In Greece the Athenian, rejoicing in his belief that Athena guarded
her chosen people, found it hard to understand why the great rock
Lycabettus should be just too far from the Acropolis to be of use
as an outwork; but a myth was developed which explained all.
According to this, Athena had intended to make Lycabettus a defence
for the Athenians, and she was bringing it through the air from
Pallene for that very purpose; but, unfortunately, a raven met her
and informed her of the wonderful birth of Erichthonius, which so
surprised the goddess that she dropped the rock where it now stands.
So, too, a peculiar rock at AEgina was accounted for by a long and
circumstantial legend to the effect that Peleus threw it at Phocas.
A similar mode of explaining such objects is seen in the
mythologies of northern Europe. In Scandinavia we constantly find
rocks which tradition accounts for by declaring that they were hurled
by the old gods at each other, or at the early Christian churches.
In Teutonic lands, as a rule, wherever a strange rock or stone is
found, there will be found a myth or a legend, heathen or
Christian, to account for it.
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