The Center for Hellenic Studies

Greek Public Monuments of the Persian Wars

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XI. Athenian Monuments of Salamis

52. Trophy on Salamis.

Pausanias 1.36.1; Plutarch, Aristides 16.5.

Hitzig and Blümner 1896,1: 346; Perrin 1901: 297; Rouse 1902: 99; Frazer 1913,2: 483-484; Limentani 1964: 44.

Plutarch, Aristides 16.5 (The Athenians, before Plataea, mention to the Spartans their past exploits; cf. no. 4):

“, , . the contest is not for land and city only, as it is for them, but in behaqlf of the trophies of Marathon and Salamis, that might seem to be of the Athenians and not of Miltiades and fate.”

Pausanias 1.36.1:

““In Salamis . . . a trophy stands for the victory for which Themistocles son of Neokles was responsible for the Greeks.”


The trophy for the battle of Salamis is attested by Pausanias and Plutarch. It was set up on Salamis and bu Pausanias’ time it must have been rebuilt in stone. According to an inscription of Hellenistic date (IG 2/32 1028 of 100/99 B. C.), Athenian ephebes were accustomed on occasion to row to the island and make sacrifices to Zeus Tropaios (cf. Rouse 1907: 99).

53. Trophy on the island of Psyttaleia.

Plutarch, Aristides 9.4:

“For the greatest crowd of ships and fiercest part of the battle seems to have occurred around that place. Wherefore a trophy stands on Psyttaleia.”

Perrin 1901: 281; Limentani 1964: 44.


A trophy for the land battle on Psyttaleia, which took place during the naval battle in the Salamis strait (Hdt. 8.95), is not attested elsewhere. Pausanias mentions a trophy on Salamis (no. 52) but none on Psyttaleia. His failure to mention it may suggest that it was not rebuilt in stone, although Plutarch implies that one was preserved there at least until his time (tropaion hesteken). Pausanias, however, was selective as to the monuments and topographical features he chose to mention (cf. 1.39.3) and it was quite customary for a Greek army to set up a trophy for victory.

54. Painting, at Olympia, of Salamis holding the ornament of a ship’s beak.

Pausanias 5.11.5-6 (describing the temple of Zeus at Olympia):

“As many of the screens as are opposite the doors have been lined with blue (plaster) and the remaining spaces are covered by the paintings of Panaenus; in them is Atlas holding the heavens, and nearby Herakles wanting to receive the burden of Atlas, still further Theseus and Pirithoos and Greece and Salamis holding in their hands an ornament that is made for the bows of ships, and of the labors of Herakles, the struggle against the Nemean lion, and the sin of Ajax against Cassandra, Hippodameia, the wife of Oenomaus with his mother and Prometheus, still bound in his chains, and Herakles is working for him. . . . Last is the painting of Penthesileia releasing her soul and Achilles holding on to her. And two of the Hesperides bring apples from which they say that the effort of watch is nourished.”

Hitzig and Blümner 1896,2: 345-346; Frazer 1913,3: 536-540; Wiesner 1939: 90-91.


Panaenus’ painting at Olympia of Greece and Salamis, the latter holding the ornament of a ship’s beak, is one of a group of nine. The remaining eight paintings of various mythological subjects were probably not related to that of Greece and Salamis.

Pausanias elsewhere (5.11.6) remarks that Panaenus was the brother of Phidias and credits him also with the famous painting of the battle of Marathon in the Stoa Poikile (no. 14). Similar to the painting is the Panhellenic dedication at Delphi, a statue of Apollo holding in his hand the beak of a ship (no. 29). For the many arrangements of the pictures proposed by modern scholars, see Wiesner 1939: 90-91.

55. Sanctuary of the hero Cychreus on Salamis.

Pausanias 1.36.1.

Hitzig and Blümner1896,1: 347; Rouse 1907: 120; Frazer 1913,2: 484; Eitrem 1922.

Pausanias 1.36.1 (describing the island of Salamis):

“There is a sanctuary of Cychreus (i, e., on Salamis). When the Athenians were fighting against the Medes it was said that a snake appeared among the ships. The god foretold that this was the hero Cychreus.”


The sanctuary for the hero Cychreus on Salamis is attested only in this passage by Pausanias, but there is other evidence that Cychreus was worshipped at Athens (cf. Plut., Theseus 10; Solon 10). The sanctuary on Salamis may have been there before the battle, since Cychreus was an old local hero of the island. He appeared at Salamis as other heroes appeared at Marathon. Yet Pausanias apparently connects the worship of Cychreus by the Athenians with the battle. For the honoring of other local heroes of Salamis see no. 28 and Hdt. 8.64,83-84.

56. Small fragment of a marble stele with an epigram possibly commemorating Salamis and Plataea.

SEG 13.34 (Found in the Library of Hadrian and mentioned in the notes of J. Kirchner).

Peek 1953; cf. Meritt 1962: 297.

SEG 13.34:

[. . . . . . . . . πε]ζοὶ τε καὶ ḥ[ιππς]

[. . . . . . . . . ]

[ἀθάνατον δ’ Αἴαντος hάμα κλέος hέσπετ]ο νέσοι

[hενίκα . . . . . . .]

[……… on fo]ot and h[orses]

[………]

[deathless glory for Ajax followe]d his island

[when ……..]


The stone is a small fragment mentioned in the notes of J. Kirchner among the collection of the Library of Hadrian in Athens. It attracted the attention of Peek, who was furnished a description of the stone by E. Vanderpool (Peek 1953: 306). Peek claimed that a victory epigram for Salamis and Platae, unknown in the literary tradition, had now been found.

The evidence for this attribution, however, seems slight. If the poem is an epigram only line one and three are preserved. In the preserved text men on foot and an island are referred to; hippous may possibly be restored in line one.