Erichthonius & Ion

Kekrops

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 187

Erikhthonios [king of Athens], according to some, was the son of
Hephaistos and Kranaus daughter Atthis, while others say his
parents were Hephaistos and Athene, in the following manner.
Athene went to Hephaistos because she wanted to make some
weapons. But he, deserted by Aphrodite, let himself become

aroused by Athene, and started chasing her as she ran from him.
When he caught up with her with much effort (for he was lame), he
tried to enter her, but she, being the model of virginal self-control,
would not let him; so as he ejaculated, his semen fell on her leg. In
revulsion Athene wiped it off with some wool, which she threw on the
ground. And as she was fleeing and the semen fell to the earth,
Erikhthonios came into being.

Hyginus, Fabulae 166 :

When Vulcanus [Hephaistos] had made golden [thrones or sandals]
for Jove [Zeus] and for the other gods, he made one of adamant [for
Juno or Hera], and as soon as she sat down she suddenly found
herself hanging in the air. When Vulcanus [Hephaistos] was
summoned to free his mother whom he had bound, in anger because
he had been thrown from Heaven, he denied that he had a mother.
When Father Liber [Dionysos] had brought him back drunk to the
council of the gods, he could not refuse this filial duty. Then he

obtained freedom of choice from Jove [Zeus], to gain whatever he

sought from them. Therefore Neptunus [Poseidon], because he was
hostile to Minerva [Athena], urged Vulcanus [Hephaistos] to ask for
Minerva [Athena] in marriage. This was granted, but Minerva
[Athena], when he entered her chamber, defended her virginity with
arms. As they struggled, some of his seed fell to earth, and from it a

boy was born, the lower part of whose body was snake-formed. They

named him Erichthonius, because eris in Greek means strife, and

chthon means earth. When Minerva [Athena] was secretly caring for
him, she gave him in a chest to Aglaurus, Pandrosus, and Herse,
daughters of Cecrops, to guard. A crow gave the secrete away when
the girls opened the chest, and they, driven made by Minerva
[Athena], threw themselves into the sea.
Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13 :
Euripides [Greek tragedian C5th B.C.] gives the following account of
his [Erichthonios] birth. Volcanus [Hephaistos], inflamed by Minervas
[Athenes] beauty, begged her to marry him, but was refused. She hid
herself in the place called Hephaestius [sanctuary in Athens?], on
account of the love of Volcanus. They say that Volcanus
[Hephaistos], following her there, tried to force her, and when, full of

passion he tried to embrace her, he was repulsed, and some of his

seed fell to the ground. Minverva [Athene], overcome by shame, with

her foot spread dust over it. From this the snake Erichthonius was
born, who derives his name from the earth and their struggle."

460 B.C, Munich Painter 2413

Erichthonius

440 B.C, Codrus Painter

Oinanthe Painter, British Museum

410 B.C.
Erichtonius
Kadmos Painter
Calyx Krater

Nike

Hermes wearing
petasus & holding
Keryreion
Apollo
Hephaestus

Aphrodite

Neils, Jenifer & Oakley, J. H., 2003, Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images
of Childhood from the Classical Past, Hanover, New Hampshire: 208.

Euripides, Ion, 237 ff.

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:1 .24 ,III ,
"Cecrops, a son of the soil (autochton), with a body compounded
of man and serpent, was the first king of Attica, and the country
which was formerly called Acte [
] he named Cecropia after
himself. In his time they say, the gods resolved to take possession
of cities in which each of them should receive his own peculiar
worship. So Poseidon was the first that came to Attica, and with a
blow of his trident on the middle of the Acropolis, he produced a
sea which they now call Erechtheis. After him came Athena, and
having called on Cecrops to witness her act of taking possession,
she planted an olive tree, which is still shown in the Pandrosium.
But when the two strove for possession of the country, Zeus

parted them and appointed arbiters, not as some have affirmed,

Cecrops and Cranaus, nor yet Erysichton but the twelve gods.
And in accordance with their verdict the country was adjudged to
Athena, because Cecrops bore witness that she had been the first
to plant the olive. Athena, therefore called the city Athens after
herself, and Poseidon is hot anger flooded the Thriasian plain and
laid Attica under the sea.
, ") 27 116( Varro
:9 ,18
Now the name of Athens is certainly derived from Minerva, who is
called Athena in Greek. Varro gives the following explanation of
the reason why the city was so called. An olive tree suddenly
appeared and in another spot water gushed [ ]out, and these

portents [ , ]so alarmed the king that he sent to Delphic Apollo

to inquire their meanings and to ask what action he should take.
Apollo answered that the olive signified Minerva and the water stood
for Neptune, and that it rested with the citizens to decide from which
of the two deities thus symbolized their city should, for preference,
take its name. On receipt of the oracle, Cecrops called an assembly
of all the citizens, male and female, to vote on the question; for at
that time and in that part of the world the custom was that women
as well as men should take part in deliberation [ ]on matters
of state. Now when the matter was put before the multitude
[], the men voted for Neptune, the women for Minerva; and
as it happened, the women outnumbered the men by one; and so
the victory went to Minerva.
Then Neptune was furious, and devastated the Athenian territory by
floods of sea-water, for it is quite easy for demons to spread waters

about on any scale at their pleasure [] . To appease his

wrath [] , according to the same authority, the women
suffered a threefold punishment: They were never to have the vote
again; their children were never to take their mothers name; and no
one was ever to call them Athenian women. And so that the great
city, the mother or nurse of liberal studies and of so many great
philosophers, the greatest glory and renown of Greece, was fooled
by the demons, and received its name of Athens as a result of a
dispute between two of its deities, a male and a female, and from
the victory of the female conqueror, being in greater dread [ ,
]of Neptunes waters than of Minervas arms. In fact, the
victorious Minerva was vanquished [ ]in the persons of the
women who were punished in this way; and the goddess did not
come to the aid of the women who had voted for her. Though they
had lost their voting rights and their sons where debarred [
]from taking their mothers name, Minerva could at least have

ensured them the right to be called Athenian women, and to be

rewarded by bearing the name of the goddess to whom their votes
had brought victory over the male divinity