City of the Violet Crown

Athens is so called by Aristophanēs (ιoστεφανoζ—see Equites, 1323 and 1329; and Acharnians, 637). Macaulay refers to Athens as the “violet-crowned city.” Ion (a violet) was a representative king of Athens, whose four sons gave names to the four Athenian classes; and Greece, in Asia Minor, was called Ionia. Athens was the city of “Ion crowned its king” or “of the Violet crowned.” Similarly Paris is the “city of lilies”—i.e. fleursde-luce or Louis-flowers.