Editing Erechtheus (section)

==Erechtheion==
The central gods of the [[Acropolis of Athens]] were ''Poseidon Erechtheus''  and ''Athena Polias'', "Athena patron-guardian of the city".<ref>[[Walter Burkert]] (Peter Bing, tr.) ''Homo Necans'' 1983:144 remarked of the [[Skira]] procession "The priests are those of the central gods of the Acropolis: Poseidon-Erechtheus and Athena Polias".</ref> The ''[[Odyssey]]'' (VII.81) already records that Athena returned to Athens and "entered the strong-built house of Erechtheus". The archaic joint temple built upon the spot that was identified as the ''Kekropion'', the hero-grave of the mythic founder-king [[Cecrops I|Cecrops]]<ref>That the Erechtheion is built on the site of the "alleged tomb, the Kekropion" is noted in passing even in a work as general as [[Karl Kerenyi]], ''The Heroes of the Greeks'', 1959:213. The Kekropion is securely identified as lying beneath the Porch of the Maidens of the existing Erechtheum. The imprint of a small but vanished enclosure against the east foundation was analyzed by Holland, in ''[[American Journal of Archaeology]]'' (AJA) '''28''' 1924:161f. No foundations for an actual temple structure have been discovered beneath the Erechtheum itself: William Bell Dinsmoor summarizes the archaeology in "The Hekatompedon on the Athenian Acropolis" ''AJA'' V'''51'''.2 (April–June 1947:109 note 4, 120 note 59.</ref> and the [[Serpent (mythology)|serpent]] that embodied his spirit was destroyed by the Persian forces in 480 BC, during the [[Greco-Persian wars]], and was replaced between 421 and 407 BC by the present [[Erechtheum]]. Continuity of the site made sacred by the presence of Cecrops is inherent in the reference in [[Nonnus]]' ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' to the Erechtheion lamp as "the lamp of Cecrops".<ref>Nonnus, 33.124, noted by [[Olga Palagia]], "A Niche for Kallimachos' Lamp?" ''American Journal of Archaeology,'' '''88'''.4 (October 1984:515-521) p. 519 and note 15.</ref> Priests of the Erechtheum and the priestess of Athena jointly took part in the procession to Skiron that inaugurated the [[Skira]] festival near the end of the [[Athenian calendar|Athenian year]]. Their object was the ''[[temenos]]'' at Skiron of the hero-seer Skiros, who had aided [[Eumolpus]] in the war between Athens and Eleusis in which Erechtheus II, the hero-king, was both triumphant and died.

That Poseidon and Erechtheus were two names at Athens for the same figure (see below) was demonstrated in the [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] at the Erechtheum, where there was a single altar, a single priest and sacrifices were dedicated to ''Poseidon Erechtheus'', [[Walter Burkert]] observed,<ref>Walter Burkert (Peter Bing, tr.) ''Homo Necans'' 1983, p. 149 gives references for this observation.</ref> adding "An historian would say that a Homeric, pan-Hellenic name has been superimposed on an [[autochthonous language|autochthonous]], non-Greek name."