Acropolis - The Contest Between Athena and Poseidon

In spite of the close connection amongst the goddess and the city, it was believed that Athena had when been forced to compete to win her pre-eminent position. In the time of the 1st king, Kekrops, the god Poseidon, discontented with his dominion more than the seas, and jealous of the authority his brother Zeus exercised more than the land, was determined to extend his personal influence. One particular day he appeared on the Acropolis to demonstrate his energy and usefulness to the citizens. In the presence of the king and persons, he struck a good blow with his trident on the rock, and a saltwater spring gushed out. At that point, the goddess Athena appeared and triggered an olive tree to emerge out of the ground. As it grew to maturity and fruitfulness in front of their eyes, she explained the quite a few strategies in which its fruit could be useful to them. Kekrops and his folks have been so impressed that they pledged their loyalty to Athena.

Angry and humiliated, Poseidon challenged Athena to single combat, but Zeus intervened to retain the peace, appointing the gods as arbiters. All the gods supported Poseidon, when the goddesses every single voted for Athena. As their president, Zeus was obliged to stay neutral, leaving the goddesses with a majority of A single; and so the city was awarded to Athena.

The resentful sea-god brought on a disastrous flood on the plain, and in order to conciliate him, the guys of Athens decided no longer to be identified by their mothers' names, as have been the custom in the previous, but to use their fathers' names alternatively. They also deprived the girls of all their civic rights: even of the right to get in touch with themselves Athenians.

The print of Poseidon's trident on the rock was shown to guests down to Roman instances. The supply of the salt water lay inside the Erechtheion. Pausanias described it as a deep properly, and claimed that after the south wind blew, the waves of the sea could be heard from within. The olive-tree planted by Athena was exhibited in the Pandrosion, just to the west of the Erechtheion, down to the second century AD. Though apparently destroyed once it was burned by the Persians in 480 BC, on the return of the Athenians it place out new shoots.

Behind these stories appears to lie the memory of a deliberate possibilities which the Athenians created at some date in their previous, to give precedence to the cultivation of the olive tree more than sea-faring, and to recognize guys as possessing superior status more than girls.

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