Even Hephaestus has his moments of uncontrolled lust. One day he was chasing Athena and, becoming over-excited, a premature ejaculation occurred. A blob landed on Athena’s thigh and fell to the earth. Such is the fecundity of Gods that a child instantly sprang up from Gaia’s fertile soil.

Gaia was somewhat irritated by this, as she hadn’t included giving birth in her plans for the day. Particularly not an ugly snaky child as this one was. So she gave the baby, named Erichthonius, to Cecrops for adoption and safekeeping.

As he also had sprung from Gaia and was a little snaky himself, Cecrops promised to do his best. He entrusted the babe to the care of his daughters in a sealed basket. “But whatever you do, don’t look inside!” he said.

The moment you say that, feminine curiosity will prevail. So they peeked. And inside the child was curled up with two cuddly snakes. In fact he appeared to be something of a snake himself.

This gave Aglaurus, Herse, and Pandrosos such a shock that they leapt shrieking off the top of the Acropolis. They had obviously never seen their father’s snaky bits.

This should have been the end of them, but Aglaurus and Herse seem to have resurfaced — maybe there was a trampoline at the bottom. If so Pandrosos must have missed it.

According to some sources, Erichthonius went on to become King of Athens heavily into the cult of Athena, but we can exclusively reveal that job instead went to his grandson Erechtheus.

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Article last revised on September 06, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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