10. We will here add some observations on the Attic worship of Hercules, which was celebrated chiefly at Marathon in the Tetrapolis,(1803) in the three villages of Melite, Diomea, and Collytus,(1804) which lay close to one another in the vicinity of Athens; at Cynosarges(1805) in particular, which belonged to the demus of Diomea; at Acharnæ(1806) and Hephæstia,(1807) and in the city itself; and likewise near the sea in the Tetracomæ, or “Four Hamlets.”(1808) The circumstance that those temples which were not situated in the vicinity of the city were all in the northern part of Attica, seems to prove that the worship was derived from the northern frontiers; and it was attributed to the presence of the Heraclidæ in Attica, though the fable of the great assistance which Athens lent to the Heraclidæ was peculiar to the Athenians.(1809) It is probable, however, that at some early period a division of the Doric people passed through Attica, and there founded that worship which, by the supremacy of the Dorians and their various connexions with other nations, increased in character and importance. If the Lacedæmonians really spared the Tetrapolis in the Peloponnesian war,(1810) their forbearance must be attributed to the respect which they showed to their national hero. There is a tradition worthy of notice, that Theseus consecrated to Hercules all the temples which had been dedicated to himself;(1811) whence it may be inferred that the worship of the former demigod was thus transferred at some early period; only not, it should be observed, at the time of Theseus himself. That the worship of Hercules was only half-nationalized may (as it appears) be inferred from the custom of the Parasiti of that hero at Cynosarges being always Athenians, of whose parents one only was a citizen; a symbolical allusion to the half-foreign origin of their worship.
Of the same description are the traditions which were peculiar to the villages of Aphidna, Decelea, and Titacidæ (likewise situated in the north of Attica), respecting the expedition of the Tyndaridæ; who were said to have conquered Aphidna with the aid of Decelus and Titacus.(1812) From this plunder, according to a Spartan legend, the very ancient temple of Pallas Chalciœcus at Sparta was built. In this instance, likewise, the tradition was recognised as real history; for the Lacedæmonians always kept up a friendly intercourse with Decelea; nor was it, we may be assured, without some particular reason that in the Messenian war at the command of the oracle they called to their aid Tyrtæus, the man of Aphidna. But as the Tyndaridæ, _i.e._, their images (as was mentioned above),(1813) accompanied every Spartan army on its marches, it is probable that these stories originated in some Doric expedition into the northern parts of Attica, which left behind it these permanent traces and recollections.