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Erechtheus (; ) in Greek mythology was the name of an archaic king of Athens, the founder of the ''polis'' and, in his role as god, attached to Poseidon, as "Poseidon Erechtheus". The mythic Erechtheus and an historical Erechtheus were fused into one character in Euripides' lost tragedy ''Erechtheus'' (423/22 BCE). The name Erichthonius is carried by a son of Erechtheus, but Plutarch conflated the two names in the myth of the begetting of Erechtheus.〔Plutarch, ''Moralia'' 843b.〕 Athenians thought of themselves as ''Erechtheidai'', the "sons of Erechtheus".〔Euripides, ''Medea'', 824.〕 In Homer's ''Iliad'' (2. 547–48) he is the son of "grain-giving Earth", reared by Athena.〔R. M. Frazer, Jr., "Some Notes on the Athenian Entry, Iliad B 546-56" ''Hermes'' 97.3 (1969), pp. 262–266, observes in this displacement a submerged memory of Athena's lost role as a mother-goddess "by becoming strictly a virgin". (p 262); compare Wolfgang Fauth, ''Der Kleine Pauly'' (1954), ''s.v.'' "Athena"; a contrasting view is Martin P. Nilsson, ''Geschichte der Griechischen Religion'', vol I, pt 2 (Munich, 1955) pp 442ff.〕 The earth-born son was sired by Hephaestus, whose semen Athena wiped from her thigh with a fillet of wool cast to earth, by which Gaia was made pregnant. In the contest for patronship of Athens between Poseidon and Athena, the salt spring on the Acropolis where Poseidon's trident struck was known as the ''sea of Erechtheus''.〔pseudo-Apollodorus, 3.14.1, noted by Karl Kerenyi, ''The Heroes of the Greeks'' (1959), p. 211; Kerenyi narrates myths of Erechtheus pp 21–46.〕 ==Erechtheus and the Erechtheum/Erechtheion== The central gods of the Acropolis of Athens were ''Poseidon Erechtheus'' and ''Athena Polias'', "Athena patron-guardian of the city".〔Walter Burkert (Peter Bing, tr.) ''Homo Necans'' 1983:144 remarked of the Skira procession "The priests are those of the central gods of the Acropolis: Poseidon-Erechtheus and Athena Polias".〕 The ''Odyssey'' (VII.81) already records that Athena returned to Athens and "entered the strong-built house of Erechtheus". The archaic joint temple built upon the spot that was identified as the ''Kekropion'', the hero-grave of the mythic founder-king Cecrops〔That the Erechtheion is built on the site of the "alleged tomb, the Kekropion" is noted in passing even in a work as general as Karl Kerenyi, ''The Heroes of the Greeks'', 1959:213. The Kekropion is securely identified as lying beneath the Porch of the Maidens of the existing Erechtheum. The imprint of a small but vanished enclosure against the east foundation was analyzed by Holland, in ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA) 28 1924:161f. No foundations for an actual temple structure have been discovered beneath the Erechtheum itself: William Bell Dinsmoor summarizes the archaeology in "The Hekatompedon on the Athenian Acropolis" ''AJA'' V51.2 (April–June 1947:109 note 4, 120 note 59.〕 and the serpent that embodied his spirit was destroyed by the Persian forces in 480 BC, during the Greco-Persian wars, and was replaced between 421 and 407 BCE by the present Erechtheum. Continuity of the site made sacred by the presence of Cecrops is inherent in the reference in Nonnus' ''Dionysiaca'' to the Erechtheion lamp as "the lamp of Cecrops".〔Nonnus, ''Dionysiaca'' 33.124, noted by Olga Palagia, "A Niche for Kallimachos' Lamp?" ''American Journal of Archaeology,'' 88.4 (October 1984:515-521) p. 519 and note 15.〕 Priests of the Erechtheum and the priestess of Athena jointly took part in the procession to Skiron that inaugurated the Skira festival near the end of the Athenian year. Their object was the ''temenos'' at Skiron of the hero-seer Skiros, who had aided Eumolpus in the war between Athens and Eleusis in which Erechtheus II, the hero-king, was both triumphant and died. That Poseidon and Erechtheus were two names at Athens for the same figure (see below) was demonstrated in the cult at the Erechtheum, where there was a single altar, a single priest and sacrifices were dedicated to ''Poseidon Erechtheus'', Walter Burkert observed,〔Walter Burkert (Peter Bing, tr.) ''Homo Necans'' 1983, p. 149 gives references for this observation.〕 adding "An historian would say that a Homeric, pan-Hellenic name has been superimposed on an autochthonous, non-Greek name." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Erechtheus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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