Book XVI, 221: On the Nemesis of the Athenians

I am a white stone which the Median sculptor quarried with his stone-cutter’s tools from the mountain where the rocks grow again, and he bore me across the sea to make of me images, tokens of victory over the Athenians. But when Marathon resounded with the Persian rout, and the ships voyaged on bloody waves, Athens, the mother of beautiful works, carved of me Adrasteia, the goddess who is the foe of arrogant men.