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Athens in mythical
times (from c. 1500 BC to c. 1000 BC)
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Athens is a city in Attica in mainland Greece;
the natives are called Athenians. The district of
Attica was formerly called Acte or Actaea in the
time of Actaeus 1, and Cecropia in the times of
Cecrops 1, since usually tyrants, who love honours,
call many things after themselves. The Athenians do
not belong originally to any of the primary
families [see Three
Main Ancestors], and are mostly called "sons of
the soil"
(AUTOCHTHONOUS). A
descendant of Deucalion
1 (Amphictyon) took over power in Athens for
twelve years, but otherwise the "sons of the soil"
ruled almost without interruptions until Melanthus
1 became king [see Throne Succession at the end of
this article].
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First King
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Some have mentioned Colaenus as first ruler of
Attica, but others say that the first king of
Attica was Actaeus 1, and that he reigned before
The Flood in the age of
Deucalion 1. His
daughter Aglaurus 1 married Cecrops 1, who in this
way inherited the throne and became the first king
of Athens.
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Cecrops 1
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King Cecrops 1, who had a body compounded of man
and serpent, was a so called "son of the soil",
although sometimes he is called son of
Gaia. The land which was
formerly called Acte, he named Cecropia after
himself. During his time, the gods competed with
each other to gain the patronage of the cities. In
Athens this competition took place between
Poseidon and
Athena [see these].
Because Cecrops 1 witnessed that
Athena had been the first
to plant the olive, the twelve gods who had been
appointed as arbiters by
Zeus, decided in her
favour. Some say that Cecrops 1 was a pious king
because he was the first to acknowledge
Zeus as the Supreme God,
and refused to sacrifice anything living, but
instead burnt cakes on the altar. He was a
contemporary of the utterly impious
Lycaon 2, who sacrificed
a human baby on the altar of
Zeus. Cecrops 1 had by
Aglaurus 1 one son Erysichthon 1 and three
daughters: Aglaurus 2, Herse 2 and Pandrosus.
Erysichthon 1 never inherited the kingdom as his
father survived him. And he was childless, so
Cranaus, another "son of the soil" [see
AUTOCHTHONOUS] but
in reality the most powerful of the Athenians, came
to the throne, and it was during his reign that
The Flood in the age of
Deucalion 1 took
place.
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Cranaus dethroned by Amphictyon
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Cranaus married the Lacedaemonian girl Pedias,
who gave birth to Cranae 1, Cranaechme and Atthis.
When Atthis died in her youth, Cranaus called the
country Atthis after her. Cranaus was dethroned by
Amphictyon, something for a son-in-law to do, for
Amphictyon was Atthis' husband. However some say
that Atthis died a maid. Cranaus fled from Athens
to Lamptrae, another location in Attica, and there
he died and was buried. Amphictyon was, according
to some, a so called "son of the soil" [see
AUTOCHTHONOUS],
but according to others he was the son of
Deucalion 1 and
Pyrrha 1. Amphictyon reigned during twelve years,
but then he and his seditious rebels were banished
by Erichthonius 2.
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Erichthonius 2
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The parentage of Erichthonius 2 [see
also Envy] is uncertain: it
has been said that he is the son either of
Hephaestus and
Atthis, or of
Hephaestus and
Athena, or of
Hephaestus and
Gaia, and he also has been
called a "son of the soil" [see
AUTOCHTHONOUS]. It
is also said that his body's lower part was
snake-formed. Erichthonius 2 married the naiad
Praxithea 2, and his child by her, Pandion 2,
became king of Athens when Erichthonius 2 died.
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Pandion 2
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It is during the reign of Pandion 2 that both
Demeter and
Dionysus 2 came to
Attica, the former being welcomed by Celeus 1, king
of Eleusis, and
Dionysus 2 by Icarius
2. Under Pandion 2, Athens was at war with
Thebes, which at the time
was ruled by Labdacus 1 (grandfather of
Oedipus), for a matter
of boundaries. For the purpose of defeating the
Thebans, Pandion 2 asked military assistance from
the Thracian king Tereus
1, who helped to bring the war to a successful
close.
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The price for military assistance
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But Tereus 1, having
received from the grateful Pandion 2 one of his
daughters as wife, seduced the other, pretending
the first was dead:
Tereus 1, after
marrying Procne, fell in love with her sister
Philomela 1. He seduced her, saying that Procne was
dead, as he concealed her in the country. So he
married Philomela 1, but cruel as he was, he cut
out her tongue. Yet, by weaving characters in a
garment, she revealed to Procne her own grief.
After having found her sister, Procne killed her
son Itys 1, boiled him, and served him up for
dinner to the unwitting
Tereus 1. Having done
this horrible deed, the sisters fled pursued by
Tereus 1. On being
overtaken at Daulis in Phocis, the sisters prayed
to the gods to be turned into birds, and Procne
became a nightingale, and Philomela 1 a swallow.
Tereus 1 also was
changed into a bird, turning into a hoopoe.
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Erechtheus
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At the death of Pandion 2, his sons divided
their inheritance, Erechtheus becoming king of
Athens, and Butes 2 receiving the priesthood of
Athena and
Poseidon. During the
reign of Erechtheus, war broke out against the
Eleusinians. Erechtheus inquired of the oracle how
the Athenians might win victory, and the oracle
answered that they would win the war if he would
sacrifice one of his daughters. When this had been
done, his other daughters killed themselves, as
they had taken an oath to perish together. On the
Eleusinian side, there was Eumolpus 1, who attacked
Athens because, as he put it, that land belonged to
his father Poseidon.
However he was defeated and killed by Erechtheus
along with Eumolpus 1's son Ismarus 2, who
commanded the troops. Some say that
Poseidon demanded then
that Erechtheus' daughter be sacrificed to him, so
that Erechtheus would not rejoice at the death of
Eumolpus 1. In any case Chthonia 1, Erechtheus'
daughter, was sacrificed. And some affirm that
Zeus killed Erechtheus with
a thunderbolt at
Poseidon's request.
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Cephalus 1 & Procris
2
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Apparently not all daughters perished on that
occasion. At least not
Procris 2, with whom
King Erechtheus had committed incest.
Procris 2 married
Cephalus 1, who some call King of Athens. But she
let herself be bribed by a golden crown, taking a
lover. Having being detected by Cephalus 1, she
fled to King Minos 2 of
Crete. But also
Minos 2 fell in love with
her. The case was that if any woman made love to
Minos 2, it was
impossible for her to escape with life, because
Minos 2 had been
bewitched by her wife Queen Pasiphae, and whenever
he took a mistress, he caused her death. But
Minos 2 had a Swift Dog
and a Dart-That-Flew-Straight. Accepting these
wonderful gifts, Procris
2 let herself be bribed again, and became his
mistress. However, she took care to make him drink
the Circaean root so that he might not harm her.
After some time, fearing the queen, she returned to
Athens and to her husband Cephalus 1, with whom she
was reconciled. But later, while they were hunting
she was by accident killed by the above mentioned
Dart-That-Flew-Straight.
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Cephalus 1 in exile
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For this death, Cephalus 1 was tried in the
Areopagus, found guilty and banished. Cephalus 1
settled in Thebes and
there he met another exile,
Amphitryon, and
together they waged war against the Taphians, who
lived in the islands off the coast of Acarnania.
The island of Cephallenia is called after this
Cephalus 1, father of Arcisius, father of Laertes,
father of Odysseus,
king of Ithaca and Cephallenia.
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Cecrops 2, Pandion 4 and the sons of Metion 1
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Some say that the successor of Erechtheus was
Cecrops 2, the eldest of his sons. Cecrops 2
married Metiadusa, daughter of Eupalamus, son of
Erechtheus.
Cecrops 2 was succeeded by his son Pandion 4,
who reigned in Athens until he was expelled by the
sons of Metion 1, and having emigrated to
Megara, he was later
proclaimed king of that city.
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Aegeus 1
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The sons of Metion 1 were in turn expelled by
Pandion 4's son Aegeus
1, who became king.
Aegeus 1 consorted with
Aethra 2, who gave birth to
Theseus, and later he
married Medea, by whom he
had a son Medus. During the reign of
Aegeus 1, Athens had to
pay a hard tribute to
Crete [see
Aegeus 1,
Theseus,
Crete and
Minotaur]. The
expedition of Theseus to
Crete liberated Athens
from this subjection, but as
Aegeus 1 thought
Theseus to be dead, he
threw himself into the sea and perished.
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Theseus
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[See Theseus to read
about his life and deeds. See
Helen to read about the
fate of Aethra 2,
Theseus' mother.]
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Menestheus 1
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Because of Theseus'
adventure with Helen, he
lost the kingdom and Menestheus 1 became king of
Athens, while Theseus,
as an exile, went to Scyros where he met his death.
Menestheus 1 was son of Peteos. This Peteos was
originally an Egyptian, who later obtained Athenian
citizenship. Peteos was, nevertheless, pursued
during the reign of Aegeus
1 and migrated from Attica to Phocis. However,
some say that Peteos' father was Orneus 1, after
whom the Orneae (a city west of
Mycenae) was called, and
that Orneus 1 was son of Erechtheus. Menestheus 1
was one of the SUITORS
OF HELEN, and bound by the oath of
Tyndareus, he became
leader of the Athenians against
Troy. After the sack of
Troy, Menestheus 1 went to
Melos and reigned as king, because the king there,
Polyanax, had died.
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Demophon 1
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The throne was then inherited by Demophon 1, son
of Theseus and
Phaedra. Demophon 1 also
fought in the Trojan
War, and is one of those who hid inside the
WOODEN HORSE. After
the war, Demophon 1 asked
Agamemnon for the
freedom of his grandmother Aethra 2 and
Agamemnon granted his
request after receiving
Helen's consent (Aethra 2
had become Helen's slave).
Demophon 1 is considered the cause of the suicide
of Phyllis 1, daughter of the king of the Thracian
Bisaltians, to whom he made love promises. Demophon
1 was himself thrown off by his horse, and fell on
his sword and died.
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Thymoetes 2 and Melanthus 1
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The last of the Athenian kings descended from
Theseus was Thymoetes 2,
son of Oxyntes. Thymoetes 2 was deposed by
Melanthus 1, who had been expelled from
Messenia by the
HERACLIDES Temenus 2
and Cresphontes. Melanthus 1 was son of Andropompus
1, son of Borus 3 (also expelled from
Messenia by the
HERACLIDES), son of
Penthilus 2, son of Periclymenus 1, son of
Neleus, a descendant of
Deucalion 1 and
founder of Pylos.
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Colonization of Ionia
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After Melanthus 1, Codrus 1 became king of
Athens. During his reign the Peloponnesians made an
expedition against the city, and in the war that
ensued Codrus 1 was killed. His son Medon 11
succeeded him on the throne. Otherwise the sons of
Codrus 1 began the Ionian colonization of Asia
Minor: Neileus was leader of an expedition;
Androclus has been called founder of Ephesus;
Cyaretus founded Myus (a city in Caria, southern
Asia Minor); Damasichthon 3, one the Ionian
leaders, was killed by his brother Promethus, who
himself died in Naxos; Andraemon 5 founded Lebedus
in Caria; Naoclus, who was a bastard son of Codrus
1, led an Attic contingent of Ionian colonists in
Asia Minor.
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