In his recent posting on Classical Inquiries, Gregory Nagy shares eight glimpses of Marathon as encountered in Scroll 1 of Pausanias.
{1.27.10} Anyway, they say that this bull was conveyed [komizesthai] from Crete to the Peloponnesus, and became one of what are called the Twelve Labors [āthloi] of Hēraklēs.[4] When he was set loose on the Plain of the Argives he fled [pheugein] through the isthmus of Corinth and then fled [pheugein] further[5] into the land of Attica as far as the Attic deme [dēmos] of Marathon, killing everyone he encountered, including Androgeos, son of Minos. Minos then sailed against Athens with his navy, not believing that the Athenians were innocent of the death of Androgeos, and oppressed them so badly that it was finally agreed that they [= the Athenians] would bring seven girls [parthenoi] and seven boys [paides] to the Minotaur, who was said to dwell [oikeîn] in the Labyrinth [laburinthos] at Knossos. But, later on, Theseus is said to have driven the bull of Marathon to the Acropolis, where he sacrificed [thuein] it to the goddess [Athena]. And the dedicatory-offering [ana-thēma] [that signals this deed] is from the deme [dēmos] of Marathon.
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