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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0301

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238 The Daughters of Kekrops

'Amelesagoras of Athens, author of the AttAis, asserts that no crow flies to
the Akropolis and that nobody can claim to have seen one so doing1. He adds
a mythical explanation. He states that, when Athena was given to Hephaistos,
she lay down with him and vanished2. Hephaistos fell to earth and spent his
seed. The earth afterwards produced Erichthonios, whom Athena nurtured and
shut up in a basket and entrusted to the daughters of Kekrops—Agraulos,
Pandrosos, and Herse—charging them not to open the basket until she
returned. She then went to Pellene3 and fetched a mountain to serve as a
bulwark in front of the Akropolis. The daughters of Kekrops, two of thern>
Agraulos and Pandrosos, opened the basket and saw two snakes coiled round
Erichthonios. As Athena was carrying the mountain, which is now called
Lykabettos, a crow—he states—met her and said "Erichthonios is exposed."
She on hearing it threw down the mountain where it now is, and told the crow
as bearer of evil tidings that never thereafter would it be lawful for it to go to
the Akropolis.'

1 Andron of Halikarnassos frag. 16 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 352 Miiller) = frag. 1 (Tresp
Frag. gr. Kultschr. p. 67 f.) ap. Apollon. hist. mir. &"Av$pwi> if rjj b" twv wpbs iHXtirro^
dmiCiv ■ Kopuivt] ev Tjj 'Attikj eis tt\v cucpoiroXiv ovSe/xla fiiparai daepxontvri, Kadairep oi&e
ev Ila<pip irepl to. 6vpwp.aTa to. ttjs 'A<ppodiTr)s p.vta t0i7TTa/x£C7j (supra ii. 783 n. 3), P'111,
nat. hist. 10. 30 ab arcturi sidere ad hirundinum adventum notatur earn (sc. cornicem) 111
Minervae lucis templisque raro, alicubi omnino non adspici, sicut Athenis, Ail. de nat. an-
5. 8 Kopi!>i>T} Is tt)v ' Ad-qvaluv &Kp6ird\iv ovk ianv iiti.pa.T6., cp. Ov.am. 2. 6. 35 armifei'ae
comix invisa Minervae, Hyg. fab. 166 hae cum cistulam aperuissent comix indicavit (on
the crow as a typical informer see O. Keller Die antike Tierwelt Leipzig 1913 ii. 103 (■)•

Some modem travellers accept as true the statement that crows avoid the top of the
Akropolis (R. Chandler Travels in Greece Oxford 1776 p. 54 'Crows, as I have often
observed, fly about the sides of the rock, without ascending to the height of the top')-
But such avoidance cannot be 'due simply to the height of the hill' (D'Arcy W. Thompson
A Glossary of Greek Birds Oxford 1895 p. 99). Rather, the site is too rocky to furnish the
crows' accustomed food. Besides, it is still tenanted by plenty of owls (on the war of owls
v. crows see Aristot. hist. an. 9. 1. 609 a 8 ff., Antigon. hist. mir. 57 (62), Plout. de invidf
et odio 4, Ail. de nat. an. 3. 9, 5. 48, Souid. s.v. &XKo y\a6i;, (SXXo Kop&vT) (pdiyyerat, Zenob.
1. 69, Diogenian. 2. 16, eiusd. cod. Vindob. 1. 31, Greg. Kypr. 1. 39, Makar. I- 8°'
Apostol. 1. 32, Arsen. p. 44 Walz. Cp. A. de Gubernatis Zoological Mythology London
1872 ii. 245 f. ('The Owls and the Crows'), D'Arcy W. Thompson op. cit. pp. 46' 98'
H.T. Francis—E.J. Thomas fataka Tales Cambridge 1916 p. 213 ff. (' The Owl as King'))-

2 Supra p. 222.

3 Pellene, an ancient city of Achaia, ' stands on a hill which rises at the summit into
a sharp point. The top is precipitous and therefore uninhabited' (Paus. 7. 27. r. Bu
see Sir J. G. Frazer ad loc). 'At the entrance into the city is a temple of Athena built o
native stone. The image is of ivory and gold: they say that it was made by Pheidias
before he made the images of Athena in the Akropolis of Athens and at Plataiai. 1 jje
people of Pellene also say that there is an ddyton of Athena running down deep int0 1
earth under the pedestal of the image, and that the air from this ddyton is damp, anc
therefore good for the ivory' (id. 7. 27. 2). The statue is shown on imperial bronze coins
of Pellene (Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner Num. Comm. Fans. ii. 91 f. pi. S, 10, Fraze
Pausanias iv. 183 f. fig. 25, H. Hitzig—H. Blumner on Paus. 7. 27. 2 with Miinztaf- 5> *'
Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt, p. 36 ('not by Pheidias'), G. M. A. RicMe
The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks New Haven, Yale University Press I929
pp. 161, 173)- Mair

Amelesagoras' mention of Pellene is borne out by Kallim. Hekalc frag. I. «i 11 ^
neM^c icpiKavev 'Axauda. But Kallim. frag. 19 Schneider ap. et. mag. p- 10°' 3°
 
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