Year: 1989
Type: article
Abstract: The common cult of Erechtheus and Athena on the Acropolis was recognized by the ancients as the oldest and most venerable of aIl Athenian cuIts.A clear reference to this cult is made by Plutarch (Sympos.Probl., 9, 6) : Poseidon-Erechtheus was a partner of the same temple Ü:OLVroVOÇ 'toû aù'toû vaoû) with Athena (Fig. 1).Erechtheus and Athena were pre-Olympian deities of Attica. Chthonic Poseidon and kindred local godsErechtheus was an èpÉX8rov god 1 who rends or breaks the earth, an earthshaker god (èvo<J{x8rov or èvo<J{yawç).The corresponding Thessalian god (also pre-Olympie) was called II€'tpaîoç (god of the rock), because he rent an enormous rock at Tempe and created the famous channel of the river Peneios.The broad-known name of this god in Greece was IIo<J€t3&v (from oldest times perhaps in Arcadia), to whom the Thessalians identified their own II€'tpaîoç (since called IIo<J€t3&v II€'tpaîoç).So did Athenians with their Erechtheus (since known as IIo<J€t3&v 'EpeX8€ùÇ and in inscriptions IIo<J€t3&v 'Ep€X8€ùÇ yatlloxoç).Later no one doubted that Erechtheus was a local name for Poseidon (cf.HESYCH.: 'Ep€X8€ûÇ .0 IIo
Source: Kernos
DOI: 10.4000/kernos.247
Author: Nicolaos Papachatzis
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1991727561