DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0042
28
AAOIENT ATHENS.
Athenians, and to put the laws prescribed for them under the protec-
tion of a deity whom they did not acknowledge seems hardly an
eligible way of recommending them. In the ' Euthydemus,' may not
Socrates be only fencing with the question of Dionysodorus, who was a
foreigner, and trying to mystify him, by giving to the doubtful epithet
7ra.TOft)o? only the sense of an actual progenitor, as in the case of Apollo,
without regarding that signifying a fatherly care ?
Macrobius says,1 after Philochorus, that Cecrops first erected altars
to Saturn and Ops—that is, to Cronos and Rhea. In the time of Pau-
sanias, as we shall see in the sequel, there was a common sanctuary of
these deities in the Olympium. The festival of Cronos (Kpovia) was
celebrated on the 12th of Hecatombseon, which month was at an earlier
period called the Cronian month (/irjv Kpovios); and it seems to have
resembled in its merriment and feasting the Roman Saturnalia.2
But what chiefly distinguished the reign of Cecrops was the contest
of Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. In like manner
Hera and Poseidon are said to have contended for Argos.3 Whether
such contests denote the strife of hostile races, having different religions,
or not, it may be remarked that the presence of a patron deity was
indispensable to an ancient city, with whom its safety was inseparably
connected. Hence, a prime object with the Greeks at Troy was to get
possession of the Palladium; and the Eomans, when besieging Veii,
implored the aid of its patron goddess Juno, nor dared to carry off her
image after it was captured, except with her own consent.4 In the
legend, the rival deities contend for the honour of presiding over the
city. Poseidon coming first, strikes the rock of the Acropolis with his
trident, and forthwith the salt water gushes out. Then comes Athena,
and produces the olive. These symbols of their strife were long shown
in after-ages; the olive tree in the Pandroseium ; the sea water
(HLpexfyk 6d\aacra) in the Erechtheium, where, indeed, the marks of
the trident are still exhibited! In the version of Callimachus, which
1 Saturn, i. 10.
2 Demosth. c. Timocr. p. 708, Kciskc :
Pint, 'flics. 12 ; Athen. xiv. 45.
3 Pausan. ii. 15, 5.
* Livy, v. 21, sq. See also the form of
evocation of the guardian dei:y of Carthage
in Macrobius, Saturn, iii. 9
AAOIENT ATHENS.
Athenians, and to put the laws prescribed for them under the protec-
tion of a deity whom they did not acknowledge seems hardly an
eligible way of recommending them. In the ' Euthydemus,' may not
Socrates be only fencing with the question of Dionysodorus, who was a
foreigner, and trying to mystify him, by giving to the doubtful epithet
7ra.TOft)o? only the sense of an actual progenitor, as in the case of Apollo,
without regarding that signifying a fatherly care ?
Macrobius says,1 after Philochorus, that Cecrops first erected altars
to Saturn and Ops—that is, to Cronos and Rhea. In the time of Pau-
sanias, as we shall see in the sequel, there was a common sanctuary of
these deities in the Olympium. The festival of Cronos (Kpovia) was
celebrated on the 12th of Hecatombseon, which month was at an earlier
period called the Cronian month (/irjv Kpovios); and it seems to have
resembled in its merriment and feasting the Roman Saturnalia.2
But what chiefly distinguished the reign of Cecrops was the contest
of Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. In like manner
Hera and Poseidon are said to have contended for Argos.3 Whether
such contests denote the strife of hostile races, having different religions,
or not, it may be remarked that the presence of a patron deity was
indispensable to an ancient city, with whom its safety was inseparably
connected. Hence, a prime object with the Greeks at Troy was to get
possession of the Palladium; and the Eomans, when besieging Veii,
implored the aid of its patron goddess Juno, nor dared to carry off her
image after it was captured, except with her own consent.4 In the
legend, the rival deities contend for the honour of presiding over the
city. Poseidon coming first, strikes the rock of the Acropolis with his
trident, and forthwith the salt water gushes out. Then comes Athena,
and produces the olive. These symbols of their strife were long shown
in after-ages; the olive tree in the Pandroseium ; the sea water
(HLpexfyk 6d\aacra) in the Erechtheium, where, indeed, the marks of
the trident are still exhibited! In the version of Callimachus, which
1 Saturn, i. 10.
2 Demosth. c. Timocr. p. 708, Kciskc :
Pint, 'flics. 12 ; Athen. xiv. 45.
3 Pausan. ii. 15, 5.
* Livy, v. 21, sq. See also the form of
evocation of the guardian dei:y of Carthage
in Macrobius, Saturn, iii. 9