On the Early Kings of Attica, 369 In Plat. Euthyd. i. 302. § 72 it is evident that far from Ionian and Athenian being used in contrast to one another, the only reason of the mention of Ionian s is that there were other lonians besides Athenians, namely the lonians of Asia, and that it was equally true of them, as of the Athenians, that Apollo, not Jupiter, was their Qeo^ TraTpwo^, The rea- son assigned for this is that Apollo was the father of Ion. Of the magistrates it was inquired whether they were 'AOrjvaloc eKarepcoOev not * Icove^ eKai-epcoOei^ Poll. 8. 85. The eCpeTac are said to have been apicfTLvlrjv aipeOevres Pollux 8. 124, but this by no means implies " chosen from the aristocracy^*^ (comp. 8, 112) but for merit or rank, not from all classes without regard to qualification. There seems then to be nothing like evidence of the existence of an Ionian military caste at Athens, keep- ing an old Pelasgic agricultural population in the condition of tribute payers. The reXeovre^ or yeXeovTe^ who were a regular part of the fourfold division of an Ionian state as we know from their names occurring on the marble of Cyzicus, (Caylus Rec. des Ant. 2. 60. seq.) where Pelasgian tributaries are out of the question, are much more likely to be the mi- nisters of religion % who would otherwise have no place in the different classes of the community. It may appear at first sight that the mythologist who made Xuthus the father of Ion marry a daughter of Erech.- theus, must have intended to represent the lonians as intro- duced into Athens subsequently to its first foundation- But all force has been already taken from this argument, as we have shewn that Erechtheus is no other than the god Nep- tune, whose worship was coeval with that of Minerva herself. Now Neptune was especially an Ionian god ; he was wor- shipped at other places along the shore of the Corinthian gulf, but especially at Helice ; at Corinth, in Boeotia; and when the colonists settled on the coast of Asia, they built at My- cale a common temple, where under the sanction of Helico- nian Neptune the Panionian Panegyris was held. Apollo was also, but in a much inferior degree, an Ionian god, and 2^ Apollodorus i. 9, 16 makes Butes the son of Teleon; but the Eteobutadae were the priests of the joint altar of Minerva and Erechtheus 3. 15. 1. Strabo i. 556. Ox. evidently took the TeXt'oi^re? to be lepoiroLoi,
