Cecrops

, a native of Sais in Egypt, who led a colony to Attica about 1556 years before the christian era, and reigned over part of the country which was called from him Cecropia. He softened and polished the rude and uncultivated manners of the inhabitants, and drew them from the country to inhabit 12 small villages which he had founded. He gave them laws and regulations, and introduced among them the worship of those deities which were held in adoration in Egypt. He married the daughter of Actæus, a Grecian prince, and was deemed the first founder of Athens. He taught his subjects to cultivate the olive, and instructed them to look upon Minerva as the watchful patrone of their city. It is said that he was the first who raised an altar to Jupiter in Greece, and offered him sacrifices. After a reign of 50 years, spent in regulating his newly formed kingdom, and in polishing the minds of his subjects, Cecrops died, leaving three daughters, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos. He was succeeded by Cranaus, a native of the country. Some time after, These us, one of his succe ors on the throne, formed the 12 villages which he had established into one city, to which the name of Athens was given. See: Athenæ . Some authors have described Cecrops as a monster, half a man and half a serpent; and this fable is explained by the recollection that he was master of two languages, the Greek and the Egyptian; or that he had the command over two countries, Egypt and Greece. Others explain it by an allusion to the regulations which Cecrops made amongst the inhabitants concerning marriage and the union of the two sexes. Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 5 .— Strabo , bk. 9 .— Justin , bk. 2 , ch. 6 .— Hero dot us , bk. 8 , ch. 44 .— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 14 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 11 , li. 561 .— Hyginus , fable 166.――The second of that name was the seventh king of Athens, and the son and succe or of Erechtheus. He married Metiadusa the sister of Dædal us, by whom he had Pandion. He reigned 40 years, and died 1307 B.C. Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 15 .— Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 5 .