ABSTRACT
In glamour and ancient renown, Athenian mythology can scarcely compete with several other regional mythologies of Greece. Few Athenian heroes appear in early sources, and perhaps the only ancient Attic geste of the first quality was that of Theseus with the Minotaur. Athena took an active part in the War of the Gods and Giants, another Panhellenic myth that had been so thoroughly assimilated by the Athenians that it must be included here. There was particular significance for Athenians in the glorious part played by their own warrior-goddess, second only to that of Zeus himself. It established that she was, for all time to come, Athena Victory. The birth of Erichthonius/Erechtheus is one of the earliest-attested Athenian legends. It is mentioned in a passage in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad which will surely go back at least to the sixth century, even if it is an Attic interpolation.
