Erichthonius is of uncertain etymology, possibly related to a pre-Greek form *Erektyeu-. The connection of Ἐριχθόνιος with ἐρέχθω, "shake" is a late folk-etymology; other folk-etymologies include ἔριον, erion, "wool" or eris, "strife"+ χθών chthôn or chthonos, "earth".[3][4]
In the beginning Dardanos was the son of
Zeus, and founded Dardania, for
Ilion was not yet established on the plain for men to dwell in, and her people still abode on the spurs of many-fountained
Ida. Dardanos had a son, king Erichthonios, who was wealthiest of all men living; he had three thousand mares that fed by the water-meadows, they and their foals with them.
Boreas was enamored of them as they were feeding, and covered them in the semblance of a dark-maned stallion. Twelve filly foals did they conceive and bear him, and these, as they sped over the fertile plain, would go bounding on over the ripe ears of wheat and not break them; or again when they would disport themselves on the broad back of Ocean they could gallop on the crest of a breaker. Erichthonios begat
Tros, king of the Trojans, and Tros had three noble sons,
Ilos,
Assarakos, and
Ganymede who was comeliest of mortal men; wherefore the gods carried him off to be Zeus' cupbearer, for his beauty's sake, that he might dwell among the immortals.
John Tzetzes and one of the
scholia to
Lycophron call his wife
Astyoche, the
naiad daughter of the
river-godSimoeis. The Bibliotheca also adds Erichthonius' older brother
Ilus, who died young and childless; presumably a doublet of the other Ilus, grandson of Erichthonius, eponym of Troy. In one account, Erichthonius was said to be the father of Ganymede.[5]
Strabo records, but discounts, the claim by "some more recent writers" that
Teucer came from the
deme of
Xypeteones in
Attica, supposedly called Troes (meaning Trojans) in mythical times.[6] These writers mentioned that
Erichthonius appears as founder both in Attica and the Troad, and may be identifying the two.
Erichthonius reigned for forty six or, according to others, sixty five years and was succeeded by his son
Tros.