Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

In the time of Cecrops—earth-born first king of Attica, half man and half serpent—the gods resolved to claim cities for their peculiar worship. Poseidon arrived first in Attica. Striking the middle of the Acropolis with his trident, he produced a sea (or salt well) afterward called Erechtheis. Athena came next; calling Cecrops to witness her act of taking possession, she planted an olive tree, later shown in the Pandrosium. When the two strove for the country, Zeus parted them and appointed as arbiters the twelve gods—not, Apollodorus insists, Cecrops and Cranaus, nor Erysichthon, as some claimed. On the verdict of the twelve, the land was awarded to Athena because Cecrops testified that she had been first to plant the olive. She named the city Athens after herself. Poseidon, in anger, flooded the Thriasian plain and laid Attica under the sea. Pausanias and Herodotus corroborate the tangible tokens: the olive (said to have sprouted again after the Persian burning) and the trident mark or seawater well within the Erechtheum, which roared when the south wind blew. The contest was shown on the west pediment of the Parthenon. Greek classical prose does not make the horse Poseidon’s token in this Attic story; that motif belongs mainly to later Latin mythography and is noted only to keep the strands distinct.