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ἔστι: presumably at the time of writing; the νηός referred to is apparently an Erechtheion, or contains the sacred memorials afterwards associated with the Erechtheion, Pausan. 1. 26. 5 ff. That temple was only built or restored, completely, long after the death of Hdt. This chapter is not free from ambiguity. Hdt. does not distingnish between the temple of Athene and ‘the Honse of Erechtheus’; he speaks of the temple in a way as both existing and not existing—for it had jnst been burnt down— even on the day after the burning. It is qnite possible that not merely the portent of the olive-shoot, but the whole circnmstances of this story as first composed by Hdt., rested upon the authority of the Athenian Emigrés, at least nltimately, and that this passage may belong to the draft of these Books written before Hdt. himself had visited Athens. Cp. Introdnction, § 9.
Ἐρεχθέος τοῦ γηγενέος λεγομένου εἶναι The Erechthens, who is the child of Earth, the nnrsling of Athene, taken into her own shrine (ἑῷ ἐν πίονι νηῷ) and therein worshipped by his people (δῆμος), Iliad 2. 546 ff., is no doubt one and the same ultimately with Poseidon Erechtheus (cp. c. 41 supra), as his μαρτύρια, the θάλασσα, and the σχῆμα τριαίνης (Pausan. 1. 26. 6) of themselves would show. A (possibly late) ἱερὸς λόγος made him son of Athene and Hephaistos, Apollod. 3. 14. 6. In Od. 7. 81 Athene goes in under the roof of Erechtheus (perhaps the older view?). Anyway, the reference in Homer as in Hdt. here is prima facie to an Erechtheion, but whether the House of Erechtheus had been absorbed in the Old Temple of Athene, which was destroyed by the Persians and never rebuilt, or whether there was an Erechtheion north of that temple, and more or less on the site of the existing building, is a moot point. Cp. c. 51 supra.
ἐλαίη τε καὶ θάλασσα: the existing temple comprised threc cellae, of which the eastern one, or Erechtheion proper, contained θαλάσσιον ἐν φρέατι and also a σχῆμα τριαίνης ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ . . ταῦτα δὲ λέγεται Ποσειδῶνι μαρτύρια ἐς τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν τῆς χώρας φανῆναι, Pausan. 1. 26. 5. Hdt. would probably have mentioned the σχῆμα τριαίνης had he seen it. In the Erechtheion also were three altars, one to Poseidon—ἐφ̓ οὗ καὶ Ἐρεχθεῖ θύουσιν—one to the hero Boutes, and one to Hephaistos. The central shrine was dedicate to the Polias, and contained, among many interesting objects, the olive (Pausan. 1. 27. 2, but cp. l.c. Apollod. infra), apparently a growing tree. The third, or western shrine, was dedicate to Pandrosos (cp. c. 53 supra). λόγος παρὰ Ἀθηναίων: the phrase suggests that the passage is written for other than an Athenian audience; nor does it involve the inference that Hdt. had visited Athens before making this report. Cp. Introduction. § 10.
Ποσειδέωνά τε καὶ Ἀθηναίην: the myth of the ἔρις περὶ τῆς χώρης is given by Apollodoros 3. 14. 1, the event being dated to the days of Kekrops: ἐπὶ τούτου, φασίν, ἔδοξε τοῖς θεοῖς πόλεις καταλαβέσθαι, ἐν αἷς ἔμελλον ἔχειν τιμὰς ἰδίας ἕκαστος. ἧκεν οὖν πρῶτος Ποσειδῶν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν καὶ πλήξας τῇ τριαίνῃ κατὰ μέσην τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἀνέφηνε θάλασσαν, ἣν νῦν Ἐρεχθηίδα καλοῦσι. μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον ἧκεν Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ ποιησαμένη τῆς καταλήψεως Κέκροπα μάρτυρα ἐφύτευσεν ἐλαίαν, ἣ νῦν ἐν τῷ Πανδροσίῳ (sic) δείκνυται. γενομένης δὲ ἔριδος ἀμφοῖν περὶ τῆς χώρας Ἀθηνᾶν καὶ Ποσειδῶνα διαλύσας Ζεὺς κριτὰς ἔδωκεν, οὐχ ὡς εἶπόν τινες Κέκροπα καὶ Κραναόν, οὐδὲ Ἐρυσιχθόνα, θεοὺς δὲ τοὺς δώδεκα, καὶ τούτων δικαζόντων ἡ χώρα τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἐκρίθη, Κέκροπος μαρτυρήσαντος ὅτι πρῶτον τὴν ἐλαίαν ἐφύτευσεν. The evidence of Kekrops was on the showing of this myth untrue; the jury of the Twelve Gods was deceived. The most reasonable interpretation of the myth is the historical, which sees in it a transfigured reminiscence of a struggle between two cults, and the different worshippers of two deities, Athene - worshippers, Poseidon - worshippers, in Attica, in which case, further, the Poseidonians can be no other than Ionians, and the Ἀθηναῖοι may well be the natives. Cp. c. 44 supra; Roscher's Lexikon (1884), 683; Pauly-Wissowa ii. (1896) 1951; and especially L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, i. (1896) 270. The association of the olive with Athene marks her at least in this connexion as an agricultural deity (Roscher l.c.); the significance of the connexion of Poseidon with the θάλασσα is self-evident.
μαρτύρια θέσθαι: the substantive is appositive, or predicative. ἅμα τῷ ἄλλῳ ἱρῷ, as well as the temple, or ‘together with the temple as well.’ The force of ἄλλος in such a construction is noticeable; cp. 7. 206. 2, and c. 65 infra, ad f. (also 4. 191, 5. 32, 6. 129, etc.).
δευτέρῃ δὲ ἡμ. ἀπὸ τῆς ἐμπρήσιος: cp. c. 54 supra, from whence it follows that the ἔμπρησις τῆς πόλεως and the πέμψις τοῦ κήρυκος took place on the same day.
τὸ ἱρόν, as above, cc. 41, 51, 54. βλαστὸν ... ἀναδεδραμηκότα: obviously a portent, a miracle, under the circumstances (ὅσον τε does not so much qualify as emphasize the cubit's length), explained by Dionys. Halic. 14. 4 as signifying ὅτι ταχέως ὲαυτὴν ἡ πόλις ἀναλαβοῦσα βλαστοὺς ἀντὶ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐξοίσει νέους. Pausanias 1. 27. 2 makes the shoot two cubits length, on the same day as the burning. Blakesley sees references to the story in Soph. O.K. 698 ff.; Eurip. Ion 1433.
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