MDS2/3 CLM Classical Mythology Founding Athens I: Crea=ng History Gillian Shepherd
Image Source Page: hcp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:acropolis- Athens34.jpg The Acropolis, Athens Autochthony/authochthonos (auto = self, chthonos = earth) Founders who travel (both foreign and Greek e.g. Pelops, Kadmos, Ion) Historical founda=ons (e.g. BaCos of Cyrene cf. Herodotus 4. 148 ff) NB: ae=ology
Early Kings of Athens Image Source Page: hcp://www.theoi.com/gallery/t42.1.html Kekrops (offspring Erysichthon, Aglauros, Herse, Pandrosos) {Kranaos} (3 daughters, including AChis) {Amphictyon} Erichthonios (Erechtheus) Pandion Erechtheus Kekrops (A[c red- figure kylix, Kodros Painter, c. 440 BC)
Image Source Page: hcp://www.sandrashaw.com/ah1l18.htm Parthenon, reconstruc=on of pediments (top = west, bocom = east) NB Thriasian plain (includes Eleusis)
Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens Photo Gillian Shepherd Then there is the building called the Erechtheion; in front of the entrance is an altar of Zeus the highest, where they sacrifice nothing that breathes, but they put sweet cakes there and the rite allows not even the use of wine. As you go in there are altars to Poseidon, where they sacrifice to Erechtheus as well, according to an oracle [there is] sea water inside a well the extraordinary thing about this well is that when the wind blows south a sound of waves comes from it. There is the mark of a trident in the rock. They say that these were Poseidon s arguments in the quarrel over the country Pausanias 1.26.5
Image Source Page: hcp://greecetravel.com/photos/athens/temple- of- olympian- zeus/temple- of- zeus01_jpg_view.htm Temple of Olympian Zeus (2 nd cent AD) The ground here has split open about two feet; they say this is where the water ran away aler Deukalion s flood (Pausanias 1.18.7) (NB Deukalion s wife was called Pyrrha; AChis/A[ca)
Image Source Page: hcp://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/classics/thes_txts.im.html A[c red- figure kylix, Kodros Painter, c. 440 BC Gaia (Ge) hands baby Erichthonios to Athena as Kekrops, Hephaistos and Herse watch NB ericos = woollen
Those who held the well- built city of Athens, The people of great- hearted Erechtheus, whom Athena Once nutured, the daughter of Zeus, and the grain- giving field bore him, And she established him in Athens in her rich temple. There the young men of Athens propi=ate him With bulls and sheep as the years turn in their course Iliad 2.546-51
Image Source Page: hcp://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/classics/thes_txts.im.html A[c red- figure kylix, Kodros Painter, c. 440 BC Gaia (Ge) hands baby Erichthonios to Athena as Kekrops, Hephaistos and Herse watch NB ericos = woollen
In this land of ours there have always been the same people living from genera=on to genera=on up =ll now, and they, by their courage and their virtues, have handed it on to us, a free country. Thucydides 2.36 (Perikles Funeral Ora=on, Peloponnesian War)
Euripides Ion (c. 420-410 BC) Hermes Ion Chorus (women slaves of Creusa) Creusa Xouthos (her husband, king of Athens) Old man (Creusa s slave) Messenger Priestess of Apollo Athena
Image Source Page: hcp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:the_temple_of_apollo_at_delphi.jpg Chorus: Apollo s temple too has twin pediments the Lernian snake being killed by Herakles and look here at Bellerophon astride his winged horse see carved on the marble wall the giants overcome by the gods in bacle Ion ll. 195 ff
Creusa: My name is Creusa and my father was Erecththeus; my na=ve land is the city of Athens. Ion: Is the common story true? that you father s ancestor was born from the earth? Creusa: Athena took him up out of the earth. But she was virgin, she was not his mother Ion l.285 ff NB Perikles ci=zenship law of 451 BC