Αμφικτυων
The second son of Deucalion and Pyrrha (Table 8). He had married one of the daughters of Cranaus, king of Athens, and expelled his father-in-law in order to reign in his stead (see also Colaenus). He was himself banished, after a reign of ten years, by Erichthonius. Some traditions say that it was he who gave Athens its name and dedicated the city to the goddess Athena.
It was during his reign that Dionysus came to Attica, where he was the king's guest. The foundation of the Amphictyonic League, the religious association in which envoys of all the Greek cities met periodically, is sometimes attributed to him. Before he assumed the throne of Athens, he is said to have been king of Thermopylae, one of the two places (the other being Delphi) where the association met.
Amphictyon had a son Itonus, whose children play a part in Boeotian legends. One of his daughters was the mother of Cercyon (Table 8: see also Locrus).
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Apollod. Bibl. 1, 7, 2; 3, 14, 6
- Marmor Parium 1, 8-10
- Paus. 1, 2, 5f; 1, 14, 3; 1, 31, 3; 5, 1, 4; 9, 1, 1; 9, 34, 1; 10, 8, 1f