370 On the Early Kings of Attica. it was probably to accommodate the story to Athenian vanity, by giving them as close a connexion with the Delphian god as their rivals the Dorians, that Apollo, in the tragedy of Euripides, was made the real father of Ion. But though Apollo belonged more to the Dorian than the Ionian religion, there is no reason to suppose that he was merely adopted by the latter people ; he belonged to the national mythology. Pandion is the next name in the list of the Attic kings; for though Apollodorus makes him succeed Erichthonius, yet as we have seen that Erichthonius is only a synonyme for Erechtheus, we are really no further advanced than we were. The origin of Ylav^iwv is evident, I think, from the circumstance which Apollodorus connects with the mention of his name, e0' ov IS.y]ixrjTrjp /cat /^lovvao^ ei^ ttjv ArriKfju rjov. By their accession the list of all the gods who were especially honoured at Athens was made complete ; the name of Pandion'^s mother Haaidea alludes to the same circum- stance, as ZGu^iTTTrrj^ that of her sister, to the chariot race of the Panathen^an festival, which Erichthonius was said to have instituted. This solemnity was evidently a joint celebration of the three principal divinities of the Acropolis. The procession and warlike exercises were in honour of Minerva; the chariot race of Neptune; the torch race began from the altar v/hich was jointly dedicated to Vulcan and Prometheus. Schol. CEd. Col. 56. Prometheus indeed seems to have borne the same relation to Vulcan, as Erechtheus to Neptune, an epithet transformed into a distinct person. Vul- can represents the element of fire and its application to art, Prometheus the ingenuity by which the KvroT€'X}^f]s pro- duced his works. Daedalus is another artist, scarcely to be distinguished from Vulcan if we consider the original con- ception. Passing over the second Erechtheus, the second Cecrops and the second Pandion as mere shadows of the first, we come to JEgeiis the father of Theseus. That he also is no other than a synonyme of Neptune has been so convincingly shewn by Miiller (Proleg. p. 271) that I shall quote his words and gladly avail myself of his authority. " Theseus was a Poseidonian hero. He was worshipped, like Poseidon, on the eighth day of the month (Plut. Thes. 36.)
