Pandion I

Pandion I was a king of Athens in Greek mythology, the son of Erichthonius and the Naiad Praxithea and the father of Procne, Philomela, Erechtheus and Butes. He is best known as the father-in-law of Tereus, whose crimes against Philomela led to the transformation of the sisters and of Tereus into birds (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8).

Parentage and Family

According to Apollodorus, Erichthonius, king of Athens, married the Naiad nymph Praxithea, and she bore him a son, Pandion (Library 3.14.6). Pausanias also says that there was a king Pandion who was the son of Erichthonius, and another, later Pandion, who was the son of Cecrops the second (Description of Greece 1.5.3). The two should not be confused with each other, and Pandion I should not be confused with his own son Erechtheus.

Pandion married Zeuxippe, his mother’s sister, and had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, and twin sons, Erechtheus and Butes (Library 3.14.8). Pandion II, the father of Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus and Lycus, is a different king who reigned after Cecrops, the son of Erechtheus (Library 3.15.5).

Reign

Pandion became king of Athens after the death of Erichthonius, who was buried in the precinct of Athena. In his reign, says Apollodorus, Demeter and Dionysus came to Attica. Demeter was received by Celeus at Eleusis, and Dionysus by Icarius, who was given a branch of the vine and learned from the god how to make wine (Library 3.14.7).

The War with Labdacus and the Marriage of Procne

A war broke out between Pandion and Labdacus, king of Thebes, over a question of boundaries. Pandion called in the help of Tereus, son of Ares, from Thrace, and with his help brought the war to a successful end. He then gave Tereus his daughter Procne in marriage (Library 3.14.8). Ovid tells it a little differently: a barbarian army that had come by sea was threatening Athens, and Tereus of Thrace routed it with his auxiliary troops; Pandion then joined Tereus, a man powerful in wealth and warriors who traced his descent to Mars, to himself by marriage with Procne (Metamorphoses 6.422–428). Pausanias tells the story of the later Pandion, the father of Aegeus: he remarks that this Pandion made the marriage alliance with the king of Thrace for the sake of power, but that he was unlucky in rearing daughters (Description of Greece 1.5.4).

Procne, Philomela and Tereus

Procne bore Tereus a son, Itys. Tereus fell in love with Philomela, and told her that Procne was dead. He seduced her, married her, and cut out her tongue. Philomela revealed what had happened by weaving letters into a robe and sending it to her sister. Procne killed Itys, served him to Tereus at supper, and fled with her sister. Tereus pursued them with an axe and caught up with them at Daulia in Phocis, where the sisters prayed to the gods to be turned into birds. Procne became a nightingale, Philomela a swallow, and Tereus a hoopoe (Library 3.14.8). Ovid tells the story at length, with Pandion bidding farewell to Tereus and commending Philomela to him when she sets out to visit her sister (Metamorphoses 6.424–674; 6.494–495). Ovid does not say which sister became which bird: one flies to the woods, the other goes under the roofs of houses, and Tereus becomes the crested hoopoe (Metamorphoses 6.667–674).

Death and Succession

In Ovid’s account, grief for what had happened to his daughters brought Pandion to his death before his time and before the end of a long old age, and sent him down to the shades of Tartarus, and Erechtheus took the sceptre (Metamorphoses 6.675–677). Apollodorus simply says that when Pandion died, his sons divided their father’s inheritance: Erechtheus received the kingdom, and Butes the priesthood of Athena and of Poseidon Erechtheus (Library 3.15.1).

Pandion I Sources

Apollodorus, Library 3.14.6–8, 3.15.1, 3.15.5; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.5.3–4; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.422–674, 6.675–677.

See Also: Erichthonius, Praxithea, Erechtheus, Procne, Philomela, Tereus, Demeter, Dionysus