Cylon of Athens

Scholarship has attempted to definitively date the events of Cylon's coup, but the only primary records of him come from Herodotus and Thucydides, both of whom only mention that he was a previous winner of the Olympic Games.

[1] According to Thucydides (1.126), the oracle at Delphi had advised Cylon to seize Athens during a festival of Zeus, which he understood to mean the Olympics, and become the tyrant of the city himself.

[5] The Athenian archons, led by Megacles, took this as the goddess's repudiation of her suppliants and proceeded to stone them to death (on the other hand, Herodotus, (5.71), and Thucydides, (1.126), do not mention this aspect of the story, stating that Cylon's followers were simply killed after being convinced that they would not be harmed).

However, in some contemporary cities throughout Greece, including Megara, governmental structure began to transfer to the rule of tyrants who took advantage of political instability and place themselves into power.

[7] In the context of antiquity, tyranny was associated with an unconstitutional takeover of power by an elite or person of high status that was not associated with the direct line of succession[8] Cylon, with his elevated social status from winning the Olympics and knowledge of tyrannical governance from his father in law at Megara, conceived the idea to replicate a tyrannical overthrow in the familiar city of Athens.

According to Herodotus (5.71), The Alcmaeonidae were cursed with a miasma ("stain" or "pollution") for committing deeds against the goddess Athena, which was inherited by later generations, even after the genos retook control of Athens.

Scholars who subscribe to this view have argued that Thucydides' writings were targeted in defense of the Alcmeonid family who were charged with the sacrilegious murders of Cylon's supporters.