360 Oil the Early K'mgs of Attica, and he may institute a congress if he pleases the very year after his deluge. But history worships a more rigid Muse, who requires conformity with the laws of nature. If we ad- mit an Amphictyon, reigning at Thermopylae, we must admit the existence of an Amphictyonic council in the time of a son of Deucalion. At all events Amphictyon is an in- truder in Attic history; for the Athenians had no title to be considered as founders of the council, of which Delphi and Thermopylae were the seats, though no doubt the fabuHst who inserted Amphictyon among the Attic kings designed to intimate such a claim. But did the Amphictyonic council owe its origin to any Amphictyon ? As an answer to this question I shall quote the words of a learned and acute in- vestigator of Greek antiquities. " Si fabulas sequimur, Am- phictyones nomen traxerunt ab Amphictyone Deucalionis, patre Hellenis. Qui tamen antiquitatem altius crutati sunt, uni- versam norunt genealogiam filiorum ab Hellene descendentium historiae fide destitutam esse, seroque adornatam, tenu tra- ditione duce, post Homericam aetatem, a cycliis maxima poetis, multo post reditum Heraclidarum, quo communem omnium Graecorum originem demonstrarent. Imprimis vero Amphictyonis persona conficta est, ne gentium origine re- centius videretur sanctissimum illud Graeciae concilium, quod tamen non multo ante Heraclidas in Peloponnesum reverses conditum erat. Igitur, ut verum dicamus, Amphictyones appellati sunt populi qui circa Delphos habitantes fcedus et commune judicium fecerunt, religione conjuncti; dfxCpiKTLOve^ sine TrepiKTiove^^ irepLoiKoi. Ita Androtion rerum Atticarum scriptor ap. Pans. x. 8. Anaximenes ev Trpoorco 'EWrjviKcov ap. Harp. v. 'A/u<piKTvoro9 Cf. Hesych. Suid. Tim. Lex. Plat, ibique Ruhnk. Boeckh not. crit. ad Pind. Nem. 6. 40-42. Erichthonius succeeds in the list of kings in Apollodorus, but as I believe that his name and that of Erechtheus are really the same, though Erechtheus is inserted at a later period, I shall consider them together. That ' EpeyOev^ is only a title of Neptune is evident both from the etymology of the name and the positive testimony of ancient writers. '£^6^061^9. Yloaei^ijov ev *A6t]vaL9 Hes. Lycophr. 178 and the Schol. * Epe^Oev^ Zef9 i] YlocreLdcov irapa to epe'^ddco^ to Kivw. Many other writers declare the identity of Neptune
