The Athenians, for they used to wear golden cicadas -- a symbol of their being earth-born.[1] Thucydides in [book] 1 [writes]: "and with the hair of their head tied up in a knot with a fastener of golden cicadas ..."[2] Or because [they are] musicians; for the cicada [is] a musician. But [sc. principally because they are] earth-born, because Erechtheus also, the founder of Athens, was born from the earth.[3]