeron had sunk into hell’s yawning abyss, because it did not destroy me, but.

Taking note of that, they arrayed themselves opposite the enemy on the lower hills of Cithaeron.

Mardonius perceived that the advice was good, and when night had fallen, he sent his horsemen to the outlet of the pass over Cithaeron which leads towards Plataea.

They took up their arms and marched along the lower slopes of Cithaeron past Hysiae to the lands of Plataea, and when they arrived, they arrayed themselves nation by nation near the Gargaphian spring and the precinct of the hero Androcrates, among low hills and in a level country.

And the child’s birth was not yet three days past, when Laius pinned his ankles together and had him thrown, by others’ hands, on a remote mountain.

What place will be harbor to your cries, what part of all Cithaeron will not ring with them soon, when you have learned the meaning of the nuptials in which, within that house, you found a fatal haven, after a voyage so fair?

Chorus:

But when now the Thessalians had voted to march against our city, and the young Alexander was at first bitterly angry—naturally —and when the army was near Thebes, Demosthenes, who had been elected ambassador by you, turned back when halfway across Cithaeron and came running home—useless in peace and war alike!

This is a mountain beloved of God, not laid out for tragedies like Cithaeron, but dedicated to the dramas of truth, a sober mountain, shaded with pure groves.

They have found burial in the dells of Cithseron.

for you see that they must be played out in this way, and that even those who cry "Alas, Cithaeron!