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Pisistratos and the fake Athena

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

When the father of Pisistratos, son of Hippocrates king of Athens, was still a private citizen, he went to Delphis, but he had just entered Apollon’s temple that the cauldrons with the meat that had to be cooked began to boil all by themselves. This weird fact and the coincidence of it with his arrival impressed him duly. It could have scared anybody. Then, as he was right in the temple of the god who forecasted the future he thought to ask him what had happened and what it meant. He learned that the sign was a real evil omen, but that he could save himself if he did not recognize the son he was expecting
To disown a son was very easy, and later on, history proved, that if Pisistratos’s father had done what he had been told to do, he would have saved himself from a lot of troubles. If, just at the baby’s birth, when the servants set him at his feet well washed and dressed, he would have only set an absent minded look on the evil baby and, turning his shoulders, had left the little monster on the ground, he would have been saved. Unfortunately when the poor man saw the baby laying there, so little and crying, he forgot Delphis, forgot the boiling cauldrons and the prophecy, and proudly took him in his arms, lifting him and so recognizing and receiving him in the family. No good came of it.....
As a matter of fact, when Hippocrates died, Pisistratos’s father became king. It did not last long because pretty soon he had the bad surprise to be dispossessed just by the son he had so unwisely recognized. Anyway Athens at those times was not a very calm place and very soon also Pisistratos was sent packing. However he didn’t lose his spirit and from his exile he began to plot and also to make plans on how he could get his throne back. To succeed in this he had to make peace with Megakles, his enemy, and was obliged to sign with him an agreement by witch, in exchange of his help, he committed himself to marry his daughter,
Now the only thing to be arranged was to persuade the Athenians to take back such a “nice person” as Pisistratos, and the two schemers decided that the best thing to do was to confide in a “divine” help. To be welcomed with open arms by his ex subjects it was necessary to impress them and to do it the two recruited a woman, Phya, who was about 1.96 meters high. They dressed her like Athena, set her in a coach, and then they marched toward Athens preceded by heralds who announced that the goddess in person was bringing Pisistratos back (Erodoto, I. 60). The Athenians swallowed all –line, bait and hook – and it was among an enthusiast crowd that Pisistratos recovered his throne. Obviously he immediately had to marry Megacles’s daughter.
All well then? Well, not really all because Megacles was an Alcmeonides and over his family hang a terrible curse. Now Pisistratos, that already had male sons and then was not afraid that his family could become extinct, didn’t want to have sons by Megakles’s daughter. However he had to do something with her: If he hadn’t touched her with a finger this would have been considered a serious offense. Then the system that he decided to employ was to have with her relations against nature. He hoped in some way to sweetens her, but his idea revealed itself to be the worst that he could conceive. In fact, also if for a certain time the woman stood mum, at a particular moment she couldn’t resist and told everything to her mother. Shocked the mother went to her husband who hearing what she had to say felt terribly injured. Pisistratos was obliged to flee and stood in exile for ten year. Of course later on he came back and by his cunning he succeeded to reconquer Athens.