Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/236

 204 HISTOEY OF GREECE. Though Erechtheus gained the victory over Eumolpus, yet the story represents Poseidon as having put an end to the life and reign of Erechtheus, who was (it seems) slain in the battle. He was succeeded by his son Kekrops II., and the latter again by his son Pandion II., 1 two names unmarked by any incidents, and which appear to be mere duplication of the former Kekrops and Pandion, placed there by the genealogizers for the purpose of filling up what seemed to them a chronological chasm. The Attic legends were associated chiefly with a few names of respect- ed eponymous personages ; and if the persons called the children of Pandion were too numerous to admit of their being con- veniently ascribed to one father, there was no difficulty in sup- posing a second prince of the same name. Apollodorus passes at once from Erechtheus to his son Kekrops II., then to Pandion II., next to the four sons of the latter, ^Egeus, Pallas, Nisus and Lykus. But the tragedians here insert the story of Xuthus, Kreiisa and Ion ; the latter being the son of Kreiisa by Apollo, but given by the god to Xuthus, and adopted by the latter as his own. Ion becomes the successor of Erech- theus, and his sons Teleon, Hoples, Argades and Aigikores become the eponyms of the four ancient tribes of Athens, which subsisted until the revolution of Kleisthenes. Ion himself is the eponym of the Ionic race both in Asia, in Europe, and in the JEgean islands : Dorus and Achaeus are the sons of Kreiisa by Xuthus, so that Ion is distinguished from both of them by being of divine parentage. 2 According to the story given by Philocho- rus, Ion rendered such essential service in rescuing the Athenians from the attack of the Thracians under Eumolpus, that he was afterwards made king of the country, and distributed all the in- habitants into four tribes or castes, corresponding to different modes of life, soldiers, husbandmen, goatherds, and artisans. 3 And it seems that the legend explanatory of the origin of the festival Boedromia, originally important enough to furnish a name 1 Apollodor. iii. 15, 5 ; Eurip. Ion, 282 ; Ercchth. Fragm. 20, Dindorf. to have related to the same subject. Pansanias (vii. 1, 2) tells us that Xuthus was chosen to arbitrate between the contending claims of the sons of Erechtheus. 3 Philochor. ap. Harpccrat. v. BoTjdpouia ; Strabo, viii. p. 383
 * Enrip. Ion. 1570-1595 The Kreiisa of Sophokles, a lost tragedy, seems