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But Poseidon having destroyed Erechtheus[*](According to Hyginus, Fab. 46, Zeus killed Erechtheus with a thunderbolt at the request of Poseidon, who was enraged at the Athenians for killing his son Eumolpus.) and his house, Cecrops, the eldest of the sons of Erechtheus, succeeded to the throne.[*](Compare Paus. 1.5.3; Paus. 7.1.2.) He married Metiadusa, daughter of Eupalamus, and begat Pandion. This Pandion, reigning after Cecrops, was

expelled by the sons of Metion in a sedition, and going to Pylas at Megara married his daughter Pylia.[*](Compare Paus. 1.5.3, who tells us that the tomb of Pandion was in the land of Megara, on a bluff called the bluff of Diver-bird Athena.) And at a later time he was even appointed king of the city; for Pylas slew his father's brother Bias and gave the kingdom to Pandion, while he himself repaired to Peloponnese with a body of people and founded the city of Pylus.[*](Compare Paus. 1.39.4; Paus. 4.36.1; Paus. 6.22.5, who variously names this Megarian king Pylas, Pylus, and Pylon.) While Pandion was at Megara, he had sons born to him, to wit, Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus, and Lycus. But some say that Aegeus was a son of Scyrius, but was passed off by Pandion as his own.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 494, who may have copied Apollodorus. The sons of Pallas, the brother of Aegeus, alleged that Aegeus was not of the stock of the Erechtheids, since he was only an adopted son of Pandion. See Plut. Thes. 13.)

After the death of Pandion his sons marched against Athens, expelled the Metionids, and divided the government in four; but Aegeus had the whole power.[*](Compare Paus. 1.5.4, Paus. 1.39.4, according to whom Aegeus, as the eldest of the sons of Pandion, obtained the sovereignty of Attica, while his brother Nisus, relinquishing his claim to his elder brother, was invested with the kingdom of Megara. As to the fourfold partition of Attica among the sons of Pandion, about which the ancients were not agreed, see Strab. 9.1.6; Scholiast on Aristoph. Lys. 58, and on Wasps 1223.) The first wife whom he married was Meta, daughter of Hoples, and the second was Chalciope, daughter of Rhexenor.[*](Compare Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 494, who may have copied Apollodorus.) As no child was born to him, he feared his brothers, and went to Pythia and consulted the

oracle concerning the begetting of children. The god answered him:

1. The bulging mouth of the wineskin, O best of men,
2. Loose not until thou hast reached the height of Athens.[*](As to the oracle, the begetting of Theseus, and the tokens of his human paternity, see Plut. Thes. 3 and Plut. Thes. 6; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 494; Hyginus, Fab. 37. As to the tokens, compare Diod. 4.59.1, 6; Paus. 1.27.8; Paus. 2.32.7. Theseus is said to have claimed to be a son of Poseidon, because the god had consorted with his mother; and in proof of his marine descent he dived into the sea and brought up a golden crown, the gift of Amphitrite, together with a golden ring which Minos had thrown into the sea in order to test his claim to be a son of the sea-god. See Bacch. 16(17).33ff. , ed. Jebb; Paus. 1.17.3; Hyginus, Ast. ii.5. The picturesque story was painted by Micon in the sanctuary of Theseus at Athens Paus. 1.17.3, and is illustrated by some Greek vase-paintings. See Frazer, commentary on Pausanias; vol. ii. pp. 157ff. )

Not knowing what to make of the oracle, he set out on his return to Athens.