Kekrops: the positive aspects of diphyes and ‘mixanthropic’ nature. Serpents and autochthony

Abstract

Kekrops was a diphyes and ‘mixanthropic’ hero, with his upper part in the form of a man and his lower part in the form of a snake. This paper examines the positive aspects of Kekrops’s diphyes and hybrid nature, by employing an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account the literary, epigraphic, iconographic and topographical evidence, as well as the historical and ideological context of the classical period. Special attention is paid to the association of Kekrops with snakes and the ideology of autochthony.