Before the Athenian democracy, the tyrants, and the Archons, the city-state of Athens was ruled by kings. Most of these are probably mythical or only semi-historical.
These three kings were supposed to have ruled before the flood of the Deucalion myth.
King | Comments |
---|---|
Periphas[1][2] | Priest of Apollo, and on account of his virtues he was made king |
Ogyges[3][4] | King of the Ectenes[5] who were the earliest inhabitants of Boeotia |
Actaeus | Father of Agraulus, and father-in-law to Cecrops |
The early Athenian tradition, followed by the 3rd century BC Parian Chronicle, made Cecrops, a mythical half-man half-serpent, the first king of Athens.[6] The dates for the following kings were conjectured centuries later, by later historians of the Hellenistic era who tried to backdate events by cross-referencing earlier sources such as the Parian Chronicle. Tradition says that King Menestheus took part in the Trojan War.
The following list follows that of 1st Century BC Castor of Rhodes (FGrHist 250), with Castor's dates given in modern terms.[7]
Reign | King | Comments |
---|---|---|
1556 - 1506 BC | Cecrops I | |
1506 - 1497 BC | Cranaus | |
1497 - 1487 BC | Amphictyon | |
1487 - 1437 BC | Erichthonius | |
1437 - 1397 BC | Pandion I | |
1397 - 1347 BC | Erechtheus | |
1347 - 1307 BC | Cecrops II | Omitted in Heraclides' epitome of Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians.[8] |
1307 - 1282 BC | Pandion II | |
1282 - 1234 BC | Aegeus | Construction of Trojan Walls by Poseidon, Apollo and Aeacus (ca. 1282 BC) |
1234 - 1205 BC | Theseus | |
1205 - 1183 BC | Menestheus | Trojan War and the Sack of Troy[9] (ca. 1183 BC)[10] |
1183 - 1150 BC | Demophon | |
1150 - 1136 BC | Oxyntes | |
1136 - 1135 BC | Apheidas | |
1135 - 1127 BC | Thymoetes |
See also: Autochthon (ancient Greece) and Mythical chronology of Greece |
Melanthus having been driven from his kingdom in Pylos came to Athens where Thymoestes resigned the crown to him. Codrus, the last king, repelled the Dorian Invasion of Attica.
Reign | King | Comments |
---|---|---|
1126 - 1089 BC | Melanthus | |
1089 - 1068 BC | Codrus |
After Codrus's death, his sons Medon and Acastus either reigned as kings, or became hereditary archons.[11][12] In 753 BC the hereditary archonship was replaced by a non-hereditary system (see Archons of Athens).
See also: Neleides |