Cecrops founded the city of Athens and was its first king. This painting shows the three daughters of King Cecrops with the infant Erichthonius. The story goes that the lame god Hephaestus tried to rape Athena. As they fought with one another, some of Hephaestus's semen fell on Athena's thigh; she scraped it off and cast it to the ground. From that semen sprang the infant Erichthonius, a strange little fellow as you can see. Athena wanted to conceal the child, so she placed him in a box and entrusted that box to the three daughters of King Cecrops. When the women dared to open the box and saw the bizarre infant, they went mad and threw themselves to their deaths from the height of the Acropolis!
You can also find more myths and legends for the week of February 19-25 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.
