Athens- Greek LocationLocation · Landmark"City of Athena"
Also known as: Ἀθῆναι, Athenai, and Athēnai
Titles & Epithets
Symbols
Description
On the Acropolis rock, an olive tree springs from bare stone where Athena struck her spear, winning patronage of the city over Poseidon's salt spring in the contest that gave Athens its name and its goddess.
Mythology & Lore
The Contest on the Acropolis
When the gods divided the cities of Greece among themselves, both Athena and Poseidon wanted Athens. To settle it, each offered a gift. Poseidon struck the Acropolis rock with his trident, and a spring of salt water burst forth. Athena planted her spear in the stone and an olive tree grew. Apollodorus says Cecrops, the earth-born king who was half man and half serpent, judged the contest and awarded the city to Athena. Poseidon, furious, flooded the Thriasian plain.
Herodotus reports that when the Persians burned the Acropolis in 480 BCE, Athena's olive tree sprouted a new shoot a cubit long the next day. Pausanias, writing centuries later, still saw both the tree and the marks of Poseidon's trident in the rock inside the Erechtheion.
Theseus's City
After Theseus returned from Crete, he walked the villages of Attica and persuaded them, one by one, to abandon their separate councils and unite under Athens. Plutarch records that he gave up some of his own royal authority to make this work. Thucydides says the Athenians still celebrated the Synoikia festival in his own day, remembering the moment the scattered communities became one city.
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