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Κραναοί, ‘dwellers on the rock, or on the height’ (κρα (=κάρ, head) and? ναίω). αἱ Κρανααί = Athens (cf. Pind. Ol vii. 82 Κρανααῖς ἐν Ἀθάναις, and Arist. Av. 123μείζω τῶν Κραναῶν ζητεῖς πόλιν”), and so Κραναὰ πόλις (Arist. Ach. 75) and with special reference to the Acropolis, the πόλις proper (cf. Thuc. ii. 15; Paus. i. 26. 6); Arist. Lysist. 481. No doubt early Athens and its citadel is to H. Pelasgic (for Πελαργικὸν τεῖχος cf. v. 64. 2; vi. 137. 2, and on Attic Pelasgi i. 56. 2, 57. 3, and App. XV). Hence he does not make the earth-born Cecrops founder of the Acropolis and first king of Athens (Thuc. ii. 15), as do most Attic antiquaries, and Cranaus his successor (Paus. i. 2. 6), but apparently reverses the order. On these old Attic genealogies cf. Harrison, Mythology and Mon. of Athens, xxi f.

Ἐρεχθέος: cf. ch. 55. We might expect Ἐρεχθεῖδαι (cf. Pind. Isth. ii. 19, &c.), instead of Ἀθηναῖοι, but the name Ἀθηναῖοι might well be given to the people of Erechtheus (Erichthonius), the foster son of Athena (Hom. Il. ii. 548).

στρατάρχεω: to Aristotle (Ath. Pol. 3. 2; cf. Paus. i. 31. 3) he was polemarch and (Philoch. fr. 33; F. H. G. i. 389; Strab. 383) gained the victory for the Athenians in the war between Erechtheus (his grandfather) and Eumolpus of Eleusis. The accepted tradition represented him as of foreign origin, the son of Xuthus or Apollo and Creusa daughter of Erechtheus, and king of the Aegialees (v. 68. 2; vii. 94). Yet his sons give their names to the four old Attic (Ionic) tribes (v. 66. 2 n.). Clearly Ion played too important a part in old Attic mythology to be altogether ignored, but he could not be fitted into the received genealogy of the Attic kings, which ran in unbroken line from Cecrops to Theseus. Hence his ambiguous position (Strabo, Pausanias, l.c.) and foreign origin, which is strongly affirmed by Euripides.

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