The Coinage of Ancient Athens

 

"The first King of Attica was named Cecrops.  He had no human ancestor and he was himself only half human."

Cecrops, lord and hero,
Born of a dragon,
Dragon-shaped below.

He was the person usually held to be responsible for Athena's becoming the protector of Athens.  Poseidon, too, wanted the city, and to show how great a benefactor he could be, he struck open the rock of the Acropolis with his trident so that salt water lept forth from the cleft and subsided into a deep well.  But Athena did still better.  She made an olive tree grow there, the most prized of all the trees of Greece. 

The gray-gleaming olive
Athena showed to men,
The glory of shining Athens,
Her crown from on high.

In return for this good gift, Cecrops, who had been made arbiter, decided that Athens was hers.  Poseidon was greatly angered and punished the people by sending a disastrous flood.

In one story of this contest between the two deities, woman's suffrage plays a part.  In those early days, we are told, women voted as well as men.   All the women voted for the goddess, and all the men for the god.  There was one more woman than there were men, so Athena won.  But the men, along with Poseidon, were greatly chagrined at this female triumph; and while Poseidon proceeded to flood the land, the men decided to take the vote away from the women.  Nevertheless, Athena kept Athens."

              -From Edith Hamilton's "Mythology - Timeless tales of Gods and Heros". 
              The copy I have is dated Third printing, 1954.

This site is not about the politics, history nor myths of Athens, but about their coinage.  It is a "web record" of coins from Athens that once belonged to a collector and have now moved on to other collectors.   They are here recorded for study purposes.

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