O, Woe is me! Woe is my family whom the hand of the gods is against! Misfortune has fallen hard on me and my descendents.
I am Cecrops. Rumors say that I am not human, only partly man, and my lower half is a dragon. Only those who lay eyes on me know the truth. I was given the task of choosing who would be the protector of my city, and therefore, its name. Two gifts were presented to me; a salt-water spring from Poseidon, and an olive tree from Athena. I chose the beautiful tree, and named my city Athens.My father was King Erechtheus, a great and distinguished man. He had two sisters, Procne and Philomela. The eldest, Procne, married Tereus the son of Thrace the son of Ares. They had a son and named him Itys. But one day tragedy came. Procne desired to see her sister, and Tereus agreed to go fetch her. However, when the man laid eyes on his wife’s sister, he fell madly in love with her and carried her away to a secret place. He married her after deceitfully saying that Procne was dead. Philomela was mortified when she discovered the truth, and threatened to tell the world about it. Tereus could have none of that and simply cut out her tongue.
I thank the gods that Philomela was a clever women and wove her story into a tapestry to be sent off to her sister. In her anger, Procne killed her son and fed him to her unsuspecting husband. She told him what he had eaten, and while he could not move from shock, the sisters fled. Tereus pursued them, but never reached them. All were turned into a bird; Procne a nightingale, Philomela a swallow, and even Tereus a hawk, some say. They are gone from me forever.
My cousin is an even sadder tale. She was Procris, happily married to Cephalus. When the Dawn loved Cephalus and tried to convince him to leave his wife, he determined not to go. The Dawn put a seed of doubt in his mind of whether his wife was as faithful to him as he was to her. After much trickery, he got her to hesitated instead of firmly refusing when asked by another man to go with him. They were angry at one another for a time, but finally made amends.
But is does not end there. One day they were joyfully hunting when Cephalus saw something move in the forest. He threw his spear and hit his target, which sadly was his wife.
A sister of Procris and a cousin of mine, Orithyia was carried away by the north wind. Another sister of theirs, Creüsa, was raped by Apollo! Yes, misery has befallen my family.
There is a blessing to Creüsa’s story, though. The baby that she bore from Apollo and left in a cave was joyfully reunited with her many years later, when she faced no fear of death for the disgrace put on her family by Apollo’s actions.
I suppose that even amidst all the sadness, I must thank the gods for their blessings, although few, on me.
