Chapter 7: The Royal House of Athens
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♠ Paus 1.27.2 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
About the olive they have nothing to say except that it was testimony the goddess produced when she contended for their land. Legend also says that when the Persians fired Athens the olive was burnt down, but on the very day it was burnt it grew again to the height of two cubits. Adjoining the temple of Athena is the temple of Pandrosus, the only one of the sisters to be faithful to the trust. Greek Text
♠ Paus 1.18.2 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
Above the sanctuary of the Dioscuri is a sacred enclosure of Aglaurus. It was to Aglaurus and her sisters, Herse and Pandrosus, that they say Athena gave Erichthonius, whom she had hidden in a chest, forbidding them to pry curiously into what was entrusted to their charge. Pandrosus, they say, obeyed, but the other two （for they opened the chest） went mad when they saw Erichthonius, and threw themselves down the steepest part of the Acropolis. Here it was that the Persians climbed and killed the Athenians who thought that they understood the oracle better than did Themistocles, and fortified the Acropolis with logs and stakes. Greek Text
♠ Androtion FGrH 324F1 – Fragments of the Greek historians cited according to F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. 3 B, p. 63. Leiden 1923.
♠ Hellanikos FGrH 4F38 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 119, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Paus 1.38.3 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
When the Eleusinians fought with the Athenians, Erechtheus, king of the Athenians, was killed, as was also Immaradus, son of Eumolpus. These were the terms on which they concluded the war: the Eleusinians were to have in dependent control of the mysteries, but in all things else were to be subject to the Athenians. The ministers of the Two Goddesses were Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus, whom Pamphos and Homer agree in naming Diogenia, Pammerope, and the third Saesara. Eumolpus was survived by Ceryx, the younger of his sons whom the Ceryces themselves say was a son of Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops, and of Hermes, not of Eumolpus. Greek Text
♠ IG 14.1389 – Marcellus of Side – Inscriptiones Graecae
Not begrudged to him, a descendent of Kekrops, is this old wonder of Tyrrhenian men [Etruscans] on his ankle, born of Hermes and Herse, if truly Keryx was ancestor of Herodes, descended from Theseus [i.e. an Athenian]. Therefore he is honoured and gives his name to the year. (Transl. M. Davies – S. Pomeroy) Greek Text
♠ Met 2.722-835 – Ovid, Metamorphoses
As much as Lucifer outshines the stars
that emulate the glory of his rays,
as greatly as bright Phoebe pales thy light,
O lustrous Lucifer! so far surpassed
in beauty the fair maiden Herse, all
those lovely virgins of that sacred train,
departing joyous from Minerva’s grove.
The Son of Jove, astonished, while he wheeled
on balanced pinions through the yielding air,
burned hot; as oft from Balearic sling
the leaden missile, hurled with sudden force,
burns in a glowing heat beneath the clouds.
Then sloped the god his course from airy height,
and turned a different way; another way
he went without disguise, in confidence
of his celestial grace. But though he knew
his face was beautiful, he combed his hair,
and fixed his flowing raiment, that the fringe
of radiant gold appeared. And in his hand
he waved his long smooth wand, with which he gives
the wakeful sleep or waketh ridded eyes.
He proudly glanced upon his twinkling feet
that sparkled with their scintillating wings.
In a secluded part of that great fane,
devoted to Minerva’s hallowed rites,
three chambers were adorned with tortoise shell
and ivory and precious woods inlaid;
and there, devoted to Minerva’s praise,
three well known sisters dwelt. Upon the right
dwelt Pandrosos and over on the left
Aglauros dwelt, and Herse occupied
the room between those two. (Continue reading) Latin Text
♠ ApB 3.14.3 Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Herse had by Hermes a son Cephalus, whom Dawn loved and carried off, and consorting with him in Syria bore a son Tithonus, who had a son Phaethon, who had a son Astynous, who had a son Sandocus, who passed from Syria to Cilicia and founded a city Celenderis, and having married Pharnace, daughter of Megassares, king of Hyria, begat Cinyras. This Cinyras in Cyprus, whither he had come with some people, founded Paphos; and having there married Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, he begat Oxyporus and Adonis, and besides them daughters, Orsedice, Laogore, and Braesia. These by reason of the wrath of Aphrodite cohabited with foreigners, and ended their life in Egypt. Greek Text
♠ Th 986-87 – Hesiod, Theogony
But to Kephalos [Eos] bore a radiant son, mighty Phaethon, a man alike to the gods. (Transl. Aaron J. Ivey) Greek Text
♠ Hipp 454-58 – Euripides, Hippolytus
…and they know how beautiful-shining Eos once snatched away Kephalos to the gods because of desire. But, nevertheless, they dwell in heaven and flee not from gods. Alas, they bear being conquered by misfortune. (Transl. Aaron J. Ivey) Greek Text
♦ Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (once Getty Museum 84.AE.569, Malibu, CA): Attic red-figure cup by Douris with Eos and Kephalos and Kekrops (named)
Beazley Archive Pottery Database (no image)
♠ Met 7.672-862 – Ovid, Metamorphoses
Phocus then
observed that Cephalus held in his hand
a curious javelin with golden head,
and shaft of some rare wood. And as they talked,
he said; “It is my pleasure to explore
the forest in the chase of startled game,
and so I’ve learned the nature of rare woods,
but never have I seen the match of this
from which was fashioned this good javelin;
it lacks the yellow tint of forest ash,
it is not knotted like all corner-wood;
although I cannot name the kind of wood,
my eyes have never seen a javelin-shaft
so beautiful as this.”
To him replied
a friend of Cephalus; “But you will find
its beauty is not equal to its worth,
for whatsoever it is aimed against,
its flight is always certain to the mark,
nor is it subject to the shift of chance;
and after it has struck, although no hand
may cast it back, it certainly returns,
bloodstained with every victim.” Continue reading Latin Text
♠ AntLib 41 – Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses – Mythography Graeci 2.1, pp. 123-27, ed. E. Martini. Leipzig 1896.
ALOPEX: Cephalus, son of Deion, married at Thoricus in Attica Procris, daughter of Erechtheus. Cephalus was a handsome and brave youth and the goddess of Dawn fell in love with him because of his beauty. She kidnapped him, keeping him at home as a lover. … And then Cephalus put Procris to a test to see if she was inclined to remain faithful to him. He pretended that he was going out hunting and sent in to Procris one of his servants who was not known to her, with a great deal of gold. He was instructed to say that a foreign gentleman had fallen in love with her and offered her this gold if she would have intercourse with him. At first Procris refused the gold but when the man sent double the quantity, she agreed and accepted the proposition. When Cephalus saw her approaching the house in order to lie with the foreigner, he brought out a flaming torch and discovered her. In her shame Procris forsook Cephalus and went off as a fugitive to Minos the king of Crete. She found on arrival that he was afflicted by childlessness and promised a cure, showing him how to beget children. Now Minos would ejaculate snakes, scorpions and millipedes, killing the women with whom he had intercourse. But his wife Pasiphae, daughter of the Sun, was immortal. Procris accordingly devised the following to make Minos fertile. She inserted the bladder of a goat into a woman and Minos first emitted the snakes into the bladder; then he went over to Pasiphae and entered her. And when children were born to them, Minos gave Procris his spear and his dog. No animal could escape these two and they always reached their target. Accepting them, Procris went to Thoricus in Attica, where Cephalus lived, and became a hunter with him. She had altered her clothes and had cut her hair as a man; no one who saw her recognized her. When Cephalus saw that he never caught anything when hunting, while everything went the way of Procris, he yearned to have that spear for himself. Procris promised to give him the dog as well, if he would agree to enjoy her youthful charms. Cephalus accepted the proposition and when they lay down together, Procris revealed who she was and reproached him for having committed something far more disgraceful. But Cephalus acquired the dog and the spear. Amphitryon, who needed the dog, went to Cephalus and asked him if he would be willing to join him, with the dog, in going after the Fox. He promised to hand over to him a share of the booty which he would take from the Teleboeans. For at that time there had appeared in the land of the people of Cadmus, a fox that was a monstrous creature. It would regularly issue out of Teumessus snatching up Cadmeans. Every thirty days they would put out a child for it and the Fox would take it and eat it up. Amphitryon had asked Creon and the Cadmeans to help in making war against the Teleboeans. They refused unless he helped them do away with the Fox. Amphitryon accepted these conditions from the Cadmeans and went to Cephalus and told him about the agreement and urged him to go to Thebes with the dog. Cephalus accepted the proposal and set out to hunt the Fox. But it had been ordained that the Fox could not be taken by any hunter, and that nothing should escape that dog when it went hunting. Zeus saw them when they reached the Plain of Thebes and turned them both into stones. Greek Text
♠ Fab 160 – Hyginus, Fabulae
SONS OF MERCURY: Priapus. Echion by Antianira, and Eurytus. Cephalus by Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus. *Eurestus *Aptale. Libys by Libye, daughter of Palamedes. Latin Text
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Literary sources edited by Aaron J. Ivey, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Classics, University of Georgia, July 2016; updated by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, April 2021
Artistic sources edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., September 2016; and by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, October 2016.
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