In Greek mythology, Erectheus was an early king of Athens. Early writers often identified him with either Erichthonius, who later became known as his grandfather, or with the god Poseidon, whose attributes he often shares, and whose rites on the Acropolis were similar to his. Erectheus was called 'earth-born' in the Iliad, which also states that he was raised by Athena. Other later authors make him the son of Pandion and Zeuxippe. Erectheus married Praxithea, the daughter of Phrasimus and Diogenia. Among his many children were Cecrops, Pandorus, Metion, Procris, Oreithyia, Chthonia, and Creusa. Image File history File links Merge-arrows. ... Erechtheus in Greek Mythology was the name of a king of Athens, and a secondary name for two other characters In Homers Iliad the name is applied to the earth-born son of Hephaestus later mostly called Erichthonius by later writers. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... King Erichthonius (also called Erechtheus I) was, according to some legends, autochthonous (born of the soil), and in other accounts he was the son of Hephaestus and Gaia or Athena or Atthis. ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... Pandion can have several meanings. ... In Greek mythology, Zeuxippe was the name of several women. ... Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse, 1896 In Greek mythology, Praxithea (Greek ???) was a Naiad Nymph daughter of ??? and of ???. According to Apollodorus Praxithea married Erichthonius of Athens and by him had a son named Pandion I. References Apollodorus, 1921. ... The name Cecrops means face with a tail and it is said that this mythical Greek king, born from the earth itself, had his top half shaped like a man and the bottom half in serpent or fish-tail form. ... In Greek mythology, Pandorus was a son of Erichthonius II of Athens and Praxithea. ... In Greek mythology, Metion was a son of King Erechtheus of Athens or of Eupalamus son of King Erechtheus. ... The Death of Procris, by Piero di Cosimo (c. ... In Greek mythology, Oreithyia was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens. ... In Greek mythology, four people had the name Creusa. ...

While Erectheus was king of Athens, a war broke out with the nearby city of Eleusis. The Eleusians asked a Thrace, Eumolpus, for aid. Erectheus received an oracle which told him that only the sacrifice of one of his daughters would assure his victory. He killed one daughter, possibly Chthonia, causing many others to kill themselves. Some authors write that the daughters had made a pact to die together. Demosthenes, however, writes that Erectheus sacrificed several of his daughters. Creusa, Procris, and Oreithyia survived. Eleusis (Game) The cardgame invented by Robert Abbott in 1962, and later popularized in 1977 by Martin Gardner in his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American magazine. ... The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). ... In Greek mythology, Eumolpus was the son of Poseidon and Chione (or Hermes and Aglaulus). ... This article is about prophetic oracles in various cultures. ... Demosthenes (384–322 BC, Greek: Δημοσθένης, Dēmosthénēs) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. ... In Greek mythology, four people had the name Creusa. ... The Death of Procris, by Piero di Cosimo (c. ... In Greek mythology, Oreithyia was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens. ...

Erectheus won the battle and killed Eumolpus. Pausanias writes that he died in the battle. However, other authors say that he was soon killed by either Zeus or Poseidon, when Poseidon avenged his son Eumolpus' death by driving him into the earth with blows of his trident,^[1] or asked Zeus to kill him with a thunderbolt. In the Athebnian king-list, Xuthus, the son-in-law of Erectheus, was asked to choose his successor from among his many sons, and chose Cecrops II, named for the mythic founder-king Cecrops. Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... In Greek mythology, Xuthus (Classical Greek ) was a son of Hellen and Orseis and founder (through his sons) of the Achaean and Ionian nations. ... Cecrops II was son of Pandion I and inherited the Athenian throne from his brother Erechtheus. ... The name Cecrops means face with a tail and it is said that this mythical Greek king, born from the earth itself, had his top half shaped like a man and the bottom half in serpent or fish-tail form. ...

Notes

References

• Burkert, Walter, (Peter Bing, tr.) (1972) 1983. Homo Necans (Berkeley: University of California Press) 19
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks (London and New York: Thames & Hudson).