When Pandion died, his sons divided their father's inheritance between them, and Erechtheus got the kingdom,[*](Erechtheus is recognized as the son of Pandion by the Parian Chronicle (Marmor Parium 28ff.), Eusebius, Chronic. vol. i. p. 186, ed. A. Schoene, Hyginus, Fab. 48 and Ov. Met. 6.675ff. According to Ov. Met. 6.675ff. Erechtheus had four sons and four daughters.) and Butes got the priesthood of Athena and Poseidon Erechtheus.[*](Compare Harpocration, s.v. Βούτης , who tells us that the families of the Butads and Eteobutads traced their origin to this Butes. There was an altar dedicated to him as to a hero in the Erechtheum on the acropolis of Athens (Paus. 1.26.5). Compare J. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie (Berlin, 1889), pp. 113ff. Erechtheus was identified with Poseidon at Athens (Hesychius, s.v. Ἐρεχθεύς ). The Athenians sacrificed to Erechtheus Poseidon (Athenagoras, Supplicatio pro Christianis 1). His priesthood was called the priesthood of Poseidon Erechtheus (Pseudo-Plutarch, x. Orat. Vit. Lycurgus 30, p. 1027, ed. Dubner; Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum iii.805; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecorum(3) 790). An inscription found at the Erechtheum contains a dedication to Poseidon Erechtheus (Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum 387, vol. i). Hence we may conclude with great probability that Heyne is right in restoring Ἐρεχθέως for Ἐριχθονίου in the present passage of Apollodorus. See the Critical Note.) Erechtheus
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married Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus by Diogenia, daughter of Cephisus, and had sons, to wit, Cecrops, Pandorus, and Metion; and daughters, to wit, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia, and Orithyia, who was carried off by Boreas.
[*](Orithyia is said to have been carried off by Boreas from the banks of the Ilissus, where she was dancing or gathering flowers with her playmates. An altar to Boreas marked the spot. See below, Apollod. 3.15.2; Plat. Phaedrus 229b-c; Paus. 1.19.5; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.212ff., with the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.212, from whom we learn that the story was told by the poet Simonides and the early historian Pherecydes. Compare Ov. Met. 6.683ff. According to another account, Orithyia was seen and loved by Boreas as she was carrying a basket in a procession, which was winding up the slope of the acropolis to offer sacrifice to Athena Polias, the Guardian of the City; the impetuous lover whirled her away with him, invisible to the crowd and to the guards that surrounded the royal maidens. See Scholiast on Hom. Od. xiv.533, who refers to Aculiaus as his authority. A different tradition as to the parentage of Orithyia appears to be implied by a vase-painting, which represents Boreas carrying off Orithyia in the presence of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Aglaurus, Herse, and Pandrosus, all of whom are identified by inscriptions (Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, vol. iv. p. 146, No. 7716). The painting is interpreted most naturally by the supposition that in the artist's opinion Aglaurus, Herse, and Pandrosus, the three daughters of Cecrops (see above, Apollod. 3.14.2), were the sisters of Orithyia, and therefore that her father was Cecrops, and not Erechtheus, as Apollodorus, following the ordinary Greek tradition (Hdt. 7.189), assumes in the present passage. This inference is confirmed by an express statement of the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.212 that Cecrops was the father of Orithyia. As to the vase-painting in question, see F. G. Welcker, Antike Denkmäler, iii.144ff.; Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, i.351ff. ) Chthonia was married to Butes,
[*](This is the third instance of marriage or betrothal with a niece, the daughter of a brother, which has met us in Apollodorus. See above, Apollod. 2.4.3; Apollod. 2.4.5. So many references to such a marriage seem to indicate a former practice of marrying a niece, the daughter of a brother.) Creusa to Xuthus,
[*](Compare Eur. Ion 57ff.; Paus. 7.1.2, where, however, Creusa is not named.) and Procris to Cephalus, son of Deion.
[*](The tragic story of Cephalus and Procris was told with variations in detail by ancient writers. See Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.321; Eustathius on Hom. Od. xi.321, p. 1688; Ant. Lib. 41; Tzetzes, Chiliades i.542ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 189; Ov. Met. 7.670-862; Serv. Verg. A. 6.445; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 16ff., 147 (First Vatican Mythographer 44; Second Vatican Mythographer 216). Of these writers, Tzetzes closely follows Apollodorus, whom he cites by name. They are the only two authors who mention the intrigue of Procris with Pteleus and the bribe of the golden crown. The story was told by Pherecydes, as we learn from the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xi.321, who gives an abstract of the narrative. In it the test of his wife's chastity is made by Cephalus himself in disguise; nothing is said of the flight of the abashed Procris to Minos, and nothing of the love of Dawn (Aurora) for Cephalus, which in several of the versions figures conspicuously, since it is the jealous goddess who suggests to her human lover the idea of tempting his wife to her fall. The episode of Procris's flight to Minos is told with some differences of detail by Antoninus Liberalis. As to the dog which Procris received from Minos, see above, Apollod. 2.7.1. The animal's name was Laelaps (Ov. Met. 7.771; Hyginus, Fab. 189). According to Hyginus, Fab. 189, both the dog and the dart which could never miss were bestowed on Procris by Artemis (Diana). Sophocles wrote a tragedy Procris, of which antiquity has bequeathed to us four words. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 170ff. The accidental killing of Procris by her husband was a familiar, indeed trite, tale in Greece (Paus. 10.29.6).) Bribed by
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a golden crown, Procris admitted Pteleon to her bed, and being detected by Cephalus she fled to Minos. But he fell in love with her and tried to seduce her. Now if any woman had intercourse with Minos, it was impossible for her to escape with life; for because Minos cohabited with many women, Pasiphae bewitched him, and whenever he took another woman to his bed, he discharged wild beasts at her joints, and so the women perished.
[*](The danger which the women incurred, and the device by which Procris contrived to counteract it, are clearly explained by Ant. Lib. 41. According to him, the animals which Minos discharged from his body were snakes, scorpions, and millipeds.) But Minos had a swift dog and a dart that flew straight; and in return for these gifts Procris shared his bed, having first given him the Circaean root to drink that he might not harm her. But afterwards, fearing the wife of Minos, she came to Athens and being reconciled to Cephalus she went forth with him to the chase; for she was fond of hunting. As she was in pursuit of game in the thicket, Cephalus, not knowing she was there, threw a dart, hit and killed Procris, and, being tried in the Areopagus, was condemned to perpetual banishment.
[*](Compare Tzetzes, Chiliades i.552. After the homicide of his wife, Cephalus is said to have dwelt as an exile in Thebes (Paus. 1.37.6).) While Orithyia was playing by the Ilissus river, Boreas carried her off and had intercourse with her; and she bore daughters, Cleopatra and Chione, and winged sons, Zetes and Calais. These sons sailed
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with Jason
[*](See above, Apollod. 1.9.21; Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.211ff., ii.273ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xiv.533; Scholiast on Soph. Ant. 981; Hyginus, Fab. 14, pp. 42ff., ed. Bunte; Ov. Met. 6.711ff.; Serv. Verg. A. 3.209. According to Hyginus, their wings were attached to their feet, and their hair was sky-blue. Elsewhere (Hyginus, Fab. 19) he describes them with wings on their heads as well as on their feet. Ovid says that they were twins, and that they did not develop wings until their beards began to grow; according to him, the pinions sprouted from their sides in the usual way.) and met their end in chasing the Harpies; but according to Acusilaus, they were killed by Hercules in Tenos.
[*](This is the version adopted by Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.1298-1308, who tells us that when Zetes and Calais were returning from the funeral games of Pelias, Herakles killed them in Tenos because they had persuaded the Argonauts to leave him behind in Mysia; over their grave he heaped a barrow, and on the barrow he set up two pillars, one of which shook at every breath of the North Wind, the father of the two dead men. The slaughter of Zetes and Calais by Herakles is mentioned by Hyginus, Fab. 14, p. 43, ed. Bunte.) Cleopatra was married to Phineus, who had by her two sons, Plexippus and Pandion. When he had these sons by Cleopatra, he married Idaea, daughter of Dardanus. She falsely accused her stepsons to Phineus of corrupting her virtue, and Phineus, believing her, blinded them both.[*](See above, Apollod. 1.9.21. The story of Phineus and his sons is related by the Scholiast on Sophocles (Antigone, 981), referring to the present passage of Apollodorus as his authority. The tale was told by the ancients with many variations, some of which are noticed by the Scholiast on Sophocles (Antigone, 981). According to Soph. Ant. 969ff., it was not their father Phineus, but their cruel stepmother, who blinded the two young men, using her shuttle as a dagger. The names both of the stepmother and of her stepsons are variously given by our authorities. See further Diod. 4.43ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Od. xii.69 (who refers to Asclepiades as his authority); Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. ii.178; Hyginus, Fab. 19; Serv. Verg. A. 3.209; Scholiast on Ovid, Ibis 265, 271; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 9, 124 (First Vatican Mythographer 27; Second Vatican Mythographer 124). According to Phylarchus, Aesculapius restored the sight of the blinded youths for the sake of their mother Cleopatra, but was himself killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt for so doing. See Sextus Empiricus, Adversus mathematicos i.262, p. 658, ed. Bekker; compare Scholiast on Pind. P. 3.54(96); Scholiast on Eur. Alc. 1. Both Aeschylus and Sophocles composed tragedies entitled Phineus. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 83, 284ff.; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 311ff. ) But when the Argonauts sailed past with Boreas, they punished him.[*](Here Apollodorus departs from the usual tradition, followed by himself elsewhere (Apollod. 1.9.21), which affirmed that the Argonauts, instead of punishing Phineus, rendered him a great service by delivering him from the Harpies.)
Chione had connexion with Poseidon, and having
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given birth to Eumolpus
[*](With this account of the parentage of Eumolpus, compare Paus. 1.38.2; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 854; Hyginus, Fab. 157. Isoc. 4.68 agrees with Apollodorus in describing Eumolpus as a son of Poseidon, but does not name his mother. On the other hand the Parian Chronicle (Marmor Parium 27ff.) represents Eumolpus as a son of Musaeus, and says that he founded the mysteries of Eleusis. Apollodorus does not expressly attribute the institution of the mysteries to Eumolpus, but perhaps he implies it. Compare Apollod. 2.5.12. It seems to have been a common tradition that the mysteries of Eleusis were founded by the Thracian Eumolpus. See Plut. De exilio 17; Lucian, Demonax 34; Photius, Lexicon, s.v. Εὐμολπίδαι . But some people held that the Eumolpus who founded the mysteries was a different person from the Thracian Eumolpus; his mother, according to them, was Deiope, daughter of Triptolemus. Some of the ancients supposed that there were as many as three different legendary personages of the name of Eumolpus, and that the one who instituted the Eleusinian mysteries was descended in the fifth generation from the first Eumolpus. See Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Colon. 1053; Photius, Lexicon, s.v. Εὐμολπίδαι . The story which Apollodorus here tells of the casting of Eumolpus into the sea, his rescue by Poseidon, and his upbringing in Ethiopia, appears not to be noticed by any other ancient writer.) unknown to her father, in order not to be detected, she flung the child into the deep. But Poseidon picked him up and conveyed him to Ethiopia, and gave him to Benthesicyme( a daughter of his own by Amphitrite) to bring up. When he was full grown, Benthesicyme's husband gave him one of his two daughters. But he tried to force his wife's sister, and being banished on that account, he went with his son Ismarus to Tegyrius, king of Thrace, who gave his daughter in marriage to Eumolpus's son. But being afterwards detected in a plot against Tegyrius, he fled to the Eleusinians and made friends with them. Later, on the death of Ismarus, he was sent for by Tegyrius and went, composed his old feud with him, and succeeded to the kingdom. And war having broken out between the Athenians and the Eleusinians, he was called in by the Eleusinians and fought on their side with a large
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force of Thracians.
[*](As to the war between the Athenians and the Eleusinians, see Paus. 1.5.2; Paus. 1.27.4; Paus. 1.31.3; Paus. 1.36.4; Paus. 1.38.3; Paus. 2.14.2; Paus. 7.1.5; Paus. 9.9.1; Alcidamas, Od. 23, p. 182, ed. Blass; Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 854; Aristides, Or. xiii. vol. i. pp. 190ff., ed. Dindorf. Pausanias differs from Apollodorus and our other authorities in saying that in the battle it was not Eumolpus, but his son Ismarus or, as Pausanias calls him, Immaradus who fell by the hand of Erechtheus (Paus. 1.5.2, Paus. 1.27.4). According to Pausanias (Paus. 1.38.3), Erechtheus was himself slain in the battle, but Eumolpus survived it and was allowed to remain in Eleusis (Paus. 2.14.2). Further, Pausanias relates that in the war with Eleusis the Athenians offered the supreme command of their forces to the exiled Ion, and that he accepted it (Paus. 1.31.3; Paus. 2.14.2; Paus. 7.1.5); and with this account Strab. 8.7.1 substantially agrees. The war waged by Eumolpus on Athens is mentioned by Plat. Menex. 239b; Isoc. 4.68, Isoc. 12.193; Dem. 60.8; and Plut. Parallela 31. According to Isocrates, Eumolpus claimed the kingdom of Athens against Erechtheus on the ground that his father Poseidon had gained possession of the country before Athena.) When Erechtheus inquired of the oracle how the Athenians might be victorious, the god answered that they would win the war if he would slaughter one of his daughters; and when he slaughtered his youngest, the others also slaughtered themselves; for, as some said, they had taken an oath among themselves to perish together.
[*](Compare Lyc. 1.98ff.; Plut. Parallela 20; Suidas, s.v. παρθένοι ; Apostolius, Cent. xiv.7; Aristides, Or. xiii. vol. i. p. 191, ed. Dindorf; Cicero, Pro Sestio xxi.48; Cicero, Tusculan. Disput. i.48.116; Cicero, De natura deorum iii.19.50; Cicero, De finibus v.22.62; Hyginus, Fab. 46. According to Suidas and Apostolius, out of the six daughters of Erechtheus only the two eldest, Protogonia and Pandora, offered themselves for the sacrifice. According to Eur. Ion 277-280, the youngest of the sisters, Creusa, was spared because she was an infant in arms. Aristides speaks of the sacrifice of one daughter only. Cicero says (Cicero, De natura deorum iii.19.50) that on account of this sacrifice Erechtheus and his daughters were reckoned among the gods at Athens. “Sober,” that is, wineless, sacrifices were offered after their death to the daughters of Erechtheus. See Scholiast on Soph. OC 100. The heroic sacrifice of the maidens was celebrated by Euripides in his tragedy Erechtheus, from which a long passage is quoted by Lyc. 1.100. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 464ff. ) In the battle which took place after the slaughter, Erechtheus killed Eumolpus.
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
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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.)