[The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of the Peloponnesian War BOOK II 21/51
Indeed, the old fashion of using the water before marriage and for other sacred purposes is still kept up.
Again, from their old residence in that quarter, the citadel is still known among Athenians as the city. The Athenians thus long lived scattered over Attica in independent townships.
Even after the centralization of Theseus, old habit still prevailed; and from the early times down to the present war most Athenians still lived in the country with their families and households, and were consequently not at all inclined to move now, especially as they had only just restored their establishments after the Median invasion.
Deep was their trouble and discontent at abandoning their houses and the hereditary temples of the ancient constitution, and at having to change their habits of life and to bid farewell to what each regarded as his native city. When they arrived at Athens, though a few had houses of their own to go to, or could find an asylum with friends or relatives, by far the greater number had to take up their dwelling in the parts of the city that were not built over and in the temples and chapels of the heroes, except the Acropolis and the temple of the Eleusinian Demeter and such other Places as were always kept closed.
The occupation of the plot of ground lying below the citadel called the Pelasgian had been forbidden by a curse; and there was also an ominous fragment of a Pythian oracle which said: Leave the Pelasgian parcel desolate, Woe worth the day that men inhabit it! Yet this too was now built over in the necessity of the moment.
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