In Greek mythology, Aglaurus or Agraulus (Ancient Greek: Ἄγλαυρος / Ἄγραυλος) was a princess of Athens, daughter of Cecrops I and of another Aglaurus (daughter of Actaeus), and sister of Herse and Pandrosus. With her sisters she was entrusted with the infant Erichthonius; versions differ on whether curiosity drove her to open Athena's chest and leap from the Acropolis, or whether she later sacrificed herself for Athens, or — in Ovid — was turned to stone for blocking Hermes from Herse.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Aglaurus was daughter of King Cecrops and Aglaurus daughter of Actaeus, sister of Herse, Pandrosus, and possibly Erysichthon. By Ares she was mother of Alcippe; by Hermes, in some accounts, of Ceryx.
II.Mythology
Athena gave the infant Erichthonius, enclosed in a chest, to Aglaurus and her sisters with orders never to open it. Aglaurus and Herse opened the box; the sight drove them mad and they threw themselves from the Acropolis (or into the sea). An alternate telling has a crow report the opening to Athena while she was fetching a mountain for the Acropolis, after which the sisters again leaped to their deaths.
Another Attic legend makes Agraulos a patriotic suicide: an oracle said a long war would end if someone sacrificed himself for the city; she threw herself from the Acropolis, and the Athenians built her a temple where ephebes later swore to defend the land. Ovid instead has Mercury love Herse while jealous Aglauros bars the door; the god turns her to stone — the version Dante recalls on the terrace of envy in Purgatorio.
III.Worship
An Attic deme Agraule took her name, and the Agraulia festival and mysteries were celebrated at Athens in her honour. She had her own sanctuary near the Acropolis and was associated with young soldiers (epheboi) and with Athena's Plynteria more than with infants. Porphyry reports that she was also worshipped in Cyprus with human sacrifice into late times.