ng consulted, stating that both
Minerva and Neptune had a right to name the city, the Senate decided
in favor of the Goddess; and this circumstance, he says, gave rise to
the story. According to some writers, it was based on the fact, that
Cranaues changed the name of the city from Poseidonius, which it was
called after Neptune, to Athenae, after his own daughter Athena: and as
the Areiopagus sanctioned this change, it was fabled that Neptune had
been overcome by the judgment of the Gods.

The Jesuit Tournemine suggests the following explanation of the
story:--He says, that the aborigines of Attica, being conquered by the
Pelasgians, learned from them the art of navigation, which they turned
to account by becoming pirates. Cecrops, bringing a colony from Sais,
in Egypt, tried to abolish this barbarous custom, and taught them a
more civilized mode of life; and, among other things, he showed them
how to till the earth, and to raise the olive, for the cultivation of
which he found the soil very favorable. He also introduced the worship
of Minerva, or Athena, as she was called, a Goddess highly honored at
Sais, and to whom the olive tree was dedicated. Her the Athenians
afterwards regarded as the patroness of their city, which they called
after her name. Athens becoming famous for its olives, and,
considerable profit arising from their cultivation, the new settlers
attempted to wean the natives from piracy, by calling their attention
to agricultural pursuits. To succeed in this, they composed a fable,
in which Neptune was said to be overcome by Minerva; who, even in the
judgment of the twelve greater deities, had found out something of
more utility than he. This fable Tournemine supposes to have been
composed in the ancient language of the country, which was the
Phrygian, mingled with many Phoenician words; and, as in those
languages the same word signifies either a ship or a horse, those who
afterwards interpreted the fable, took the word in the latter
signification, and spoke of a horse instead of a ship, which was
really the original emblem employed in the fiction.

Vossius thinks that the fable originated in a dispute between the
sailors of Athens, who acknowledged Neptune for their chief, and the
people, who followed the Senate, governed by Minerva. The people
prevailed, and a life of civilization, marked by attention to the
pursuits of agricultur