Page "Erichthonius of Athens" Paragraph 3

Athena gave the box to the three daughters of Cecrops, the king of Athens ( Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaurus ), and warned them never to open it.

Overcome with curiosity, Aglaurus and Herse opened the box, which contained the infant and future-king, Erichthonius (" troubles born from the earth ").

( Sources are unclear whether only one sister or all three participated.

) The sisters were terrified by what they saw in the box: either a snake coiled around an infant, or an infant that was half-man and half-serpent.

They went insane and threw themselves off the Acropolis.

Other accounts state that they were killed by the snake.