Aglaulus, daughter of Cecrops

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For other uses of this name, see Aglaulus.
Aglaulus and her two sisters finding Erichthonius. Painting by Jacob Jordaens, c. 1640, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Aglaulus and her two sisters finding Erichthonius. Painting by Jacob Jordaens, c. 1640, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Aglaulus or Agraulos was in Greek mythology the daughter of Cecrops and Aglaulus, daughter of Actaeus. She had two offspring by two different gods, Alcippe (with Ares) and Ceryx (with Hermes). There were numerous versions of her myth.[1]

[edit] Mythography

According to Apollodorus, Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena but was unsuccessful. His semen fell on the ground, impregnating Gaia. Gaia didn't want the infant Erichthonius, so she gave the baby to the goddess Athena. Athena gave the baby in a box to three women--Aglaulus and her two sisters Herse and Pandrosus--and warned them to never open it. Aglaulus and Herse opened the box. The sight of the infant caused them both to go insane and they threw themselves off the Acropolis,[2] or, according to Hyginus, into the sea.[3]

An alternative version of the same story is that, while Athena was gone bringing a mountain from Pallene to use in the Acropolis, the sisters, minus Pandrosus again, opened the box. A crow witnessed the opening and flew away to tell Athena, who fell into a rage and dropped the mountain (now Mt. Lykabettos). Once again, Herse and Aglaulus went insane and threw themselves to their deaths from a cliff.

Another legend represents Agraulos in a totally different light. Athens was at one time involved in a long and protracted war, and an oracle declared that it would cease if someone would sacrifice himself for the good of his country. Agraulos came forward and threw herself off the Acropolis. The Athenians, in gratitude for this, built her a temple on the Acropolis, in which it subsequently became customary for the young Athenians, on receiving their first suit of armor, to take an oath that they would always defend their country to the last.[4][5][6][7]

According to Ovid, Hermes loved Herse but a jealous Aglaulus stood between them, barring Hermes' entry into the house, and refused to move. Hermes, outraged at her presumption, turned her to stone.[8]

[edit] Worship

One of the Attic demes (Agraule) derived its name from this heroine, and a festival and mysteries were celebrated at Athens in honor of her.[9][10][11] According to Porphyry, she was also worshiped in Cyprus, where human sacrifices were offered to her down to a very late time.[12] Mythographers believe Aglaulus to have an origin distinct from that of her sisters, due in part to the fact that she had her own sanctuary near the Acropolis, and unlike her sister Pandrosus, was more associated with young men or soldiers (epheboi) than with infants. She was particularly associated with the festival of Athena called the Plynteria.[13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), “Agraulos”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 75 
  2. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece i. 18. § 2
  3. ^ Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae 166
  4. ^ Suda and Hesychius of Alexandria, s.v. Ἄγραυλος
  5. ^ Ulpian ad Demosth. de fals. leg.
  6. ^ Plutarch, Alcibiades 15
  7. ^ Philochorus, Fragm. p. 18, ed. Siebelis
  8. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses ii. 710, &c.
  9. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἀγραυλή
  10. ^ Christian Lobeck, Aglaoph. p. 89
  11. ^ Dict. of Ant. p. 30, a
  12. ^ Porphyry, De Abstinentia i. 2
  13. ^ Kearns, Emily (1996), “Aglaurus”, in Hornblower, Simon, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press