THESEUS

As geographers crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world

which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect

that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts,

unapproachable bogs, Seythian ice, or frozen sea, so, in this great work

of mine, in which I have compared the lives of the greatest men with one

another, after passing through those periods which probable reasoning

can reach to and real history find a footing in, I might very well

say of those that are farther off, Beyond this there is nothing but

prodigies and fictions; the only inhabitants are the poets and inventors

of fables; there is no credit, or certainty any farther. Yet, after

publishing an account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I

thought I might, not without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being

brought by my history so near to his time. Considering therefore with

myself

Whom shall I set so great a man face to face?

Or whom oppose? Who's equal to the place?

(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as he who peopled the

beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in opposition with

the father of the invincible and renowned city of Rome. Let us hope that

Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit to the purifying processes of

Reason as to take the character of exact history. We shall beg that we

may meet with candid readers, and such as will receive with indulgence

the stories of antiquity.

Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. Both of

them had the repute of being sprung from the gods.

Both warriors; that by all the world's allowed.

Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigor of mind; and of

the two most famous cities of the world, the one built in Rome, and the

other made Athens be inhabited. Neither of them could avoid domestic

misfortunes nor jealousy at home; but toward the close of their

lives are both of them said to have incurred great odium with their

countrymen, if, that is, we may take the stories least like poetry as

our guide to truth.

Theseus was the son of Aegeus and Aethra. His lineage, by his father's

side, ascends as high as to Erechtheus and the first inhabitants of

Attica. By his mother's side, he was descended of Pelops, who was the

most powerful of all the kings of Peloponnesus.

When Aegeus went from the home of Aethra in Troezen to Athens, he left

a sword and a pair of shoes, hiding them under a great stone that had a

hollow in it exactly fitting them; and went away making her only privy

to it, and commanding her that, if, when their son came to man's estate,

he should be able to lift up the stone and take away what he had left

there, she should send him away to him with those things with all

secrecy, and with injunctions to him as much as possible to conceal his

journey from everyone; for he greatly feared the Pallantidae, who were

continually mutinying against him, and despised him for his want of

children, they themselves being fifty brothers, all sons of Pallas, the

brother of Aegeus.

When Aethra's son was born, some say that he was immediately named

Theseus, from the tokens which his father had put under the stone;

others that he received his name afterwards at Athens, when Aegeus

acknowledged him for his son. He was brought up under his grandfather

Pittheus, and had a tutor and attendant set over him named Connidas, to

whom the Athenians, even to this time, the day before the feast that is

dedicated to Theseus, sacrifice a ram, giving this honor to his memory

upon much juster grounds than to Silanio and Parrhasius, for making

pictures and statues of Theseus. There being then a custom for the

Grecian youth, upon their first coming to a man's estate, to go to

Delphi and offer firstfruits of their hair to the god, Theseus also went

thither, and a place there to this day is yet named Thesea, as it is

said, from him. He clipped only the fore part of his head, as Homer says

the Abantes did. And this sort of tonsure was from him named Theseis.

The Abantes first used it, not in imitation of the Arabians, as some

imagine, nor of the Mysians, but because they were a warlike people,

and used to close fighting, and above all other nations, accustomed to

engage hand to hand; as Archilochus testifies in these verses:

Slings shall not whirl, nor many arrows fly,

When on the plain the battle joins; but swords,

Man against man, the deadly conflict try,

As is the practice of Euboea's lords

Skilled with the spear.--

Therefore, that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair,

they cut it in this manner. They write also that this was the reason

why Alexander gave command to his captains that all the beards of the

Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest hold for an enemy.

Aethra for some time concealed the true parentage of Theseus, and a

report was given out by Pittheus that he was the son of Neptune; for the

Troezenians pay Neptune the highest veneration. He is their tutelar god,

to him they offer all their firstfruits, and in his honor stamp their

money with a trident.

Theseus displaying not only great strength of body, but equal bravery,

and a quickness alike and force of understanding, his mother Aethra,

conducting him to the stone, and informing him who was his true father,

commanded him to take from thence the tokens that Aegeus had left, and

to sail to Athens. He without any difficulty set himself to the stone

and lifted it up; but refused to take his journey by sea, though it was

much the safer way, and though his mother and grandfather begged him to

do so. For it was at that time very dangerous to go by land on the road

to Athens, no part of it being free from robbers and murderers. That

age produced a sort of men, in force of hand, and swiftness of foot, and

strength of body, excelling the ordinary rate, and wholly incapable of

fatigue; making use, however, of these gifts of nature to no good or

profitable purpose for mankind, but rejoicing and priding themselves

in insolence, and taking the benefit of their superior strength in

the exercise of inhumanity and cruelty, and in seizing, forcing, and

committing all manner of outrages upon everything that fell into their

hands; all respect for others, all justice, they thought, all equity and

humanity, though naturally lauded by common people, either out of

want of courage to commit injuries or fear to receive them, yet no way

concerned those who were strong enough to win for themselves. Some

of these Hercules destroyed and cut off in his passage through these

countries, but some, escaping his notice, while he was passing by, fled

and hid themselves, or else were spared by him in contempt of their

abject submission; and after that Hercules fell into misfortune, and,

having slain Iphitus, retired to Lydia, and for a long time was there

slave to Omphale, a punishment which he had imposed upon himself for

the murder. Then, indeed, Lydia enjoyed high peace and security, but in

Greece and the countries about it the like villainies again revived

and broke out, there being none to repress or chastise them. It was

therefore a very hazardous journey to travel by land from Athens to

Peloponnesus; and Pittheus, giving him an exact account of each of these

robbers and villains, their strength, and the cruelty they used to all

strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to go by sea. But he, it seems, had

long since been secretly fired by the glory of Hercules, held him in the

highest estimation, and was never more satisfied than in listening to

any that gave an account of him; especially those that had seen him,

or had been present at any action or saying of his. So that he was

altogether in the same state of feeling as, in after ages, Themistocles

was, when he said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Miltiades;

entertaining such admiration for the virtues of Hercules that in his

dreams were all of that hero's actions, and in the day a continual

emulation stirred him up to perform the like. Besides, they were

related, being born of own cousins. For Aethra was daughter of Pittheus,

and Alcmena of Lysidice; and Lysidice and Pittheus were brother and

sister, children of Hippodamia and Pelpos. He thought it therefore a

dishonorable thing, and not to be endured, that Hercules should go out

everywhere, and purge both land and sea from the wicked men, and he

should fly from the like adventures that actually came his way; not

showing his true father as good evidence of the greatness of his birth

by noble and worthy actions, as by the tokens that he brought with him,

the shoes and the sword.

With this mind and these thoughts, he set forward with a design to do

injury to nobody, but to repel and avenge himself of all those that

should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat he slew Periphtes,

in the neighborhood of Epidaurus, who used a club for his arms, and from

thence had the name of Corynetes, or the club-bearer; who seized upon

him, and forbade him to go forward in his journey. Being pleased with

the club, he took it, and made it his weapon, continuing to use it as

Hercules did the lion's skin, on whose shoulders that served to prove

how huge a beast he had killed; and to the same end Theseus carried

about him this club; overcome indeed by him, but now, in his hands,

invincible.

Passing on further towards the Isthmus of Peloponnesus, he slew Sinnis,

often surnamed the Bender of Pines, after the same manner in which he

himself had destroyed many others before. And this he did without having

either practiced or ever learnt the art of bending these trees, to show

that natural strength is above all art. This Sinnis had a daughter of

remarkable beauty and stature, called Perigune, who, when her father

was killed, fled, and was sought after everywhere by Theseus; and coming

into a place overgrown with brushwood, shrubs, and asparagus-thorn,

there, in a childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them, as if

they understood her, to give shelter, with vows that if she escaped she

would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus calling upon her,

and giving her his promise that he would use her with respect, and

offer no injury, she came forth. Whence it is a family usage amongst the

people called Ioxids, from the name of her grandson, Ioxus, both male

and female, never to burn either shrubs or asparagus-thorn, but to

respect and honor them.

The Crommyonian sow, which they called Phaea, was a savage and

formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised. Theseus

killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and engage her, so

that he might not seem to perform all his great exploits out of mere

necessity; being also of opinion that it was the part of a brave man to

chastise villainous and wicked men when attacked by them, but to seek

out and overcome the more noble wild beasts. Others relate that Phaea

was a woman, a robber full of cruelty, that lived in Crommyon, and had

the name of Sow given her from the foulness of her life and manners, and

afterwards was killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the borders

of Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a

notorious robber of all passengers, and, as others add, accustomed out

of insolence and wantonness, to stretch forth his feet to strangers,

commanding them to wash them, and then while they did it, with a kick to

send them down the rock into the sea.

In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match. And

going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes, otherwise

called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his own bed, as he

himself was used to do with all strangers; this he did in imitation

of Hercules, who always returned upon his assailants the same sort of

violence that they offered to him; sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus

in wrestling, and Cycnus in single combat, and Termerus by breaking his

skull in pieces (whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Termerian

mischief"), for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by

running with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded with

the same violence from which they had inflicted upon others, justly

suffering after the same manner of their own injustice.

As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the River

Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and saluted him,

and upon his desire to use the purifications, then in custom, they

performed them with all the usual ceremonies, and having offered

propitiatory sacrifices to the gods, invited him and entertained him at

their house, a kindness which, in all his journey hitherto, he had not

met.

On the eighth day of Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon, he arrived at

Athens, where he found the public affairs full of all confusion, and

divided into parties and factions. Aegeus also, and his whole private

family, laboring under the same distemper; for Medea, having fled from

Corinth, was living with him. She was first aware of Theseus, whom as

yet Aegeus did not know, and he being in years, full of jealousies and

suspicions, and fearing everything by reason of the faction that was

then in the city, she easily persuaded him to kill him by poison at a

banquet, to which he was to be invited as a stranger. He, coming to

the entertainment, thought it not fit to discover himself at once, but,

willing to give his father the occasion of first finding him out, the

meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he designed to cut with

it; Aegeus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison,

and, questioning his son, embraced him, and, having gathered together

all his citizens, owned him publicly before them, who, on their part,

received him gladly for the fame of his greatness and bravery.

The sons of Pallas, who were quiet, upon expectation of recovering the

kingdom after Aegeus's death, who was without issue, as soon as Theseus

appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly resenting that

Aegeus first, as adopted son only of Pandion, and not at all related to

the family of Erechtheus, should be holding the kingdom, and that after

him, Theseus, a visitor and stranger, should be destined to succeed

to it, broke out into open war. And, dividing themselves into two

companies, one part of them marched openly from Sphettus, with their

father, against the city; the other, hiding themselves in the village

of Gargettus, lay in ambush, with a design to set upon the enemy on both

sides. They had with them a crier of the township of Agnus, named

Leos, who discovered to Theseus all the designs of the Pallentidae. He

immediately fell upon those that lay in amuscade, and cut them all off;

upon tidings of which Pallas and his company fled and were dispersed.

From hence they say is derived the custom among the people of the

township of Pallene to have no marriages or any alliance with the people

of Agnus, nor to suffer the criers to pronounce in their proclamations

the words used in all other parts of the country, Acouete Leoi (Hear ye

people), hating the very sound of Leo, because of the treason of Leos.

Theseus, longing to be in action, and desirous also to make himself

popular, left Athens to fight with the bull of Marathon, which did no

small mischief to the inhabitants of Tetrapolis. And, having overcome

it, he brought it alive in triumph through the city, and afterwards

sacrificed it to the Delphian Apollo. The story of Hecale, also, of her

receiving and entertaining Theseus in this expedition, seems to be not

altogether void of truth; for the townships round about, meeting upon a

certain day, used to offer a sacrifice, which they called Hecalesia,

to Jupiter Hecaleius, and to pay honor to Hecale, whom, by a diminutive

name, they called Hecalene, because she, while entertaining Theseus,

who was quite a youth, addressed him, as old people do, with similar

endearing diminutives; and having made a vow to Jupiter that he was

going to the fight, that, if he returned in safety, she would offer

sacrifices in thanks of it, and dying before he came back, she had these

honors given her by way of return for her hospitality, by the command of

Theseus, as Philochorus tells us.

Not long afterwards came the third time from Crete the collectors of

the tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following occasion.

Androgeus having been treacherously murdered in the confines of Attica,

not only Minos, his father, put the Athenians to extreme distress by a

perpetual war, but the gods also laid waste their country; both famine

and pestilence lay heavy upon them, and even their rivers were dried up.

Being told by the oracle that if they appeased and reconciled Minos,

the anger of the gods would cease and they should enjoy rest from

the miseries they labored under, they sent heralds, and with much

supplication were at last reconciled, entering into an agreement to

send to Crete every nine years a tribute of seven young men and as many

virgins, as most writers agree in stating; and the most poetical

story adds that the Minotaur destroyed them, or that, wandering in the

Labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably

ended their lives there, and that this Minotaur was (as Euripides hath

it)

A mingled form, where two strange shapes combined,

And different natures, bull and man, were joined.

Now when the time of the third tribute was come, and the fathers who

had any young men for their sons were to proceed by lot to the choice

of those that were to be sent, there arose fresh discontents and

accusations against Aegeus among the people, who were full of grief and

indignation that he, who was the cause of all their miseries, was the

only person exempt from the punishment; adopting and setting his kingdom

upon a foreign son, he took no thought, they said, of their destitution

and loss of their lawful children. These things sensibly affected

Theseus, who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rather partake

of, the sufferings of his fellow citizens, offered himself for one

without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the nobleness,

and with love for the goodness, of the act; and Aegeus, after prayers

and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not to be persuaded,

proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot. Hellanicus, however, tells

us that the Athenians did not send the young men and virgins by lot,

but that Minos himself used to come and make his own choice, and pitched

upon Theseus before all others; according to the conditions agreed upon

between, namely, that the Athenians should furnish them with a ship, and

that the young men who were to sail with him should carry no weapon of

war; but that if the Minotaur was destroyed the tribute should cease.

On the two former occasions of the payment of the tribute, entertaining

no hopes of safety or return, they sent out the ship with a black sail,

as to unavoidable destruction; but now, Theseus encouraging his father

and speaking greatly of himself, as confident that he should kill the

Minotaur, he gave the pilot another sail, which was white, commanding

him, as he returned, if Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but

if not, to sail with the black one, and to hang out that sign of his

misfortune. Simonides says that the sail which Aegeus delivered to the

pilot was not white, but

Scarlet, in the juicy bloom

Of the living oak-tree steeped.

The lot being cast, and Theseus having received out of the Prytaneum

those upon whom it fell, he went to the Delphinium, and made an offering

for them to Apollo of his suppliant's badge, which was a bough of a

consecrated olive tree, with white wool tied about it.

Having thus performed his devotion, he went to sea, the sixth day of

Munychion, on which day even to this time the Athenians send their

virgins to the same temple to make supplication to the gods. It is

farther reported that he was commanded by the oracle at Delphi to make

Venus his guide, and to invoke her as the companion and conductress of

his voyage, and that, as he was sacrificing a she goat to her by the

seaside, it was suddenly changed into a he, and for this cause that

goddess had the name of Epitragia.

When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as well as

poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had

fallen in love with him, and being instructed by her now to use it so as

to conduct him through the windings of the Labyrinth, he escaped out of

it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him Ariadne

and the young Athenian captives. Pherecydes adds that he bored holes

in the bottom of the Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit. Demon writes

that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the

mouth of the port, in a naval combat, as he was sailing out for Athens.

But Philochorus gives us the story thus: That at the setting forth of

the yearly games by King Minos, Taurus was expected to carry away

the prize, as he had done before; and was much grudged the honor.

His character and manners made his power hateful, and he was accused,

moreover, of too near familiarity with Pasiphae, for which reason, when

Theseus desired the combat, Minos readily complied. And as it was a

custom in Crete that the women also should be admitted to the sight of

these games, Ariadne, being present, was struck with admiration of the

manly beauty of Theseus, and the vigor and address which he showed in

combat, overcoming all that encountered with him. Minos, too, being

extremely pleased with him, especially because he had overthrown and

disgraced Taurus, voluntarily gave up the young captives to Theseus, and

remitted the tribute to the Athenians.

There are yet many traditions about these things, and as many concerning

Ariadne, all inconsistent with each other. Some relate that she hung

herself, being deserted by Theseus. Others that she was carried away

by his sailors to the isle of Naxos, and married to Oenarus, priest of

Bacchus; and that Theseus left her because he fell in love with another,

"For Aegle's love was burning in his breast."

Now Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos, and, having

sacrificed to the god of the island, dedicated to the temple the

image of Venus which Ariadne had given him, and danced with the young

Athenians a dance that, in memory of him, they say is still preserved

among the inhabitants of Delos, consisting in certain measured

turnings and returnings, imitative of the windings and twistings of the

Labyrinth. And this dance, as Dicaearchus writes, is called among the

Delians, the Crane. This he danced round the Ceratonian Altar, so called

from its consisting of horns taken from the left side of the head. They

also say that he instituted games in Delos, where he was the first that

began the of giving a palm to the victors.

When they were come near the coast of Attica, so great was the joy for

the happy success of their voyage, that neither Theseus himself nor the

pilot remembered to hang out the sail which should have been the token

of their safety to Aegeus, who, in despair at the sight, threw himself

headlong from a rock, and perished in the sea. But Theseus, being

arrived at the port of Phalerum, paid there the sacrifices which he had

vowed to the gods at his setting out to sea, and sent a herald to the

city to carry the news of his safe return. At his entrance, the herald

found the people for the most part full of grief for the loss of their

king, others, as may well be believed, as full of joy for the tidings

that he brought, and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands

for his good news, which he indeed accepted of, but hung them upon his

herald's staff; and thus returning to the seaside before Theseus

had finished his libation to the gods, he stayed apart for fear of

disturbing the holy rites, but, as soon as the libation was ended, went

up and related the king's death, upon the hearing of which, with great

lamentations and a confused tumult of grief, they ran with all haste to

the city. And from hence, they say, it comes that at this day, in the

feast of Oschoporia, the herald is not crowned, but his staff, and all

who are present at the libation cry out "eleleu, iou, iou," the first of

which confused sounds is commonly used by men in haste, or at a triumph,

the other is proper to people in consternation or disorder of mind.

Theseus, after the funeral of his father, paid his vows to Apollo the

seventh day of Pyanepsion; for on that day the youth that returned with

him safe from Crete made their entry into the city. They say, also, that

the custom of boiling pulse at this feast is derived from hence; because

the young men that escaped put all that was left of their provision

together, and, boiling it in one common pot, feasted themselves with

it, and ate it all up together. Hence, also, they carry in procession

an olive branch bound about with wool (such as they then made use of in

their supplications), which they call Eiresione, crowned with all sorts

of fruits, to signify that scarcity and barrenness was ceased, singing

in their procession this song:

Eiresione brings figs, and Eiresione brings loaves;

Bring us honey in pints, and oil to rub on our bodies,

And a strong flagon of wine, for all to go mellow to bed on.

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty

oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of

Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed,

putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this

ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical

question as to things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained

the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.

Now, after the death of his father Aegeus, forming in his mind a great

and wonderful design, he gathered together all the inhabitants of Attica

into one town, and made them one people of one city, whereas before they

lived dispersed, and were not easy to assemble upon any affair, for

the common interest. Nay, the differences and even wars often occurred

between them, which he by his persuasions appeased, going form township

to township, and from tribe to tribe. And those of a more private and

mean condition readily embracing such good advice, to those of greater

power he promised a commonwealth without monarchy, a democracy, or

people's government, in which he should only be continued as their

commander in war and the protector of their laws, all things else being

equally distributed among them;--and by this means brought a part

of them over to his proposal. The rest, fearing his power, which was

already grown very formidable, and knowing his courage and resolution,

chose rather to be persuaded than forced into a compliance. He then

dissolved all the distant state-houses, council halls, and magistracies,

and built one common state-house (the Prytaneum) and council hall on the

site of the present upper town, and gave the name of Athens to the

whole state, ordaining a common feast and sacrifice, which he called

Panathenaea, or the sacrifice of all the united Athenians. He instituted

also another sacrifice, called Metoecia, or Feast of Migration, which

is yet celebrated on the sixteenth day of Hecatombaeon. Then, as he

had promised, he laid down his regal power and proceeded to order a

commonwealth, entering upon this great work not without advice from the

gods. For having sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning the

fortune of his new government and city, he received this answer:

Son of the Pitthean maid,

To your town the terms and fates

My father gives of many states.

Be not anxious or afraid:

The bladder will not fail to swim

On the waves that compass him.

Which oracle, they say, one of the sibyls long after did in a manner

repeat to the Athenians, in this verse:

The bladder may be dipt, but not be drowned.

Farther yet designing to enlarge his city, he invited all strangers to

come and enjoy equal privileges with the natives, and it is said that

the common form, "Come hither all ye people," was the words that Theseus

proclaimed when he thus set up a commonwealth, in a manner, for all

nations. Yet he did not suffer his state, by the promiscuous multitude

that flowed in, to be turned into confusion and be left without any

order or degree, but was the first that divided the commonwealth into

three distinct ranks, the noblemen, the husbandmen, and artificers.

To the nobility he committed the care of religion, the choice of

magistrates, the teaching and dispensing of the laws, and interpretation

and direction in all sacred matters; the whole city being, as it were,

reduced to an exact equality, the nobles excelling the rest in honor,

the husbandmen in profit, and the artifices in number. And that Theseus

was the first, who, as Aristotle says, out of an inclination to popular

government, parted with the regal power, Homer also seems to testify,

in his catalogue of ships, where he gives the name of "People" to the

Athenians only.

He also coined money, and stamped it with the image of an ox, either

in memory of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, whom he vanquished, or

else to put his people in mind to follow husbandry; and from this coin

came the expression so frequent among the Greeks, as a thing being

worth ten or a hundred oxen. After this he joined Megara to Attica, and

erected that famous pillar on the isthmus, which bears an inscription of

two lines, showing the bounds of the two countries that meet there. On

the east side the inscription is,-"Peloponnesus there, Ionia here," And

on the west side,-"Peloponnesus here, Ionia there."

He also instituted the games, in emulation of Hercules, being ambitious

that as the Greeks, by that hero's appointment, celebrated the Olympian

games to the honor of Jupiter, so, by his institution, they should

celebrate the Isthmian to the honor of Neptune. At the same time he made

an agreement with the Corinthians, that they should allow those that

came from Athens to the celebration of the Isthmian games as much space

of honor before the rest to behold the spectacle in as the sail of the

ship that brought them thither, stretched to its full extent, could

cover; so Hellenicus and Andro of Halicarnassus have established.

Concerning his voyage into the Euxine Sea, Philochorus and some others

write that he made it with Hercules, offering him his service in the

war against the Amazons, and had Antiope given him for the reward of his

valor; but the greater number, of whom are Pherecides, Hellanicus,

and Herodorus, with a navy under his own command, and took the Amazon

prisoner,--the more probable story, for we do not read that any other,

of all those that accompanied him in this action, took any Amazon

prisoner. Bion adds, that, to take her, he had to use deceit and fly

away; for the Amazons, he says, being naturally lovers of men, were so

far from avoiding Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, that they

sent him presents to his ship; but he, having invited Antiope, who

brought them, to come aboard, immediately set sail and carried her

away. An author named Menecrates, that wrote the History of Nicaea in

Bithynia, adds, that Theseus, having Antiope aboard his vessel, cruised

for some time about those coasts, and that there were in the same ship

three young men of Athens, that accompanied him in his voyage, all

brothers, whose names were Euneos, Thoas, and Soloon. The last of these

fell desperately in love with Antiope; and escaping the notice of the

rest, revealed the secret only to one of his most intimate acquaintance,

and employed him to disclose his passion to Antiope. She rejected his

pretences with a very positive denial, yet treated the matter with much

gentleness and discretion, and made no complaint to Theseus of anything

that had happened; but Soloon, the thing being desperate, leaped into

a river near the seaside and drowned himself. As soon as Theseus was

aquainted with his death, and his unhappy love that was the cause of it,

he was extremely distressed, and, in the height of his grief, an oracle

which he had formerly received at Delphi came into his mind; for he had

been commanded by the priestess of Apollo Pythius, that, wherever in a

strange land he was most sorrowful and under the greatest affliction,

he should build a city there, and leave some of his followers to be

governors of the place. For this cause he there founded a city, which

he called, from the name of Apollo, Pythopolis, and, in honor of the

unfortunate youth, he named the river that runs by it Soloon, and left

the two surviving brothers intrusted with the care of the government and

laws, joining with them Hermus, one of the nobility of Athens, from whom

a place in the city is called the House of Hermus; though by an error

in the accent it has been taken for the House of Hermes, or Mercury, and

the honor that was designed to the hero, transferred to the god.

This was the origin and cause of the Amazonian invasion of Attica, which

would seem to have been no slight or womanish enterprise. For it is

impossible that they should have placed their camp in the very city,

and joined battle close by the Pnyx and the hill called Museum, unless,

having first conquered the country round about, they had thus with

impunity advanced to the city. That they made so long a journey by land,

and passed the Cimmerian Bosphorus when frozen, as Hellanicus writes,

is difficult to be believed. That they encamped all but in the city is

certain, and may be sufficiently confirmed by the names that the places

thereabout yet retain, and the graves and the monuments of those that

fell the battle. Both armies being in sight, there was a long pause and

doubt on each side which should give the first onset; at last Theseus,

having sacrificed to Fear, in obedience to the command of an oracle he

had received, gave them battle, in which action a great number of the

Amazons were slain. At length, after four months, a peace was concluded

between them by the mediation of Hippolyta (for so this historian calls

the Amazon whom Theseus married, and not Antiope), though others write

that she was slain with a dart by Molpadia, while fighting by Theseus's

side, and that the pillar which stands by the temple of Olympian Earth

was erected to her honor. Nor is it to be wondered at, that in events

of such antiquity, history should be in disorder. This is as much as is

worth telling concerning the Amazons.

The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to have

been begun as follows: The fame of the strength and valor of Theseus

being spread through Greece, Pirithous was desirous to make a trial

and proof of it himself, and to this end seized a herd of oxen which

belonged to Theseus, and was driving them away from Marathon, and, when

news was brought that Theseus pursued him in arms, he did not fly, but

turned back and went to meet him. But as soon as they had viewed one

another, each so admired the gracefulness and beauty, and was seized

with such a respect for the courage of the other, that they forgot all

thoughts of fighting; and Pirithous, first stretching out his hand to

Theseus, bade him be judge in this case himself, and promised to submit

willingly to any penalty he should impose. But Theseus not only forgave

him all, but entreated him to be his friend and brother in arms; and

they ratified their friendship by oaths. After this Pirithous married

Deidamia, and invited Theseus to the wedding, entreating him to come and

see his country, and make acquaintance with the Lapithae; he had at the

same time invited the Centaurs to the feast, who, growing hot with

wine and beginning to be insolent and wild, the Lapithae took immediate

revenge upon them, slaying many of them upon the place, and afterwards,

having overcome them in battle, drove the whole race of them out of

their country, Theseus all along taking the part of the Lapithae, and

fighting on their side.

Theseus was now fifty years old, as Hellanicus states, when he carried

off Helen, who was yet too young to be married. Some writers, to take

away this accusation of one of the greatest crimes laid to his charge,

say that he did not steal away Helen himself, but that Idas and

Lynceus brought her to him, and committed her to his charge, and that,

therefore, he refused to restore her at the demand of Castor and Pollux;

or, indeed, they say her own father, Tyndarus, had sent her to be kept

by him, for fear of Enarophorus, the son of Hippocoon, who would

have carried her away by force when she was yet a child. But the most

probable account, and that which has witnesses on its side, is this:

Theseus and Pirithous went both together to Sparta, and, having seized

the young lady as she was dancing in the temple of Diana Orthia, fled

away with her. There were presently men in arms sent to pursue, but they

followed no farther than to Tegea; and Theseus and Pirithous being now

out of danger, having passed through Peloponnesus, made an agreement

between themselves, that he to whom the lot should fall should have

Helen to his wife, but should be obliged to assist in procuring another

for his friend. The lot fell upon Theseus, who conveyed her to Aphidnae,

not being yet marriageable, and delivered her to one of his allies,

called Aphidnus, and having sent his mother, Aethra, after to take care

of her, desired him to keep them so secretly that none might know

where they were; which done, to return the same service to his friend

Pirithous, he accompanied him in his journey to Epirus, in order to

steal away the king of the Molossians' daughter. The king, his own name

being Aidoneus, or Pluto, called his wife Proserpina, and his daughter

Cora, and a great dog which he kept Cerberus, with whom he ordered all

that came as suitors to his daughter to fight, and promised her to him

that should overcome the beast. But having been informed that the design

of Pirithous and his companion was not to court his daughter, but to

force her away, he caused them both to be seized, and threw Pirithous to

be torn to pieces by the dog, and put Theseus into prison, and kept him.

About this time Menetheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and

great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded to have

affected popularity and ingratiated himself with the multitude, stirred

up and exasperated the most eminent men of the city, who had long borne

a secret grudge to Theseus, conceiving that he had robbed them of their

several little kingdoms and lordships, and, having pent them all up in

one city, was using them as his subjects and slaves. He put also the

meaner people into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere

dream of liberty, though indeed they were deprived both of that and

their proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and

gracious kings of their own, they had given themselves up to be

lorded over by a newcomer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus busied

in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor and Pollux

brought against Athens came very opportunity to farther the sedition he

had been promoting, and some say that he by his persuasions was wholly

the cause of their invading the city. At their first approach they

committed no acts of hostility, but peaceably demanded their sister

Helen; but the Athenians returning answer that they neither had her nor

knew where she was disposed of, they prepared to assault the city, when

Academus, having, by whatever means, found it out, disclosed to them

that she was secretly kept at Aphidnea. For which reason he was

both highly honored during his life by Castor and Pollux, and the

Lacedaemonians, when often in after times they made excursions into

Attica, and destroyed all the country round about, spared the Academy

for the sake of Academus.

Hercules, passing by the Molossians, was entertained in his way by

Aidoneus the king, who, in conversation, accidentally spoke of the

journey of Theseus and Pirithous into his country, of what they had

designed to do, and what they were forced to suffer. Hercules was much

grieved for the inglorious death of the one and the miserable condition

of the other. As for Pirithous, he thought it useless to complain; but

begged to have Theseus released for his sake, and obtained that favor

from the king. Theseus, being thus set at liberty, returned to Athens,

where his friends were not wholly suppressed, and dedicated to Hercules

all the sacred places which the city had set apart for himself, changing

their names from Thesea to Herculea, four only excepted, as Philochorus

writes. And wishing immediately to resume the first place in the

commonwealth, and manage the state as before, he soon found himself

involved in factions and troubles; those who long had hated him had

now added to their hatred contempt; and the minds of the people were

so generally corrupted, that, instead of obeying commands with silence,

they expected to be flattered into their duty. He had some thoughts

to have reduced them by force, but was overpowered by demagogues and

factions. And at last, despairing of any good success of his affairs in

Athens, he sent away his children privately to Euboea, commending them

to the care of Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon; and he himself, having

solemnly cursed the people of Athens in the village of Gargettus, in

which there yet remains the place called Araterion, or the place of

cursing, sailed to Scyros, where he had lands left him by his father,

and friendship, as he thought, with those of the island. Lycomedes was

then king of Scyros. Theseus, therefore, addressed himself to him,

and desired to have his lands put into his possession, as designing

to settle and dwell there, though others say that he came to beg his

assistance against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either jealous of the

glory of so great a man, or to gratify Menestheus, having led him up to

the highest cliff of the island, on pretense of showing him from thence

the lands that he desired, threw him headlong down from the rock and

killed him. Others say he fell down of himself by a slip of his foot,

as he was walking there, according to his custom, after supper. At that

time there was no notice taken, nor were any concerned for his death,

but Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens. His sons were

brought up in a private condition, and accompanied Elephenor to the

Trojan war, but, after the decease of Menestheus in that expedition,

returned to Athens, and recovered the government. But in succeeding

ages, beside several other circumstances that moved the Athenians to

honor Theseus as a demigod, in the battle which was fought at Marathon

against the Medes, many of the soldiers believed they saw an apparition

of Theseus in arms, rushing on at the head of them against the

barbarians. And after the Median war, Phaedo being archon of Athens,

the Athenians, consulting the oracle at Delphi, were commanded to gather

together the bones of Theseus, and, laying them in some honorable place,

keep them as sacred in the city. But it was very difficult to recover

these relics, or so much as to find out the place where they lay, on

account of the inhospitable and savage temper of the barbarous people

that inhabited the island. Nevertheless, afterwards, when Cimon took the

island (as is related in his life), and had a great ambition to find

the place where Theseus was buried, he, by chance, spied an eagle upon

a rising ground pecking with her beak and tearing up the earth with her

talons, when on the sudden it came into his mind, as it were by some

divine inspiration, to dig there, and search for the bones of Theseus.

There were found in that place a coffin of a man of more than ordinary

size, and a brazen spear-head, and a sword lying by it, all which he

took aboard his galley and brought with him to Athens. Upon which the

Athenians, greatly delighted, went out to meet and receive the relics

with splendid procession and with sacrifices, as if it were Theseus

himself returning alive to the city. He lies interred in the middle of

the city, near the present gymnasium. His tomb is a sanctuary and

refuge for slaves, and all those of mean condition that fly from the

persecution of men in power, in memory that Theseus while he lived

was an assister and protector of the distressed, and never refused the

petitions of the afflicted that fled to him. The chief and most solemn

sacrifice which they celebrate to him is kept on the eighth day of

Pyanepsion, on which he returned with the Athenian young men from Crete.

Besides which, they sacrifice to him on the eighth day of every month,

either because he returned from Troezen the eighth day of Hecatombaeon,

as Diodorus the geographer writes, or else thinking that number to be

proper to him, because he was reputed to be born of Neptune, because

they sacrifice to Neptune on the eighth day of every month. The number

eight being the first cube of an even number, and the double of the

first square, seemed to be am emblem of the steadfast and immovable

power of this god, who from thence has the names of Asphalius and

Gaeiochus, that is, the establisher and stayer of the earth.