List of kings of Athens

Before the Athenian democracy, the tyrants, and the Archons, the city-state of Athens was ruled by kings. Most of these are probably mythical or only semi-historical.
==Earliest kings==
These three kings were supposed to have ruled before the flood of the Deucalion.
King 	Comments
Periphas	Turned into an eagle by Zeus
Ogyges
King of Agea, not Athens; The name of Ogyges is also connected with Attic story, for in Attica too an Ogygian flood is mentioned, and he is described as the father of the Attic hero Eleusis, and as the father of Daeira (Oceanid), the daughter of Oceanas. (Pans, i. 38. § 7.)A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Oarses-Zygia. Edited by William Smith. Pg 20	King of the Ectenes or Hectenes who were the earliest inhabitants of Boeotia
Actaeus 	Father of Agraulus, and father-in-law to Cecrops
==Erechtheid dynasty==
The early Athenian tradition, followed by the 3rd century BCE Parian Chronicle, made Cecrops, a mythical half-man half-serpent, the first king of Athens.Harding, pp. 20–22; Gantz, p. 234. The dates for the following kings were conjectured centuries later, by historians of the Hellenistic era who tried to backdate events by cross-referencing earlier sources such as the Parian Chronicle. Tradition says that King Menestheus took part in the Trojan War.
The following list follows that of 1st Century BCE Castor of Rhodes (FGrHist 250), with Castor's dates given in modern terms. Harding, p. 14.
Reign 	King 	Comments
1556–1506 BC 	Cecrops I 	
1506–1497 BCE	Cranaus 	
1497–1487 BCE	Amphictyon 	
1487–1437 BCE	Erichthonius	
1437–1397 BCE	Pandion I 	
1397–1347 BCE	Erechtheus 	
1347–1307 BCE	Cecrops II 	Omitted in Heraclides' epitome of Aristotle's Constitution of the AtheniansGantz, p. 235.
1307–1282 BCE	Pandion II 	
1282–1234 BC 	Aegeus 	Construction of Trojan Walls by Poseidon, Apollo and Aeacus (ca. 1282 BCE)
1234–1205 BCE	Theseus 	
1205–1183 BCE	Menestheus 	Trojan War and the Sack of Troy (ca. 1183 BCE)Troy VIIa destruction layer at ca. 1190 BCE
1183–1150 BCE	Demophon 	
1150–1136 BCE	Oxyntes 	
1136–1135 BCE	Apheidas 	
1135–1127 BCE	Thymoetes 	
==Melanthid dynasty==
Melanthus having been driven from his kingdom in Pylos came to Athens where Thymoestes resigned the crown to him. Codrus, the last king, repelled the Dorian Invasion of Attica.
Reign 	King 	Comments
1126–1089 BCE	Melanthus	
1089–1068 BCE	Codrus 	
After Codrus's death, his sons Medon and Acastus either reigned as kings, or became hereditary archons.Pausanias's Description of Greece – Volume 3 – Page 64. (cf. The successors of Codrus were Medon (son of Codrus), Acastus (son of Medon) [...])Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians §3. In 753 BC the hereditary archonship was replaced by a non-hereditary system.
== Notes ==
==References==
* Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0801853609 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0801853623 (Vol. 2).
* Harding, Phillip, The Story of Athens: The Fragments of the Local Chronicles of Attika, Routledge, 2007. ISBN 9781134304479.
* Jacoby, Felix, Die Attische Königsliste, Klio 3 (1902), 406–439.
Category:Greek Mythology
Category:Ancient Greece
Category:Rulers
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