Cecrops1.0000_Reid.htm

 

Cecrops was a mythical (first, in some reckonings) king of Attica. Autochthonous, he is depicted in early, red-figure art as half-man/half-snake. He was a civilizer, establishing for the Athenians such social stablizers as monogamy, writing, funerary rites, city-building, census-taking, and many religious cults. He adjudicated the contest between Poseidon and Athena for patronage of Attica.

 

Cecrops appears in little modern art. Erichthonius, the offspring of Athena and also earth-born, or Erechtheus (who had a son named Cecrops [2]) draw little but more attention for artists since the Renaissance.

 

Apollodorus Library 3.14.1

Cecrops, who was born from the earth and had the body of a man and of a snake, was the first king of Attica. The land formerly called Acte he named Cecropia after himself. …”

 

 

Hyginus Fabulae 48, 158, and 166.4 = CecropsANCIENT_Hyginus