The legend

The initial name of Athens was Akte or Aktike, named after the first king, Akteos.
Her second name, Kekropia, received it from the king, Kekrops, who succeeded
Akteos, by marrying his daughter. According to the legend, his lower body was that of
a dragon. During his reign, goddess Athena and Poseidon were competing for the
protection of the city and each one offered presents. Poseidon struck the rock at the
Acropolis with his trident (the three marks can be seen behind the Erectheion..) and
a spring with salted water gushed up. With the blow also leaped the first horse, ready
to serve the man faithfully, while Athena offered an olive tree. The legend tell us, that
all the men of Athens voted for the gift of Poseidon and all the women, for the gift of
Athena and because there was one woman more than the men, goddess Athena
was selected and from her, the city took her name. To defend the country from the
Karian pirates from the sea and the Boeotians from the land, Kekrops, in order to
manage better the population, distributed Attica in the following twelve sections:
Aphidna, Brauron, Dekeleia, Epakria, Eleusis, Kekropia, Kephisius, Kytherus,
Phalerus, Sphettus, Tetrapolis, Thorikus. He also ordered each man to cast a single
stone and by counting the stones, it was found that they were twenty thousand
inhabitants.Kekrops introduced the worship of Zeus and the ritual offerings of sweet
meats (pelanoi), instead of human sacrifice. His grave in Acropolis was preserved
until the fourth century BC. When an enemy army besieged Athens, the Athenians
asked the advice of Delphi, which gave them the oracle, that in order to save the city,
an Athenian ought to be sacrificed by his own will. When the daughter of king
Kekrops, Agravlos, learned about the oracle, she ascended to the Acropolis and fell
to her death. Athenians to honor her, build a temple in the Acropolis and every year,
were celebrating the Agravleia.According to another legend, Agravlos or Aglavros,
the same daughter of king Kekrops and her two sisters Herse
and Pandrosos, they were entrusted with a box by goddess Athena, which
commanded them not to open it. Pandrosos, the younger one, obeyed, but Agravlos
and Herse opened it and saw a serpent shaped child or according to another
version, a snake surrounding the child Erichthonios, which came out and crawled to
the shield of Athena. The girls were so frightened from what they saw, that they leapt
to their deaths, from the Acropolis. Kekrops was succeeded by his son, Erysichthon,
who had no children and he was succeeded by Kranaos. One of the daughters of
Kranaos was called Atthis and from her, the whole region took the name, Attica.
Kranaos was dethroned by Amphiktyon, who in return was expelled by Erichthonios,
son of Hephaestos and the Earth.The Legend represents him as half man and half
serpent. He took power around 1500 BC and started a powerful dynasty from which
the heroes Pandion, Erechtheos, Aegeas, Theseus descended. Erichthonios placed

in the Acropolis the wooden statue of Athena and introduced the festival of
Athenaea. He was the inventor of the four wheeled chariot and the first to bread
horses. He married the nymph Pasithea and had a son, Pandion. Pandion married
the nymph Zeuxippe and had twin sons Erechtheos and Butes and two daughters,
Prokne and Philomela.Pandion was succeeded by Erechtheos. When Erechtheos
was at war with the Eleusinians and Thracians, under their leader Eumolpos, he was
advised by the Delphic oracle, that in order to win the war, he ought to sacrifice the
three of his six daughters. When the girls voluntary consented, Erechtheos put them
to death. After this, he went to the battle with confidence and totally vanquished his
enemy. When the Eleusinians were defeated, Poseidon in anger destroyed the house
of Erechtheos, who was probably killed in the battle. Erechtheos was succeeded by
his son Kekrops II and he by his son Pandion II, who had four sons, Aegeus, Pallas,
Nisus and Lycos.

Theseusca 1300 BC
Theseus was the son of the king of Athens, Aegeus and Aethra. He had been
educated by his grandfather, Pittheus at Troezen, and at age sixteen, he dedicated
his forelocks to the Delian Apollo.
His father Aegeus was childless and when he consulted the oracle at Delphi, he
received an obscure reply and in order to interpret it, he visited Pittheus, the king of
Troezen, famous for his wisdom. Pittheus made him drunk and put him to sleep with
his daughter, Aethra, which became pregnant after that. When Aegeus departed, he
left behind a sword and a pair of sandals, under a rock and told Aethra, that if the
child was a boy and reaches manhood to lift the rock, take the sword and the
sandals and come to Athens.When Theseus reached the age of sixteen, his mother
led him to the rock, which he lifted with ease, took his father presents and set out to
meet him. In his way to Athens, he had a series of adventures, all of them victorious.
When Theseus arrived at Athens, Medeia, the wife of Aegeus, suspecting who was,
she persuaded Aegeus to invite him to a banquet, intending to kill him with poison.
His father however recognized him in time, from the sword he was wearing and
banished Medeia and her son, to Asia.
Theseus was the first social reformer of Athens. At his time, Attica was consisted
from twelve towns, each one having her own ruler (tyrannisko), who came often in
conflict between them. Theseus united the towns (synoikismos) and renamed the city
of Athena, Athenae, meaning the union of the twelve cities. To commemorate this
event, he instituted the feast of the union of the tribes (synoikia or metoikia) and the
Athenaea, the festival Erichthonios had introduced, renamed them Panathenaea, a

celebration of the new united city of Athens.He distributed the people in three
classes: the Eupatridae, Geomoroi and Demiourgoi. Eupatridae were the rich and
educated people, governors, generals, priests, etc. Geomoroi were agricultural
people and Demiourgoi were the artisans. All three classes had the same rights. He
issued coins, with the picture of an ox upon them, the so called dekaveia and
ekatoveia, with the value of ten and one hundred oxen. Theseus took also part in the
Argonautic expedition and fought with Herakles against the Amazons. He increased
the territory of Athens, by conquering Megara, reaching as far as the Isthmos of
Corinth. He also introduced the Isthmia Games, at Isthmos. Menestheos, the rival of
Theseus, took advantage to destroy his popularity with the people, while Theseus
was away from Attica, to help his friend Perithoos. At the same time Kastor and
Pollux invaded Attica, in order to free their sister Helen, whom Theseus had
abducted from Sparta. A friend of Menestheos, Academos, who had gardens in the
place where later the Academy was created, told Dioskouroi where Theseus was
hiding Helen, in Aphidnae. With the Dioskouroi fought also against the Athenians, the
general Marathos, from Arkadia. The place, where he was killed in battle, was
named Marathon.When Theseus returned to Athens, he found out that the people
were no more disposed to listen and honor him and thus, he left his sons under the
protection of Elephenor in Euboea and went to the island of Skyros.
Theseus was assassinated by his friend king Lykomedes of Skyros. His remains
were brought by Kimon in 475 BC, from the island of Skyros to Athens and were
buried south west of Agora. Near it, a set of rooms decorated by the famous painters
Mikon and Polygnotos, were used for feasts, in his honor. The Doric temple of
Hephaestos and Athena Ergane or Theseum, which stands at the western end of the
Agora, on the hill of Agoraios Kolonos, erected by the architect Ictinos (449-440 BC),
depicts the exploits of Theseus in its friezes and metopes. Menestheos later became
the commander of the Athenian troops, at Troy. Even though he was alive, he did not
return to Athens and Athenians restored the sons of Theseus, Demophoon, Oxynias,
Apheidas and Thymaetes, who in succession governed Athens for about sixty
years. When the Dorians invaded Peloponnesos, they forced Melanthos and the
Neleid family of Pylos, to abandon their kingdom and to find shelter at Athens. When
a war broke between Athenians and Euboeans for the boundary of Oinoe, the
Boeotian king Xanthos challenged Thymaetes to a single combat. When Thymaetes
declined to accept, Melanthos took his place and skillfully fought and killed his
opponent. After this event Thymaetes resigned and Melanthos became king.
Kodrosca 1100 BC
Melanthos and his son Kodros, reigned for almost sixty years. There is a story that
during the reign of king Kodros, a powerful Dorian force under Aletes from Korinth
and Althaemenes from Argos, invaded Attica. The

Delphic oracle had promised them success to their expedition, provided that they will
not injure Kodros. When this was learned by Kodros, he disguised himself as a
peasant woodcutter and went to the enemy camp, provoking a quarrel with the
Dorians and he was killed. When the Dorians learned that the killed person was
Kodros, they left Athens and conquered Megara. According to an older tradition,
Kodros was killed in the battle.Kodros was the last king of Athens. After his heroic
sacrifice, the Athenians did not permit anyone else, to bear the title of king. His
descendants, they were called Archons. After his death, his sons Medon and Neleus
quarreled for the succession, which was decided by the Delphi oracle. Medon
became Archon and Neleus left, leadingthe Ionians to colonize the Asia Minor.After
Medon, followed twelve Archons for life: Akastos, Archippos, Thersippos, Phorbas,
Megakles, Diognetos, Pherekles, Ariphron, Thespieos, Agamestor, Aeschylos and
Alkmaeon.In the second year of Alkmaeon (752 BC), the duration of the Archon
changed to ten years. There were seven Archons, which reigned for ten years each:
Charops, Aesimides, Kleidikos, Hippomenes, Leokrates, Apsandros, Eryxias.After
Eryxias, the title of Archon was given to nine distinguished persons, descendants of
Kodros and Medon, who changed annually, but after 714 BC, they were including
distinguished Eupatridae. From the nine Archons, who governed since 683 BC, to
the end of democracy, three had special titles: the archon Eponymos, from whom the
year was named after, the archon Basileus, the archon Polemarch. The other six had
the title of Thesmothetae (legislators).