Erechtheus

Erechtheus was an early king of Athens in Greek mythology, whose name was joined to Poseidon’s in the Athenian cult of Poseidon Erechtheus. In the usual account he was a son of Pandion, father of Procris, Creusa, Chthonia and Orithyia, and the king who defeated Eleusis and its leader Eumolpus but was destroyed by Poseidon, Eumolpus’ father.

Origins and Family

Homer knows Erechtheus as the earth-born king whom Athena fostered and set in her own rich sanctuary at Athens, where the Athenian youths worship him with sacrifices of bulls and rams every year (Iliad 2.546–551). Herodotus says that when Erechtheus succeeded to the rule, the people who had been called Cecropidae under Cecrops took the name Athenians (Herodotus 8.44.2).

In Apollodorus’ genealogy Erechtheus is a son of Pandion and Zeuxippe, who was Pandion’s mother’s sister. Pandion and Zeuxippe had the twin sons Erechtheus and Butes and two daughters, Procne and Philomela (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8). When Pandion died, his sons divided the inheritance: Erechtheus received the kingdom, and Butes the priesthood of Athena and of Poseidon Erechtheus (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1).

Wife and Children

Erechtheus married Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogenia, a daughter of Cephisus. They had three sons, Cecrops, Pandorus and Metion, and four daughters, Procris, Creusa, Chthonia and Orithyia (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1). The daughters married as follows:

• Chthonia married Butes, her father’s brother.
• Creusa married Xuthus.
• Procris married Cephalus, son of Deion.
• Orithyia was carried off by Boreas, the North Wind, from the banks of the Ilissus and bore him Zetes, Calais, Cleopatra and Chione (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1–2; Herodotus 7.189.1).

Erechtheus and Poseidon

At Athens Erechtheus was worshipped in the same sanctuary as Poseidon. The priesthood that Butes received belonged to Athena and to Poseidon Erechtheus, and Pausanias describes the Erechtheum on the Acropolis, where inside the entrance stood an altar of Poseidon, on which by an oracle they sacrificed also to Erechtheus. A well of sea water lay in the building, and on the rock was the outline of a trident, said to be evidence of Poseidon’s claim to the land (Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.26.5). Herodotus likewise describes a shrine of Erechtheus, “the Earthborn,” on the Acropolis, containing an olive tree and a pool of salt water, which the Athenians say Poseidon and Athena set there as tokens when they contended for the land (Herodotus 8.55).

The contest between Poseidon and Athena belongs to the reign of Cecrops, not Erechtheus. In Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the Acropolis with his trident and produced a sea that is now called Erechtheis, and Athena planted an olive tree; the twelve gods judged in her favour, since Cecrops had witnessed that she planted the olive first (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.1).

The War with Eleusis

War broke out between Athens and Eleusis. Eumolpus, a son of Poseidon and Chione, led the Eleusinians with a large force of Thracians. Erechtheus asked the oracle how the Athenians could win and was told to sacrifice one of his daughters; he slaughtered the youngest, and the other daughters killed themselves too, because, as some said, they had sworn to die together. In the battle that followed Erechtheus killed Eumolpus (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.4).

Euripides refers to the same story in the Ion: asked by Ion whether her father Erechtheus sacrificed her sisters, Creusa answers that he dared to kill the maidens as an offering for the land, and that she alone survived, being a newborn in her mother’s arms (Euripides, Ion 277–280). Pausanias tells it differently. In his account Erechtheus was killed in the battle, together with Eumolpus’ son Immaradus, and the war ended with the Eleusinians keeping control of the mysteries and being subject to Athens in everything else (Pausanias 1.38.3; compare 1.27.4).

Death

Poseidon, angry at the death of his son Eumolpus, destroyed Erechtheus and his house, and Cecrops, the eldest of his sons, became king (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.4–5). In Euripides, when Ion asks whether a chasm in the earth hides her father, Creusa answers that the blows of the sea god’s trident destroyed him (Euripides, Ion 281–282). Cecrops’ son Pandion was later driven out by the sons of Metion and, at Megara, became the father of Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus and Lycus (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.5).

Erechtheus Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.546–551; Herodotus 7.189.1, 8.44.2, 8.55; Euripides, Ion 277–282; Apollodorus, Library 3.14.1, 3.14.8, 3.15.1–5; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.26.5, 1.27.4, 1.38.3.

See Also: Poseidon, Athena, Pandion I, Praxithea, Procris, Creusa, Orithyia, Eumolpus