Athens (Ἀθῆναι) — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Athens — The citadel of earth-born Erechtheus, Athene's own house — whose lord marshalled the host as no man could, and, rarest of gifts, sailed home whole.

Attic realm of Menestheus son of Peteos, held under the patronage of Athene in the house of the earth-born Erechtheus. Fifty ships to Troy under the war's unmatched marshaller of ranks; and — unlike the murdered and drowned captains around him — a lord who came safely home to his throne.

Leader at Troy: Menestheus.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Menestheus.

Role in the Trojan War: Achaean. Fifty black ships under Menestheus son of Peteos, the war's supreme marshaller of chariots and shield-men (only Nestor his elder could rival him); he held his tower on the Achaean wall against Sarpedon's Lycians, summoning Aias to the breach.

The homecoming: Marshalled the host beneath Troy — and, rarest of the captains, sailed home to hold his throne.

The goodly citadel of Athens was the domain of Erechtheus the high-hearted, whom Athene daughter of Zeus fostered when the grain-giving Earth brought him to birth. The grey-eyed goddess gave the earth-born hero a resting-place in her own rich sanctuary, and there, as the years turn in their courses, the sons of the Athenians worship him with bulls and rams. This was a realm held under the shadow of its patron: even in the tenth year of the returns, when Athene has done steering Odysseus toward Ithaca, she departs over the unharvested seas, comes to Marathon and wide-wayed Athens, and enters the good house of Erechtheus. Athens is the one Achaean kingdom whose goddess goes home to it. To Troy the Athenians came under Menestheus son of Peteos, fosterling of Zeus, with fifty black ships — a middling contingent, but led by a man of one surpassing gift. In the ordering of an army no mortal was his equal: of all men on the face of the earth none was like him for the marshalling of horsemen and shield-bearing warriors, and only Nestor, being the elder by birth, could rival him. Homer grants Menestheus no great slaughter, no aristeia of the spear; his craft was the drawn-up line, the disciplined rank. When the host mustered on the plain, Agamemnon king of men found him standing with the Athenians, masters of the battle-cry, hard by crafty Odysseus and his Kephallenians, and — mistaking their patience for shrinking — upbraided the pair for tarrying while others fought; a rare crossing of Athens' lord with the overlord of the whole expedition. His true hour came at the Achaian wall. When Sarpedon and Glaukos led up the great host of the Lykians, it was against the tower of Menestheus that they came, bringing ruin with them; and the son of Peteos shuddered, and looked along the rampart for any leader to ward destruction from his comrades. Unable to make himself heard above the din of smitten shields, he sent the herald Thootes running down the wall to fetch the strong Telamonian Aias and Teukros the bowman — and so held his post. It is the measure of the man: not the first spear, but the captain who knows whom to call and where the line must not break. For this steady, unglamorous lord the nostos was kind. Where Agamemnon came home to the axe and Aias fell on his own sword, Menestheus led out his fifty ships and, rarest of fates among the great captains, brought his people safely back; at the dramatic present he holds his throne in the house of Erechtheus, and Athens is spared the ruin that stalks the returning kings. Only the Attic coast keeps a grave from the homeward voyages: at holy Sunium, the headland of Athens, Phoebus Apollo slew Phrontis son of Onetor, the peerless pilot of Menelaus, with his gentle shafts as he held the rudder — so that even Sparta's returning lord was held on Athenian ground long enough to bury a friend. Athens' story is bound to its neighbours in the line and on the sea. Beside the Athenians in the Catalogue stood Aias of SAL (Salamis), who set his twelve ships where the battalions of the Athenians were drawn up — the closest of alliances, and the same Aias whom Menestheus later begged to save his tower. In the battle-line the Athenians stood shoulder to shoulder with Odysseus of CEP (the Cephallenians), and both were rebuked together by Agamemnon of MYC (Mycenae), overlord of the war. Their fiercest foe was LYC (the Lycians) under Sarpedon and Glaukos, who broke against the Athenian wall; and Athens touches the return of LAC (Lacedaemon) through Sunium, where Menelaus lost his helmsman on the coast of Attica.

“And there was no man upon the face of earth that was like him for the marshalling of horsemen and warriors that bear the shield.” — Iliad 2.552-554