Erechtheus
Family: Athens · Role: king and tribal eponym · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 5
Erechtheus, king of Athens and one of the Eponymi, conquered the Eleusinians and killed their commander Immaradus. In the battle between Eleusis and Athens, Erechtheus and Immaradus were both slain.
After Erechtheus’s death, Xuthus was asked to choose which of Erechtheus’s sons should be king. He favored Cecrops, the eldest, and Erechtheus’s other sons drove Xuthus from the country. Erechtheus’s children included Creusa, Procris, and Orneus; sources also name Cecrops the younger, Metion, and Sicyon as his sons.
At Thespia, one account said the town was named for Thespius, son of Erechtheus, who came from Athens; another attributed its name to Thespia, daughter of Asopus.
Relationship record
Life events
- Erechtheus conquered the Eleusinians and killed their commander Immaradus.(Book 1 · Chapter 5)
- With: Immaradus
- “Erechtheus also is among the Eponymi, who conquered the Eleusinians in battle, and slew their commander Immaradus, the son of Eumolpus;”
- Erechtheus and Immaradus were slain in battle between Eleusis and Athens.(Book 1 · Chapter 38)
- With: Immaradus
- “And in the battle between the people of Eleusis and the Athenians Erechtheus the king of Athens was slain, and also Immaradus the son of Eumolpus”
- Xuthus favored Cecrops for kingship and was driven out by Erechtheus’s other sons.(Book 7 · Chapter 1)
- Thespia receives its name, according to competing accounts, from Thespia or Thespius.(Book 9 · Chapter 26 · 📍 Thespia)
Book 1 · Chapter 5
- enemies with Immaradus “Erechtheus also is among the Eponymi, who conquered the Eleusinians in battle, and slew their commander Immaradus”
- child: Cecrops the younger “the other, who settled at Eubœa, was the son of Erechtheus”
- parent: Pandion (son of Erichthonius) “the other, who settled at Eubœa, was the son of Erechtheus, the grandson of Pandion”
- with Immaradus (Erechtheus slew Immaradus.) “Erechtheus also is among the Eponymi, who conquered the Eleusinians in battle, and slew their commander Immaradus, the son of Eumolpus”
Book 1 · Chapter 26
- with Poseidon (Sacrifices to Erechtheus were made on Poseidon's altar.) “one to Poseidon, (on which they also sacrifice to Erechtheus according to the oracle,)”
Book 1 · Chapter 27
- enemies with Eumolpus (They are represented as opponents.) “there are large brazen statues of two men standing apart as for a fight: the one they call Erechtheus and the other Eumolpus”
- with Immaradus (Erechtheus slew Immaradus.) “Immaradus, that was slain by Erechtheus”
Book 1 · Chapter 28
- child: Creusa “Apollo had an amour with Creusa the daughter of Erechtheus”
Book 1 · Chapter 38
- with Immaradus (Both are named as slain in the same battle, but the text does not explicitly state their personal relationship.) “And in the battle between the people of Eleusis and the Athenians Erechtheus the king of Athens was slain, and also Immaradus the son of Eumolpus:”
Book 2 · Chapter 6
- child: Metion “Sicyon was not the son of Marathon the son of Epopeus, but the son of Metion the son of Erechtheus.”
- child: Sicyon “Hesiod has represented Sicyon as the son of Erechtheus”
Book 2 · Chapter 25
- child: Orneus (parent->child) “And it got its name from Orneus the son of Erechtheus: and this Orneus had a son Peteos, and he had a son Menestheus, who aided Agamemnon with a force from Athens to put down the dominion of Priam.”
Book 7 · Chapter 1
- with Xuthus (Xuthus became the son-in-law of Erechtheus.) “And he fled to Athens, and was thought worthy to marry the daughter of Erechtheus, and he had by her two sons Achæus and Ion.”
- child: Cecrops the younger “After the death of Erechtheus he was chosen to decide which of his sons should be king, and, because he decided in favour of Cecrops the eldest, the other sons of Erechtheus drove him out of the country;”
Book 9 · Chapter 19
- child: Procris (Erechtheus is Procris's father.) “Procris the daughter of Erechtheus”
Book 9 · Chapter 26
- child: Thespius “Others say that Thespius the son of Erechtheus came from Athens”
Book 9 · Chapter 30
- with Myro (Myro made a work depicting Erechtheus.) “by Myro, the next best work to his Erechtheus at Athens”
Book 10 · Chapter 29
- child: Procris “Thyia is Procris the daughter of Erechtheus”
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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.