Cynosarges

The legend goes that on one occasion when Didymos, an Athenian, was performing a lavish sacrifice, a white (or swift) dog appeared and snatched the offering; Didymos was alarmed, but received an oracular message saying that he should establish a temple to Heracles in the place where the dog dropped the offering.

[4] Herodotus mentions a shrine there in 490/89 BC,[5] and it became a famous sanctuary of Heracles that was also associated with his mother Alcmene, his wife Hebe and his nephew/helper Iolaus.

[9] A festival was held at Cynosarges in honour of Heracles in the month of Metageitnion, at which twelve nothoi were chosen to be parasitoi (fellow diners), who ate a meal with the cult statue of the god.

[10] Clement recorded that Philip II of Macedon, who claimed Heracles as an ancestor, was honoured with a cult at the site.

[11] Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1896-7 by Campbell Cowan Edgar, then a student at the British School at Athens.