Agraulos
A daughter of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, who disobeyed Athena by opening a forbidden chest and was driven to leap from the Acropolis
The Legend of Agraulos
Agraulos was one of the three daughters of Cecrops, the legendary first king of Athens who was half-man and half-serpent. When Athena gave birth to Erichthonius — the child born from Hephaestus's failed attempt to force himself upon her, raised from the earth where his seed fell — she placed the infant in a chest and entrusted it to the three daughters of Cecrops with strict instructions never to open it. Agraulos, overcome by curiosity, opened the chest along with her sister Herse. Inside they found the infant Erichthonius entwined with serpents. The sight drove them mad, and they threw themselves from the Acropolis to their deaths. In an alternative tradition, Agraulos was turned to stone by Hermes after she blocked his access to her sister Herse, with whom the god had fallen in love. Athena had filled Agraulos with jealousy as punishment for the earlier disobedience. Despite her tragic end, Agraulos was honoured in Athens with a sanctuary on the north slope of the Acropolis, and young Athenian men swore their military oath at her shrine.
Parents
Cecrops
Symbols
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