_c._ A trident mark sacred to Poseidon. 1. _The hero-tomb of Kekrops._ We begin with Kekrops because, by almost uniform tradition, with Kekrops Athens began. The _Parian Chronicle_[68] sets him at the head of the kings of Athens, and the date assigned to him is 1582 B.C., before Kranaus, before Amphictyon, before Erechtheus. Thucydides[69] names him as the typical early Athenian king. ‘Under Kekrops and the first kings,’ he writes; Apollodorus[70] says definitely, ‘the indigenous Kekrops, whose body was compounded of man and snake, first reigned over Attica, and the country which before was called Attica was from him named Kekropia.’ Herodotus[71] looked back to a day before Athens was Athens and when there were no Athenians at all: ‘The Athenians,’ he says, ‘at the time when the Pelasgians held that which is now called Hellas, were Pelasgians and they were called Kranai; under the rule of Kekrops they were called Kekropidae; but when Erechtheus succeeded they changed their name for that of Athenians, and when Ion, son of Xuthus, became general, they took from him the name of Ionians.’ Herodotus touches the truth. Kekrops was not the first king of _Athens_, he was king before there was any Athens, long before. He was the ancestor of the clan of the Kekropidae. At some very early date—the Parian marble may very likely be roughly right—the Kekropidae got possession of the Acropolis and called it Kekropia. Kekropis was the name not only of one of the four original Attic tribes but also of one of the later ten[72]. But though the clan kept its old name it lost the headship of Kekropia. Kekrops had only one son, Erysichthon[73], and he died childless; that is the mythological way of saying that the kingship changed families. Then came the time when the leading clan were Erechtheidae, descendants not of Kekrops, but of Erechtheus. These are Homer’s days. He knows nothing of Kekrops and Kekropia, only of ‘the people of Erechtheus[74].’ Then still later came another change; those who once were the people of Erechtheus became the people of Athena, Athenians. But Kekrops and Kekropia were first, probably long first. Kekrops is the hero-founder, the typical old-world king. It is Kekrops whom Bdelycleon[75], tormented by modernity, invokes: ‘Kekrops, oh my king and hero, thou that hast the dragon’s feet.’