Legend of «The Patron of Athens»

The legend of the patron of Athens, like so many other things in that city, has its origins in the Greek mythology. Specifically, it is related to the pantheon of gods that made up their religion and that many times were more playful than humans themselves.

But they also had other equally human emotions such as envy, jealousy, fights between them for the favor of Zeus and even the infatuation of those who populated the earth. There is something of all this in the legend of the patron of Athens. If you want to know it, we encourage you to continue reading.

The protagonists of the legend of the patron of Athens

But, before telling you the legend, we are going to briefly tell you about its protagonists so that you can put yourself in a situation. We do not need to explain anything to you about Zeus, the most important of the gods of the Greek olympus. And also the father of many of them like Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus or Ares, as well as our next protagonist.

Indeed, Atenea She was the daughter of Zeus, born from his forehead after the god swallowed her mother. That's how macabre were the beliefs in ancient Greece. He held the position of goddess of war and combat strategy being one of the most important and transcendent deities of the Greek Olympus. In fact, it was venerated by many peoples, even non-Hellenes, and passed into Roman mythology under the name of MinervaAlthough for Latinos she was only a goddess of wisdom and the arts, no longer of war.

On the other hand, the terrible Poseidon, God of the seas but also of the great tremors of the earth, that is to say, a creator of earthquakes. To do this, it was enough for him to split his trident into the ground.

Statue of Poseidon or Neptune

Poseidon

He is also one of the best known gods because he appears in the 'Odyssey' of Homer. It was he who prevented the hero Ulises return to your Ithaca native. And it is that the god of the sea hated the Ionic hero since he blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, his son.

Finally, the fourth protagonist of our story is a character named Crecope or Erechtheum, who was the first king of the city-state of Athens if we are to pay attention to historians such as Herodotus or Pausanias.

However, don't think that because of this he was more earthy than his co-stars. He was born directly from Gea. But not from the goddess, but from the earth itself which made him one of the "Autochthonous". In Hellenic mythology those beings born directly in this way, that is, directly from the ground, received this name. It is also said of him that the lower part of his body was that of a snake.

As you can see, the ancient Greeks were not lacking in imagination. The fact is that we already have our cast of characters complete and we can now go on to tell you about the legend of the patron saint of Athens.

The content of the legend of the patron of Athens

Athens is believed to have been inhabited since the Neolithic. However, as with Rome and other cities of antiquity, the origin of the Greek polis has a legendary and much more poetic history that is related to mythology: it is the legend of the patron of Athens.

Temple of Athena Nike in Athens

Temple of Athena Nike in Athens

This account that the newly created Greek city still had no name and also needed a protector god. By then Crecope, of whom we have already told you, was their king and he demanded that the inhabitants of Olympus present their candidacy. The winner would be the one with the best gift to the city.

After various vicissitudes, they remained only as applicants Atenea y Poseidon. Since there was no way to reach an agreement, he intervened Zeus, who ruled that the election be made through the vote of the Athenians. To win it over, the god of the seas prodded the earth of the city with his trident and water began to flow, a commodity greatly appreciated by the inhabitants of Athens. However, it was salty and ended up ruining the crops.

Intervened then Atenea, who withdrew the salty waters and, as a good goddess of agriculture, brought forth an olive tree. Seeing that he gave them wood and food, the citizens (or, probably, King Crecope) decided to turn this goddess into the patron saint of athens, which they named after her.

However, our story does not end there. Poseidon, who always had a reputation for being moody and vindictive, did not welcome the news of his defeat. In fact, he flew into a rage and unleashed a tidal wave that sank the lower lands of Athens. Only the highest and steepest were left on the sea, since the god considered them unproductive.

This explains why the Greek city developed on land surrounded by mountains. But in any case, the Athenians chose the goddess of agriculture as their patron.

Olive grove

olives

A variant, a story and two legends added

This beautiful legend also has a variant and a story that completes it. The first says that Poseidon gave Athens not water, but a horse, an animal that was unknown to its inhabitants at that time. We remind you that this deity was also a deity of equines.

Regarding the story, it says that all the women voted for Athena and all the men for Poseidon. He won the first by a single vote. But when the god of the seas unleashed chaos in Athens, men blamed women for it and, ever since, have they forbid voting establishing a partnership eminently patriarchal.

On the other hand, Athena has continued to be the patron of the Hellenic city to this day. But, shortly after being chosen as such, she starred in other two legendary stories very important for Athens that we cannot resist telling you.

The first has to do with marathon battle. While it was developing, the goddess was busy helping the urbanization of the Athenian lands. Therefore, he wore a large rock around his neck. When the news of the victory over the Persians reached the city, it surprised Athena, who was expecting defeat, so much that the huge stone that had led to the mount Lykabeto, the highest in Athens.

Mount Lykabeto

Mount Lykabeto

Regarding the second it says that, when the Persian king Xerxes I, son of Darius (the loser of the Battle of Marathon), razed the Hellenic city in the Second Medical War, also burned the famous olive tree of Athena. Yet miraculously new plants sprouted again that eventually paid off.

In conclusion, this is the precious legend of the pattern of Athens. Like all mythological tales, It is very pretty although, logically, it lacks verism. Did you like our story? Do not worry, in new articles we will tell you others.


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  1.   heidi said

    These stories are very cool. I really like to read the ones because they talk about the ancient gods and they leave me flaws about that.

  2.   Fatima Ouacha said

    M'encata, but there is something that I think is wrong, from what I have read about many books, it is not the same legend.