Erechtheus

Erechtheus, or ERICHTHONIUS, an Attic hero, is said to have been the son of Hephaestus and Athlis, daughter of Cranaus, the son-in-law and successor of Cecrops. He was brought up by Athena, who placed him in a chest, which was entrusted to Agraulos, Pandrosos, and Herse, the daughters of Cecrops, with the strict charge that it was not to be opened. Unable to restrain their curiosity, they opened the chest, and discovering a child entwined with serpents, were seized with madness, and threw themselves down the most precipitous part of the Acropolis. Afterwards Erchtheus was the chief means of establishing the worship of Athena in Attica. He instituted the Panathenæa, and a temple, the Erechtheum, was erected in his own honour. This original Erchtheum was burned by the Persians, but a new and magnificent Ionic temple was raised on the same site (see ATHENS). Mr Swinburne in 1876 published his tragedy of Erechtheus.