Myths of autochthony
Athenians, just as other centers of mythic history, claimed that they had been "sprung from the earth"  (chthon  =  earth).

Eri-chthoni-us is one of several mythic early kings of Athens (the list of these kings is confusing).

Image:
#1      Birth of Erichthonius. Click here for description

Text:
Apollodorus 3.14.6

                       Some say that this Erichthonius was a son of Hephaestus and Atthis, daughter of Cranaus, and some that he was a son of Hephaestus and Athena, as follows: Athena came to Hephaestus, desirous of fashioning arms. But he, being forsaken by Aphrodite, fell in love with Athena, and began to pursue her; but she fled. When he got near her with much ado ( for he was lame), he attempted to embrace her; but she, being a chaste virgin, would not submit to him, and he dropped his seed on the leg of the goddess. In disgust, she wiped off the seed with wool and threw it on the ground; and as she fled and the seed fell on the ground, Erichthonius was produced. Him Athena brought up unknown to the other gods, wishing to make him immortal; and having put him in a chest, she committed it to Pandrosus, daughter of Cecrops, forbidding her to open the chest. But the sisters of Pandrosus opened it out of curiosity, and beheld a serpent coiled about the babe; and, as some say, they were destroyed by the serpent, but according to others they were driven mad by reason of the anger of Athena and threw themselves down from the acropolis.  Having been brought up by Athena herself in the precinct, Erichthonius expelled Amphictyon and became king of Athens; and he set up the wooden image of Athena in the acropolis,  and instituted the festival of the Panathenaea, and  married Praxithea, a Naiad nymph, by whom he had a son Pandion.
 

Explore some of the texts cited in the Perseus Encyclopedia under "Theseus"
 

Birth and childhood of Theseus

                           AEGEUS    +     AETHRA

POSEIDON?               I

MYTHS OF INITIATION / MYTHS OF SUCCESSION

Recognition by Poseidon: Poseidon, Theseus shaking hands. Description.
Theseus with Amphitrite: Triton, Theseus, Athena, Amphitrite. Description Closeup

THE 'LABORS' OF THESEUS
Peripetes (club-bearer)
Sinis (pine-bender)
Sow of Cromyon
Skiron (or is it SKHEIRON?)
Cercyon, a wrestler
Procrustes and his couch

Images
Sinis
Sow
Skiron, Procrustes
Cercyon, bull (of Marathon?)
Procrustes

CRETAN MYTHS OF THESEUS

MINOS: death of son, Androgeos

PASIPHAE, THE MINOTAUR, DAEDALUS, ARIADNE

Minotaur      #1    #2
Louvre  G 71   Side A: Herakles and the Nemean Lion
                       Side B: Theseus and the Minotaur

OTHER DEEDS:    Amazons     Abduction of Helen

Abduction of Antiope    Description

THESEUS AS CIVIC HERO

UNIFICATION

Did Theseus:      go with Jason?
                         help Meleager?
                         join Heracles against the Amazons?

Adventure with Pirithous!
Abduction of Helen?
Rescued by Heracles

475 BCE: bones recovered by Cimon.

Hephasteion = Theseion; statues sent  to Delphi; shield of Athena