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Birth of Erichthonius: Athena receives the baby Erichthonius from the hands of the earth mother Gaia, Attic red-figure stamnos, 470–460 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2413)

King Erichthonius (also called Erichthonios or Erichthonios), an early king of Athens, was, according to some legends, autochthonous (born of the soil, or Earth) and raised by the goddess Athena. Early histories did not distinguish between him and Erectheus, his grandson, but by the fourth century BCE during Classical times, they are entirely distinct figures.

According to Apollodorus, Athena visited Hephaestus to request some weapons, but Hephaestus was so overtaken by desire that he attempted to seduce her in his workshop. Determined to maintain her virginity, Athena fled, but despite Hephaestus' lameness, the smith-god caught Athena and unsuccessfully attempted to rape her. During the struggle, his semen fell on her thigh, and Athena, in disgust, wiped it away with a scrap of wool. She threw it to the ground, impregnating Gaia, Earth. Gaia returned the infant son to Athena, who named him Erichthonius, from chthon "earth", and placed him in a small box.

Athena then gave the box to the three daughters of Cecrops, the king of Athens- Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaulus - and warned them to never open it. Overcome with curiosity, Aglaulus and Herse (although sources are unclear whether only one sister, or all three participated) opened the box which contained the infant and future-king, Erichthonius ("troubles born from the earth"). The sisters were terrified by the sight that awaited them - either a snake coiled around an infant, or an infant that was half-man and half-serpent - the sisters went insane and threw themselves off the Acropolis. Other accounts state that they were killed by the snake.

An alternative version of the same story is that, while Athena was gone bringing a mountain from Pallene to use in the Acropolis, the sisters, minus Pandrosus again, opened the box. A crow witnessed the opening and flew away to tell Athena, who fell into a rage and dropped the mountain (now Mt. Lykabettos). Once again, Herse and Aglaulus went insane and threw themselves to their deaths off a cliff.

When he had grown, Ericthonius drove out Amphictyon, who had usurped the throne from Cranaus twelve years earlier, and became king. He married Praxithea, a naiad, and had a son, Pandion I. During this time, Athena frequently protected him. He founded the Panathenaic Festival in the honor of Athena, and set up a wooden statue of her on the Acropolis. According to the Parian marble, he taught his people to yoke horses and use them to pull chariots, smelt silver and till the earth with a plough. It was said that Erichthonius invented the quadriga, or four-horse chariot.

Ericthonius was succeeded by his son Pandion I. The snake is his symbol, and he is represented in the statue of Athena in the Parthenon as the snake hidden behind her shield.

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Erichthonius of Athens

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