DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0048
34 ANCIENT ATHENS.
Ares also may have been included; at all events we have no notice of
his subsequent introduction. The remaining gods, as Apollo, Artemis,
Demeter, Aphrodite, &c, appear to have been of later adoption.
Poseidon is generally allowed to have had possession of Attica before
Athena; and it is remarkable that she, as well as Hephaestus and
Hermes, are reputed to have been of Egyptian origin. Athena is said
to have been the Egyptian Neith, Hephaestus Phtha, and Hermes Thotli.
An Egyptian origin is also ascribed to Erechtheus, the offspring of
Hephaestus and foster-child of Athena, who, when there was a dearth at
Athens, is said to have brought corn from Egypt.1 There was at all events
a close connection between the Athenians and the Egyptian Saitae in the
Delta. Plato says that the Saitae were very friendly to the Athenians and
claimed a connection with them, but in what manner he does not explain.2
According to Callisthenes and Phanidemus, quoted by Proclus in his
commentary on this place, the Saitae were a colony from Athens, whilst
Theopompus is also cited for a connection just the reverse.3 Plato in
this passage identifies Athena and the Egyptian Neith, and that there
was a similarity of worship in the two places seems certain; but in
which city it originated cannot be said. Herodotus records a tradi-
tion that Athena was the daughter of Poseidon and the Libyan lake
Tritonis.4 However this may be, it will be seen, when we come to de-
scribe the Erechtheium, that the deities worshipped in it were Athena,
Poseidon, or rather Poseidon-Erechtheus, Zeus, Hermes, of the greater
deities, and Pandrosos. Originally, perhaps, it was the house or palace
of Cecrops, for we sometimes find it called simply Sofios or oi/cijfia; and
according to an ancient Athenian custom to which we have before
adverted, Cecrops appears to have been buried in it, in a part called the
Cecropeium. Subsequently it became the temple of Athena, surnamed
Polias (= TroAtoin^o?), as the guardian deity of the city. Here was the
most ancient and revered image of her, a mere %6avov, rudely carved out
1 Diodor. Sic. i. 29. 3 See Meurs. De Fort. Athenar. i. 1.
2 jiaKa (piKaBrjvatoi, Kal riva Tponov Cf. Herod, ii. 28, 59, 170.
oi/ceioi raffit (rax 'Adqvaiwv).—Tim. p. 21 4 Herod, iv. 180.
(iii. ii. 12, Bekk.).
Ares also may have been included; at all events we have no notice of
his subsequent introduction. The remaining gods, as Apollo, Artemis,
Demeter, Aphrodite, &c, appear to have been of later adoption.
Poseidon is generally allowed to have had possession of Attica before
Athena; and it is remarkable that she, as well as Hephaestus and
Hermes, are reputed to have been of Egyptian origin. Athena is said
to have been the Egyptian Neith, Hephaestus Phtha, and Hermes Thotli.
An Egyptian origin is also ascribed to Erechtheus, the offspring of
Hephaestus and foster-child of Athena, who, when there was a dearth at
Athens, is said to have brought corn from Egypt.1 There was at all events
a close connection between the Athenians and the Egyptian Saitae in the
Delta. Plato says that the Saitae were very friendly to the Athenians and
claimed a connection with them, but in what manner he does not explain.2
According to Callisthenes and Phanidemus, quoted by Proclus in his
commentary on this place, the Saitae were a colony from Athens, whilst
Theopompus is also cited for a connection just the reverse.3 Plato in
this passage identifies Athena and the Egyptian Neith, and that there
was a similarity of worship in the two places seems certain; but in
which city it originated cannot be said. Herodotus records a tradi-
tion that Athena was the daughter of Poseidon and the Libyan lake
Tritonis.4 However this may be, it will be seen, when we come to de-
scribe the Erechtheium, that the deities worshipped in it were Athena,
Poseidon, or rather Poseidon-Erechtheus, Zeus, Hermes, of the greater
deities, and Pandrosos. Originally, perhaps, it was the house or palace
of Cecrops, for we sometimes find it called simply Sofios or oi/cijfia; and
according to an ancient Athenian custom to which we have before
adverted, Cecrops appears to have been buried in it, in a part called the
Cecropeium. Subsequently it became the temple of Athena, surnamed
Polias (= TroAtoin^o?), as the guardian deity of the city. Here was the
most ancient and revered image of her, a mere %6avov, rudely carved out
1 Diodor. Sic. i. 29. 3 See Meurs. De Fort. Athenar. i. 1.
2 jiaKa (piKaBrjvatoi, Kal riva Tponov Cf. Herod, ii. 28, 59, 170.
oi/ceioi raffit (rax 'Adqvaiwv).—Tim. p. 21 4 Herod, iv. 180.
(iii. ii. 12, Bekk.).