Cylon of Athens
For the fictional robots, see Cylon (Battlestar Galactica).Cylon (also spelled
Kylon) was an
Athenian associated with the first reliably dated event in Athenian history, the
Cylonian affair.
Cylon, one of the Athenian nobles and a previous victor of the
Olympic Games, attempted a
coup in
632 BC with support from
Megara, where his father-in-law
Theagenes was
tyrant. The
oracle at
Delphi had advised him to seize Athens during a festival of
Zeus, which Cylon understood to mean the Olympics. However, the coup was opposed, and Cylon and his supporters took refuge in
Athena's temple on the
Acropolis. Cylon and his brother escaped, but his followers were cornered by Athens's nine
archons. According to
Plutarch and
Thucydides (1.126), they were persuaded by the archons to leave the temple and stand trial after being assured that their lives would be spared.
In an effort to ensure their safety, the accused tied a rope to the temple's statue and went to the trial. On the way the rope (again, according to Plutarch) broke of its own accord. The Athenian archons, led by
Megacles, took this as the goddess's repudiation of her suppliants and proceeded to stone them to death (on the other hand,
Herodotus, 5.71, and
Thucydides, 1.126, do not mention this aspect of the story, stating that Cylon was simply killed after being convinced that he would not be harmed).
Megacles and his
genos, the
Alcmaeonidae, were then exiled from the city for violating the laws against killing suppliants. The Alcmaeonidae were cursed with a
miasma ("stain" or "pollution"), which was inherited by later generations, even after the
genos retook control of Athens.
*Pomeroy, S.; & Burstein, S (2004).
A Brief History of Ancient Greece. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195156811
