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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#0303

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240 The Daughters of Kekrops

themselves from the citadel at Athens, while the snake fled for
refuge to the shield of Athena and was reared by the goddess. But
the same author elsewhere1 informs us that the maidens, when
maddened by Athena, hurled themselves into the sea. The tale was
popular, and later writers repeat it with other unimportant variations .
Under the empire the versions degenerate till Fulgentius3 (c. $00.
A.D.) makes the fateful basket entrusted 'to two sisters, Aglauros
and Pandora'! Even Ovid4, following some Hellenistic source
(Nikandros ?)5, and himself followed by a prose compiler misnamed
Lactantius Placidus6, rewrites the whole narrative in absurd romantic
vein.

Miss J. E. Harrison7 in an ingenious but hardly convincing
passage claimed that the story of the Kekropides was invented to
account for the ritual of the Arrhephoria. It may indeed have been
an aetiological myth; for the Athenians are said to have performed
mysterious rites for Agraulos and Pandrosos, who had sinned W
opening the chest8. But it was the Kallynteria and the Plynteria

1 Hyg. fab. 166 (continuing the passage cited supra p. 222 n. 6) quern Minerva cum
clam nutriret, dedit in cistula servandum Aglauro Pandroso et Hersae Cecropis filiabus.
hae cum cistulam aperuissent cornix indicavit {supra p. 238 n. 1); illae a Minerva insania
obiecta ipsae se in mare praecipitaverunt.

The same alternative versions were given in the case of Aigeus' suicide (K. Wernicke
in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 954, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 31 n. 13). The attempt
to harmonise them was a failure (Nikokrates frag. 1 {Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 466 Muller) up-
schol. Ap. Rhod. i. 831 NiKOKpd-njs 5^ tp-qaiv 8ti cwrd Alyem KaraKp-qixviixavTos eavTOV a'"'0
rrjs d.Kpo7rb\ews els T7]v 6a\a.aaa.v. ouk tto\v yap dWx« V o.Kpbtvo\is rvjs 0a\aC^V
TrapairktovTi).

' The literary evidence was diligently collected and arranged by B. Powell Eric^
thonius and the three Daughters of Cecrops {Cornell Studies in Classical Philology xVU'
Ithaca, New York 1906 pp. 1—7, 56—63.

3 Fulgent, myth. 2. n (continuing the passage cited supra p. 222 n. 7) quem Miner*
in cistam abscondidit draconeque custode opposito duabus sororibus Aclauro et Pandorae
commendavit.

4 Ov. met. 2. 708—835.

W. Vollgraff Nikander und Ovid Groningen 1909 i. 118.

6 Lact. Plac. narr. fab. 2. 12 Athenis virgines per solemne sacrificium canistri.
Minervae ferunt pigmenta (B. Powell op. cit. pp. 5 n.a, 40 n.b cj. figmenta): inter q«as
a Mercurio eminens specie conspecta est Herse Cecropis filia. itaque adgressus est
sororem eius Aglauron, precatusque ut se Hersae sorori suae iungeret. at ilia cum P'°
ministerio aurum eum poposcisset, Minerva graviter offensa est avaritia eius, ob quan^
cistulam etiam traditam sororibus eius custodiendam adversus suum praedictum aperuisset.
Invidiae novissime imperavit earn sororis Herses exacerbare (so A. von Staveren, aftel
Giselin, for sorori Hersae exacerbavit cod.) fortunio: diuque excruciatam saxo mutavit.

7 Harrison Myth. Mon. Anc. Ath. p. xxxiiff., cp. ead. Proleg. Gk. Rel? p. i33> ea
Primitive Athens Cambridge 1906 p. 50 f.

8 Athenag. supplicatio pro Christian*! 1 p. 1 Schwartz 6 Si 'A9^aios'E/)ex^c' Hoirei^'
Bva xal 'AypatiXu'kd-qvq. [ko! reXfTas xol p.\><sri\pio. 'Adrivaioi &yovaiv (seel. E. Schwai 1)
Kai UavSpda-a, at ivo)ila8t)aa.v a.ae.$uv ava^aaai. tt\v XdppaKa. Athenagoras, like Ame'es
agoras {supra p. 237 f.), makes Agraulos and Pandrosos the guilty sisters. J. Toepffer in
 
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