Another version says that Erichthonius and Erechtheus were the same person and that he had snakes for legs which so frightened the daughters of Cecrops that they leapt from the Acropolis. But Erechtheus himself had daughters who ended unhappily. Orithyia was abducted and raped by the North Wind. When Erechtheus as king of Athens made war on the Eleusinians, the foe called in Eumolpus, the son of Poseidon, to help them. Erechtheus learned from the oracle that he would win if his daughters perished. Since their father refused to kill them, they sacrificed themselves by jumping from the Acropolis, which allowed Erechtheus to win. However, for killing Eumolpus, Erechtheus was slain by Poseidon, and his son Pandion became king.
In a variant to the tale of Tereus, Pandion married off his daughter Procne to the Thracian king Tereus in order to gain an ally. Procne was lonely in Thrace, so she invited her sister Philomela to visit. When the. girl arrived, Tereus raped her and cut out her tongue to keep her from telling his wife. But Procne learned the truth from a tapestry woven by Philomela in the women's quarters. She took revenge on her husband by serving him their son Itys for dinner. And after telling him of it, she and Philomela made their escape. In time Tereus caught up with the pair and was about to kill them, but the gods turned the three of them into birds: Philomela into the silent swallow, Procne into the nightingale that mourns, "Tereus, Tereus, Itys, Itys," and Tereus into the hoopoe that calls, "Where? Where?"
