Theseus
1. Just as geographers, O Socius Senecio,1 crowd on to the outer
edges of their maps the parts of the earth which elude their knowledge,
with
explanatory notes that "What lies beyond
is sandy desert without water and full of wild beasts," or "blind marsh,"
or "Scythian cold,"or "frozen sea," so in the writing of my Parallel Lives,
now that I have traversed those periods of time which are accessible to
probable reasoning and which afford basis for a history dealing with facts,
I might well say of the earlier periods "What lies beyond is full of marvels
and unreality, a land of poets and fabulists, of doubt and obscurity."
[2] But after publishing my account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the
king, I thought I might not unreasonably go back still farther to Romulus,
now that my history had brought me near his times. And as I asked myself,
With such a warrior (as Aeschylus says) who will dare to fight?
Whom shall I set against him? Who is competent?Ó
it seemed to me that I must make the founder of lovely and famous Athens the counterpart and parallel to the father of invincible and glorious Rome. [3] May I therefore succeed in purifying Fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of History. But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible, and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity.
2. It seemed to me, then, that many resemblances made Theseus a fit
parallel to Romulus. For both were of uncertain and obscure parentage,
and got the reputation of descent from gods;
Both were also warriors, as surely the whole world knoweth,
and with their strength, combined sagacity.
Of the world's two most illustrious cities, moreover, Rome and Athens,
Romulus founded the one, and Theseus made a metropolis of the other, and
each resorted to the rape of women. [2] Besides, neither escaped domestic
misfortunes and the resentful anger of kindred, but even in their last
days both are said to have come into collision with their own fellow-citizens,
if there is any aid to the truth in what seems to have been told with the
least poetic exaggeration.
3. The lineage of Theseus, on the father's side, goes back to Erechtheus and the first children of the soil; on the mother's side, to Pelops. For Pelops was the strongest of the kings in Peloponnesus quite as much on account of the number of his children as the amount of his wealth. He gave many daughters in marriage to men of highest rank, and scattered many sons among the cities as their rulers. One of these, named Pittheus, the grandfather of Theseus, founded the little city of Troezen, and had the highest repute as a man versed in the lore of his times and of the greatest wisdom. [2] Now the wisdom of that day had some such form and force as that for which Hesiod was famous, especially in the sententious maxims of his "Works and Days." One of these maxims is ascribed to Pittheus, namely
Payment pledged to a man who is dear must be ample and certain.
At any rate, this is what Aristotle the
philosopher says,1 and Euripides,2 when he has Hippolytus addressed as
"nursling of the pure and holy Pittheus," shows what the world thought
of Pittheus. [3] Now Aegeus, king of Athens, desiring to have children,
is said to have received from the Pythian priestess the celebrated oracle
in which she bade him to have intercourse with no woman until he
came to Athens. But Aegeus thought the words of the command somewhat obscure,
and therefore turned aside to Troezen and communicated to Pittheus the
words of the god, which ran as follows:--
Loose not the wine-skin's jutting neck, great chief of the people,
Until thou shalt have come once more to the city of Athens.
[4] This dark saying Pittheus apparently
understood, and persuaded him, or beguiled him, to have intercourse with
his daughter Aethra. Aegeus did so, and then learning that it was the daughter
of Pittheus with whom he had consorted, and suspecting that she was with
child by him, he left a sword and a pair of sandals hidden under a great
rock, which had a hollow in it just large enough to receive these objects.
[5] He told the princess alone about this, and bade her, if a son should
be born to her from him, and if, when he came to man's estate, he should
be able to lift up the rock and take away what had been left under it,
to send that son to him with the tokens, in all secrecy, and concealing
his journey as much as possible from everybody; for he was mightily in
fear of the sons of Pallas,4 who were plotting against him, and who despised
him on account of his childlessness; and they were fifty in number, these
sons of Pallas. Then he went away.
4.When Aethra gave birth to a son, he was at once named Theseus, as some say, because the tokens for his recognition had been "placed" in hiding; but others say that it was afterwards at Athens, when Aegeus "acknowledged" him as his son. He was reared by Pittheus, as they say, and had an overseer and tutor named Connidas. To this man, even down to the present time, the Athenians sacrifice a ram on the day before the festival of Theseus, remembering him and honoring him with far greater justice than they honor Silanio and Parrhasius, who merely painted and moulded likenesses of Theseus.
5. Since it was still a custom at that time for youth who were coming
of age to go to Delphi and sacrifice some of their hair to the god, Theseus
went to Delphi for this purpose, and they say there is a place there which
still to this day is called the Theseia from him. But he sheared only the
fore part of his head, just as Homer1 said the Abantes did, and this kind
of tonsure was called Theseis after him [2] Now the Abantes were the first
to cut their hair in this manner, not under instruction from the Arabians,
as some suppose, nor yet in emulation of the Mysians, but because they
were war-like men and close fighters, who had learned beyond all other
men to force their way into close
quarters with their enemies. Archilochus is witness to this in the following
words:--
[3] Not many bows indeed will be stretched tight, nor frequent slings
Be whirled, when Ares joins men in the moil of war
Upon the plain, but swords will do their mournful work;
For this is the warfare wherein those men are expert
Who lord it over Euboea and are famous with the spear.
[4] Therefore, in order that they might not give their enemies a hold by
their hair, they cut it off. And Alexander of Macedon doubtless
understood this when, as they say, he ordered his generals to have the
beards of their Macedonians shaved, since these afforded the readiest hold
in battle.
6. During the rest of the
time, then, Aethra kept his true birth concealed from Theseus, and a report
was spread abroad by Pittheus that he was
begotten by Poseidon. For Poseidon is highly honored by the people of Troezen,
and he is the patron god of their city; to him they offer first
fruits in sacrifice, and they have his trident as an emblem on their coinage.
[2] But when, in his young manhood, Theseus displayed, along with
his vigor of body, prowess also, and a firm spirit united with intelligence
and sagacity, then Aethra brought him to the rock, told him the truth
about his birth, and bade him take away his fathers tokens and go by sea
to Athens. [3] Theseus put his shoulder to the rock and easily raised it
up, but he refused to make his journey by sea, although safety lay in that
course, and his grandfather and his mother begged him to take it. For it
was difficult to make the journey to Athens by land, since no part of it
was clear nor yet without peril from robbers and miscreants.
[4] For verily that age produced men who, in work of hand and speed of
foot and vigor of body, were extraordinary and indefatigable, but they
applied their powers to nothing that was fitting or useful. Nay rather,
they exulted in monstrous insolence, and reaped from their strength a
harvest of cruelty and bitterness, mastering and forcing and destroying
everything that came in their path. And as for reverence and righteousness,
justice and humanity, they thought that most men praised these qualities
for lack of courage to do wrong and for fear of being wronged, and
considered them no concern of men who were strong enough to get the upper
hand. [5] Some of these creatures Heracles cut off and destroyed
as he went about, but some escaped his notice as he passed by, crouching
down and shrinking back, and were overlooked in their abjectness. And
when Heracles met with calamity and, after the slaying of Iphitus, removed
into Lydia and for a long time did slave's service there in the house of
Omphale, then Lydia indeed obtained great peace and security; but in the
regions of Hellas the old villainies burst forth and broke out anew, there
being none to rebuke and none to restrain them.
[6] The journey was therefore a perilous one for travellers by land from
Peloponnesus to Athens, and Pittheus, by describing each of the
miscreants at length, what sort of a monster he was, and what deeds he
wrought upon strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to make his journey by
sea. But he, as it would seem, had long since been secretly fired by the
glorious valor of Heracles, and made the greatest account of that hero,
and
was a most eager listener to those who told what manner of man he was,
and above all to those who had seen him and been present at some deed
or speech of his. [7] And it is altogether plain that he then experienced
what Themistocles many generations afterwards experienced, when he
said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Miltiades.1 In like manner
Theseus admired the valor of Heracles, until by night his dreams were of
the hero's achievements, and by day his ardor led him along and spurred
him on in his purpose to achieve the like.
7. And besides, they were kinsmen,
being sons of cousins-german. For Aethra was daughter of Pittheus, as Alcmene
was of Lysidice, and
Lysidice and Pittheus were brother and sister, children of Hippodameia
and Pelops. Accordingly, he thought it a dreadful and unendurable thing
that his famous cousin should go out against the wicked everywhere and
purge land and sea of them, while he himself ran away from the
struggles which lay in his path, [2] disgracing his reputed father1 by
journeying like a fugitive over the sea, and bringing to his real father
as
proofs of his birth only sandals and a sword unstained with blood, instead
of at once offering noble deeds and achievements as the manifest mark
of his noble birth. In such a spirit and with such thoughts he set out,
determined to do no man any wrong, but to punish those who offered him
violence.
8. And so in the first place,
in Epidauria, when Periphetes, who used a club as his weapon and on this
account was called Club-bearer, laid
hold of him and tried to stop his progress, he grappled with him and slew
him. And being pleased with the club, he took it and made it his
weapon and continued to use it, just as Heracles did with the lion's skin.
That hero wore the skin to prove how great a wild beast he had mastered,
and so Theseus carried the club to show that although it had been vanquished
by him, in his own hands it was invincible.
[2] On the Isthmus, too, he slew Sinis the Pine-bender in the very manner
in which many men had been destroyed by himself, and he did this
without practice or even acquaintance with the monster's device, but showing
that valor is superior to all device and practice. Now Sinis had a very
beautiful and stately daughter, named Perigune. This daughter took to flight
when her father was killed, and Theseus went about in search of her.
But she had gone off into a place which abounded greatly in shrubs and
rushes and wild asparagus, and with exceeding innocence and childish
simplicity was supplicating these plants, as if they understood her, and
vowing that if they would hide and save her, she would never trample them
down nor burn them. [3] When, however, Theseus called upon her and gave
her a pledge that he would treat her honorably and do her no wrong,
she came forth, and after consorting with Theseus, bore him Melanippus,
and afterwards lived with Deioneus, son of Eurytus the Oechalian, to
whom Theseus gave her. From Melanippus the son of Theseus, Ioxus was born,
who took part with Ornytus in leading a colony into Caria
whence it is ancestral usage with the Ioxids, men and women, not to burn
either the asparagus-thorn or the rush, but to revere and honor them.
9. Now the Crommyonian sow, which
they called Phaea, was no insignificant creature, but fierce and hard to
master. This sow he went out of
his way to encounter and slay, that he might not be thought to perform
all his exploits under compulsion, and at the same time because he thought
that while the brave man ought to attack villainous men only in self defence,
he should seek occasion to risk his life in battle with the nobler
beasts. However, some say that Phaea was a female robber, a woman of murderous
and unbridled spirit, who dwelt in Crommyon, was called
Sow because of her life and manners, and was afterwards slain by Theseus.
10. He also slew Sciron on
the borders of Megara, by hurling him down the cliffs. Sciron robbed the
passers by, according to the prevalent
tradition; but as some say, he would insolently and wantonly thrust out
his feet to strangers and bid them wash them, and then, while they were
washing them, kick them off into the sea. [2] Megarian writers, however,
taking issue with current report, and, as Simonides1 expresses it,
"waging war with antiquity," say that Sciron was neither a violent man
nor a robber, but a chastiser of robbers, and a kinsman and friend of
good and just men. For Aeacus, they say, is regarded as the most righteous
of Hellenes, and Cychreus the Salaminian has divine honors at
Athens, and the virtues of Peleus and Telamon are known to all men. [3]
Well, then, Sciron was a son-in-law of Cychreus, father-in-law of
Aeacus, and grandfather of Peleus and Telamon, who were the sons of Endeis,
daughter of Sciron and Chariclo. It is not likely, then, they say,
that the best of men made family alliances with the basest, receiving and
giving the greatest and most valuable pledges. It was not, they say, when
Theseus first journeyed to Athens, but afterwards, that he captured Eleusis
from the Megarians, having circumvented Diocles its ruler, and slew
Sciron. Such, then, are the contradictions in which these matters are involved.
11. In Eleusis, moreover,
he out-wrestled Cercyon the Arcadian and killed him and going on a little
farther, at Erineus, he killed Damastes,
surnamed Procrustes, by compelling him to make his own body fit his bed,
as he had been wont to do with those of strangers. And he did this in
imitation of Heracles. For that hero punished those who offered him violence
in the manner in which they had plotted to serve him, and therefore
sacrificed Busiris, wrestled Antaeus to death, slew Cycnus in single combat,
and killed Termerus by dashing in his skull. [2] It is from him,
indeed, as they say, that the name "Termerian mischief" comes, for Termerus,
as it would seem, used to kill those who encountered him by
dashing his head against theirs. Thus Theseus also went on his way chastising
the wicked, who were visited with the same violence from him
which they were visiting upon others, and suffered justice after the manner
of their own injustice.
12. As he went forward on
his journey and came to the river Cephisus, he was met by men of the race
of the Phytalidae, who greeted him first,
and when he asked to be purified from bloodshed, cleansed him with the
customary rites, made propitiatory sacrifices, and feasted him at their
house. This was the first kindness which he met with on his journey.
It was, then, on the eighth day of the month Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon,
that he is said to have arrived at Athens. And when he entered the
city, he found public affairs full of confusion and dissension, and the
private affairs of Aegeus and his household in a distressing condition.
[2] For Medea, who had fled thither from Corinth, and promised by her sorceries
to relieve Aegeus of his childlessness, was living with him. She
learned about Theseus in advance, and since Aegeus was ignorant of him,
and was well on in years and afraid of everything because of the faction
in the city, she persuaded him to entertain Theseus as a stranger guest,
and take him off by poison. Theseus, accordingly, on coming to the
banquet, thought best not to tell in advance who he was, but wishing to
give his father a clue to the discovery, when the meats were served, he
drew his sword, as if minded to carve with this, and brought it to the
notice of his father. [3] Aegeus speedily perceived it, dashed down the
proffered cup of poison, and after questioning his son, embraced him, and
formally recognized him before an assembly of the citizens, who
received him gladly because of his manly valor. And it is said that as
the cup fell, the poison was spilled where now is the enclosure in the
Delphinium,1 for that is where the house of Aegeus stood, and the Hermes
to the east of the sanctuary is called the Hermes at Aegeus's gate.
13. Now the sons of Pallas
had before this themselves hoped to gain possession of the kingdom when
Aegeus died childless. But when
Theseus was declared successor to the throne, exasperated that Aegeus should
be king although he was only an adopted son of Pandion and in
no way related to the family of Erechtheus, and again that Theseus should
be prospective king although he was an immigrant and a stranger, they
went to war. [2] And dividing themselves into two bands, one of these marched
openly against the city from Sphettus with their father; the other
hid themselves at Gargettus and lay in ambush there, intending to attack
their enemies from two sides. But there was a herald with them, a man of
Agnus, by name Leos. This man reported to Theseus the designs of the Pallantidae.
[3] Theseus then fell suddenly upon the party lying in
ambush, and slew them all. Thereupon the party with Pallas dispersed. This
is the reason, they say, why the township of Pallene has no
intermarriage with the township of Agnus, and why it will not even allow
heralds to make their customary proclamation there of "akouete leo!"
(Hear, ye people!) For they hate the word on account of the treachery of
the man Leos.
14. But Theseus, desiring
to be at work, and at the same time courting the favour of the people,
went out against the Marathonian bull, which
was doing no small mischief to the inhabitants of the Tetrapolis.1 After
he had mastered it, he made a display of driving it alive through the city,
and then sacrificed it to the Delphinian Apollo. [2] Now the story of Hecale
and her receiving and entertaining Theseus on this expedition seems
not to be devoid of all truth. For the people of the townships round about
used to assemble and sacrifice the Hecalesia to Zeus Hecalus, and they
paid honors to Hecale, calling her by the diminutive name of Hecaline,
because she too, when entertaining Theseus, in spite of the fact that he
was
quite a youth, caressed him as elderly people do, and called him affectionately
by such diminutive names. [3] And since she vowed, when the hero
was going to his battle with the bull, that she would sacrifice to Zeus
if he came back safe, but died before his return, she obtained the above
mentioned honors as a return for her hospitality at the command of Theseus,
as Philochorus has written.
15. Not long afterwards there
came from Crete for the third time the collectors of the tribute. Now as
to this tribute, most writers agree that
because Androgeos was thought to have been treacherously killed within
the confines of Attica, not only did Minos harass the inhabitants of that
country greatly in war,1 but Heaven also laid it waste, for barrenness
and pestilence smote it sorely, and its rivers dried up; also that when
their
god assured them in his commands that if they appeased Minos and became
reconciled to him, the wrath of Heaven would abate and there would
be an end of their miseries, they sent heralds and made their supplication
and entered into an agreement to send him every nine years a tribute of
seven youths and as many maidens. [2] And the most dramatic version of
the story declares that these young men and women, on being brought
to Crete, were destroyed by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or else wandered
about at their own will and, being unable to find an exit, perished
there; and that the Minotaur, as Euripides says, was
A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape,
and that
Two different natures, man and bull, were joined in him.
16. Philochorus, however,
says that the Cretans do not admit this, but declare that the Labyrinth
was a dungeon, with no other inconvenience
than that its prisoners could not escape; and that Minos instituted funeral
games in honor of Androgeos, and as prizes for the victors, gave
these Athenian youth, who were in the meantime imprisoned in the Labyrinth
and that the victor in the first games was the man who had the
greatest power at that time under Minos, and was his general, Taurus by
name, who was not reasonable and gentle in his disposition, but
treated the Athenian youth with arrogance and cruelty. [2] And Aristotle
himself also, in his Constitution of Bottiaea,1 clearly does not think
that these youths were put to death by Minos, but that they spent the rest
of their lives as slaves in Crete. And he says that the Cretans once, in
fulfillment of an ancient vow, sent an offering of their first-born to
Delphi, and that some descendants of those Athenians were among the
victims, and went forth with them; and that when they were unable to support
themselves there, they first crossed over into Italy and dwelt in
that country round about Iapygia, and from there journeyed again into Thrace
and were called Bottiaeans; and that this was the reason why the
maidens of Bottiaea, in performing a certain sacrifice, sing as an accompaniment
"To Athens let us go!"
And verily it seems to be a grievous thing for a man to be at enmity with
a city which has a language and a literature. [3] For Minos was
always abused and reviled in the Attic theaters, and it did not avail him
either that Hesiod2 called him "Most royal," or that Homer styled him
"confidant of Zeus," but the tragic poets prevailed, and from platform
and stage showered obloquy down upon him, as a man of cruelty and
violence. And yet they say that Minos was a king and lawgiver, and that
Rhadamanthus was a judge under him, and a guardian of the
principles of justice defined by him.
17. Accordingly, when the time
came for the third tribute, and it was necessary for the fathers who had
youthful sons to present them for the
lot, fresh accusations against Aegeus arose among the people, who were
full of sorrow and vexation that he who was the cause of all their
trouble alone had no share in the punishment, but devolved the kingdom
upon a bastard and foreign son, and suffered them to be left destitute
and bereft of legitimate children. [2] These things troubled Theseus, who,
thinking it right not to disregard but to share in the fortune of his
fellow-citizens, came forward and offered himself independently of the
lot. The citizens admired his noble courage and were delighted with his
public spirit, and Aegeus, when he saw that his son was not to be won over
or turned from his purpose by prayers and entreaties, cast the lots
for the rest of the youths.
[3] Hellanicus, however, says that the city did not send its young men
and maidens by lot, but that Minos himself used to come and pick them
out, and that he now pitched upon Theseus first of all, following the terms
agreed upon. And he says the agreement was that the Athenians
should furnish the ship, and that the youths should embark and sail with
him carrying no warlike weapon, and that if the Minotaur was killed
the penalty should cease.
[4] On the two former occasions, then, no hope of safety was entertained,
and therefore they sent the ship with a black sail, convinced that their
youth were going to certain destruction; but now Theseus encouraged his
father and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotaur, so that
he gave the pilot another sail, a white one, ordering him, if he returned
with Theseus safe, to hoist the white sail, but otherwise to sail with
the
black one, and so indicate the affliction.
[5] Simonides, however, says1 that the sail given by Aegeus was not white,
but " scarlet sail dyed with the tender flower of luxuriant
holm-oak," and that he made this a token of their safety. Moreover, the
pilot of the ship was Phereclus, son of Amarsyas, as Simonides says;
[6] but Philochorus says that Theseus got from Scirus of Salamis Nausithous
for his pilot, and Phaeax for his look-out man, the Athenians at
that time not yet being addicted to the sea, and that Scirus did him this
favour because one of the chosen youths, Menesthes, was his
daughter's son. And there is evidence for this in the memorial chapels
for Nausithous and Phaeax which Theseus built at Phalerum near the
temple of Scirus, and they say that the festival of the Cybernesia, or
Pilot's Festival, is celebrated in their honor.
18. When the lot was cast, Theseus
took those upon whom it fell from the prytaneium and went to the Delphinium,
where he dedicated to
Apollo in their behalf his suppliant's badge. This was a bough from the
sacred olive-tree, wreathed with white wool. Having made his vows and
prayers, he went down to the sea on the sixth day of the month Munychion,
on which day even now the Athenians still send their maidens to the
Delphinium to propitiate the god. [2] And it is reported that the god at
Delphi commanded him in an oracle to make Aphrodite his guide, and
invite her to attend him on his journey, and that as he sacrificed the
usual she-goat to her by the sea-shore, it became a he-goat (tragos) all
at
once, for which reason the goddess has the surname Epitragia.
19. When he reached Crete
on his voyage, most historians and poets tell us that he got from Ariadne,
who had fallen in love with him, the
famous thread, and that having been instructed by her how to make his way
through the intricacies of the Labyrinth, he slew the Minotaur and
sailed off with Ariadne and the youths. And Pherecydes says that Theseus
also staved in the bottoms of the Cretan ships, thus depriving them of
the power to pursue. [2] And Demon says also that Taurus, the general of
Minos, was killed in a naval battle in the harbor as Theseus was sailing
out. But as Philochorus tells the story,1 Minos was holding the funeral
games, and Taurus was expected to conquer all his competitors in them,
as he had done before, and was grudged his success. For his disposition
made his power hateful, and he was accused of too great intimacy with
Pasiphae. Therefore when Theseus asked the privilege of entering the lists,
it was granted him by Minos. [3] And since it was the custom in Crete
for women to view the games, Ariadne was present, and was smitten with
the appearance of Theseus, as well as filled with admiration for his
athletic prowess, when he conquered all his opponents. Minos also was delighted
with him, especially because he conquered Taurus in wrestling
and disgraced him, and therefore gave back the youths to Theseus, besides
remitting its tribute to the city.
[4] Cleidemus, however, gives a rather peculiar and ambitious account of
these matters, beginning a great way back. There was, he says, a general
Hellenic decree that no trireme should sail from any port with a larger
crew than five men, and the only exception was Jason, the commander of
the Argo, who sailed about scouring the sea of pirates. Now when Daedalus
fled from Crete in a merchant-vessel to Athens, Minos, contrary to
the decrees, pursued him with his ships of war, and was driven from his
course by a tempest to Sicily, where he ended his life.2 [5] And when
Deucalion, his son, who was on hostile terms with the Athenians, sent to
them a demand that they deliver up Daedalus to him, and threatened, if
they refused, to put to death the youth whom Minos had received from them
as hostages, Theseus made him a gentle reply, declining to surrender
Daedalus, who was his kinsman and cousin, being the son of Merope, the
daughter of Erechtheus. But privately he set himself to building a fleet,
part of it at home in the township of Thymoetadae, far from the public
road, and part of it under the direction of Pittheus in Troezen, wishing
his
purpose to remain concealed. [6] When his ships were ready, he set sail,
taking Daedalus and exiles from Crete as his guides, and since none of
the Cretans knew of his design, but thought the approaching ships to be
friendly, Theseus made himself master of the harbor, disembarked his
men, and got to Gnossus before his enemies were aware of his approach.
Then joining battle with them at the gate of the Labyrinth, he slew
Deucalion and his body-guard. [7] And since Ariadne was now at the head
of affairs, he made a truce with her, received back the youthful
hostages, and established friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans,
who took oath never to begin hostilities.
20. There are many other stories
about these matters, and also about Ariadne, but they do not agree at all.
Some say that she hung herself
because she was abandoned by Theseus; others that she was conveyed to Naxos
by sailors and there lived with Oenarus the priest of Dionysus,
and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman:--
Dreadful indeed was his passion for Aigle child of Panopeus.
[2] This verse Peisistratus expunged from the poems of Hesiod, according
to Hereas the Megarian, just as, on the other hand, he inserted into the
Inferno of Homer the verse:--
Theseus, Peirithous, illustrious children of Heaven,
and all to gratify the Athenians. Moreover, some say that Ariadne actually
had sons by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus, and among these is
Ion of Chios, who says of his own native city:--
This, once, Theseus's son founded, Oenopion.
Now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths of all
men, as I may say; but a very peculiar account of these matters is
published by Paeon the Amathusian. [3] He says that Theseus, driven out
of his course by a storm to Cyprus, and having with him Ariadne, who
was big with child and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of
the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to
succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island,
accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in
the
discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters purporting
to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid
during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her
child was born. [4] Paeon says further that Theseus came back, and was
greatly afflicted, and left a sum of money with the people of the island,
enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne, and caused two little statuettes
to be
set up in her honor, one of silver, and one of bronze. He says also that
at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus,
one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of
women in travail; and that they call the grove in which they show her
tomb, the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite.
[5] Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were
two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to
Dionysus in Naxos and bore him Staphylus and his brother, and the other,
of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then
abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Corcyne,
whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there, and
has honors paid her unlike those of the former, for the festival of the
first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels, but the sacrifices performed
in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning.
21. On his voyage from Crete,
Theseus put in at Delos, and having sacrificed to the god and dedicated
in his temple the image of Aphrodite
which he had received from Ariadne, he danced with his youths a dance which
they say is still performed by the Delians, being an imitation of
the circling passages in the Labyrinth, and consisting of certain rhythmic
involutions and evolutions. [2] This kind of dance, as Dicaearchus
tells us, is called by the Delians The Crane, and Theseus danced it round
the altar called Keraton, which is constructed of horns (kerata)
taken entirely from the left side of the head. They say that he also instituted
athletic contests in Delos, and that the custom was then begun by
him of giving a palm to the victors.
22. It is said, moreover,
that as they drew nigh the coast of Attica, Theseus himself forgot, and
his pilot forgot, such was their joy and
exultation, to hoist the sail which was to have been the token of their
safety to Aegeus, who therefore, in despair, threw himself down from the
rock and was dashed in pieces. But Theseus, putting in to shore, sacrificed
in person the sacrifices which he had vowed to the gods at Phalerum
when he set sail, and then dispatched a herald to the city to announce
his safe return. [2] The messenger found many of the people bewailing the
death of their king, and others full of joy at his tidings, as was natural,
and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands for his good news.
The garlands, then, he accepted, and twined them about his herald's staff
and on returning to the sea-shore, finding that Theseus had not yet made
his libations to the gods, remained outside the sacred precincts, not wishing
to disturb the sacrifice. [3] But when the libations were made, he
announced the death of Aegeus. Thereupon, with tumultuous lamentation,
they went up in haste to the city. Whence it is, they say, that to this
day,
at the festival of the Oschophoria,1 it is not the herald that is crowned,
but his herald's staff, and those who are present at the libations cry
out:
"Eleleu! Iou! Iou!" the first of which cries is the exclamation of eager
haste and triumph, the second of consternation and confusion.
[4] After burying his father, Theseus paid his vows to Apollo on the seventh
day of the month Pyanepsion; for on that day they had come back to
the city in safety. Now the custom of boiling all sorts of pulse on that
day is said to have arisen from the fact that the youths who were brought
safely back by Theseus put what was left of their provisions into one mess,
boiled it in one common pot, feasted upon it, and ate it all up together.
[5] At that feast they also carry the so-called "eiresione" which is a
bough of olive wreathed with wool, such as Theseus used at the time of
his
supplication, and laden with all sorts of fruit-offerings, to signify that
scarcity was at an end, and as they go they sing:--
Eiresione for us brings figs and bread of the richest,
brings us honey in pots and oil to rub off from the body,
Strong wine too in a beaker, that one may go to bed mellow.
Some writers, however, say that these rites are in memory of the Heracleidae,2
who were maintained in this manner by the Athenians; but most
put the matter as I have done.
1 A vintage festival, during which branches of the vine with grapes upon
them (oschoi) were borne in procession from Athens to Phalerum. See
Plut. Thes. 23.2.
2 On the death of Heracles, his children, to escape the wrath of the tyrant
Eurystheus, came as suppliants to Athens, bearing branches in their
hands. See the Heracleidae of Euripides.
23. The ship on which Theseus sailed
with the youths and returned in safety, the thirty-oared galley, was preserved
by the Athenians down to
the time of Demetrius Phalereus.1 They took away the old timbers from time
to time, and put new and sound ones in their places, so that the
vessel became a standing illustration for the philosophers in the mooted
question of growth, some declaring that it remained the same, others that
it was not the same vessel.
[2] It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the Oschophoria.
For it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens
on whom the lot fell at that time, but picked out two young men of his
acquaintance who had fresh and girlish faces, but eager and manly spirits,
and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warn
baths and keeping them out of the sun, by arranging their hair, and by
smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with unguents; he
also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their
speech, their dress, and their gait, and to leave no difference that could
be observed, and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to
Crete, and was undiscovered by any. [3] And when he was come back, he himself
and these two young men headed a procession, arrayed as
those are now arrayed who carry the vine-branches. They carry these in
honor of Dionysus and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story;
or
rather, because they came back home at the time of the vintage. And the
women called Deipnophoroi, or supper-carriers, take part in the
procession and share in the sacrifice, in imitation of the mothers of the
young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with
bread and meat for their children. And tales are told at this festival,
because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their
children, spun out tales for them. At any rate, these details are to be
found in the history of Demon. Furthermore, a sacred precinct was also
set
apart for Theseus, and he ordered the members of the families which had
furnished the tribute to the Minotaur to make contributions towards a
sacrifice to himself. This sacrifice was superintended by the Phytalidae,
and Theseus thus repaid them for their hospitality.2
24. After the death of Aegeus,
Theseus conceived a wonderful design, and settled all the residents of
Attica in one city, thus making one
people of one city out of those who up to that time had been scattered
about and were not easily called together for the common interests of all,
nay, they sometimes actually quarrelled and fought with each other. [2]
He visited them, then, and tried to win them over to his project township
by township and clan by clan. The common folk and the poor quickly answered
to his summons; to the powerful he promised government
without a king and a democracy, in which he should only be commander in
war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on
an equal footing. [3] Some he readily persuaded to this course, and others,
fearing his power, which was already great, and his boldness, chose to
be persuaded rather than forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after doing
away with the townhalls and council-chambers and magistracies in the
several communities, and after building a common town-hall and council-chamber
for all on the ground where the upper town of the present day
stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic festival.
[4] He instituted also the Metoecia, or Festival of Settlement, on the
sixteenth day of the month Hecatombaeon, and this is still celebrated.
Then, laying aside the royal power, as he had agreed, he proceeded to
arrange the government, and that too with the sanction of the gods. For
an oracle came to him from Delphi, in answer to his enquiries about the
city, as follows:--
[5] Theseus, offspring of Aegeus, son of the daughter of Pittheus,
Many indeed the cities to which my father has given
Bounds and future fates within your citadel's confines.
Therefore be not dismayed, but with firm and confident spirit
Counsel only; the bladder will traverse the sea and its surges.
And this oracle they say the Sibyl afterwards repeated to the city, when she cried:--
Bladder may be submerged; but its sinking will not be permitted.
25. Desiring still further
to enlarge the city, he invited all men thither on equal terms, and the
phrase "Come hither all ye people," they say was
a proclamation of Theseus when he established a people, as it were, of
all sorts and conditions. However, he did not suffer his democracy to
become disordered or confused from an indiscriminate multitude streaming
into it, but was the first to separate the people into noblemen and
husbandmen and handicraftsmen. [2] To the noblemen he committed the care
of religious rites, the supply of magistrates, the teaching of the
laws, and the interpretation of the will of Heaven, and for the rest of
the citizens he established a balance of privilege, the noblemen being
thought
to excel in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness, and the handicraftsmen
in numbers. And that he was the first to show a leaning towards the
multitude, as Aristotle says, and gave up his absolute rule, seems to be
the testimony of Homer also, in the Catalogue of Ships,1 where he speaks
of the Athenians alone as a "people."
[3] He also coined money, and stamped it with the effigy of an ox, either
in remembrance of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, the general of
Minos, or because he would invite the citizens to agriculture. From this
coinage, they say, "ten oxen" and "a hundred oxen" came to be used as
terms of valuation. Having attached the territory of Megara securely to
Attica, he set up that famous pillar on the Isthmus, and carved upon it
the
inscription giving the territorial boundaries. It consisted of two trimeters,
of which the one towards the east declared:-- "Here is not
Peloponnesus, but Ionia;" and the one towards the west:--
Here is the Peloponnesus, not Ionia.
[4] He also instituted the games here, in emulation of Heracles, being
ambitious that as the Hellenes, by that hero's appointment, celebrated
Olympian games in honor of Zeus, so by his own appointment they should
celebrate Isthmian games in honor of Poseidon. For the games
already instituted there in honor of Melicertes were celebrated in the
night, and had the form of a religious rite rather than of a spectacle
and
public assembly. But some say that the Isthmian games were instituted in
memory of Sciron, and that Theseus thus made expiation for his
murder, because of the relationship between them; for Sciron was a son
of Canethus and Henioche, who was the daughter of Pittheus. [5] And
others have it that Sinis, not Sciron, was their son, and that it was in
his honor rather that the games were instituted by Theseus. However that
may
be, Theseus made a formal agreement with the Corinthians that they should
furnish Athenian visitors to the Isthmian games with a place of honor
as large as could be covered by the sail of the state galley which brought
them thither, when it was stretched to its full extent. So Hellanicus and
Andron of Halicarnassus tell us.
26. He also made a voyage
into the Euxine Sea, as Philochorus and sundry others say, on a campaign
with Heracles against the Amazons, and
received Antiope as a reward of his valor; but the majority of writers,
including Pherecydes, Hellanicus, and Herodorus, say that Theseus made
this voyage on his own account, after the time of Heracles, and took the
Amazon captive; and this is the more probable story. For it is not
recorded that any one else among those who shared his expedition took an
Amazon captive. [2] And Bion says that even this Amazon he took
and carried off by means of a stratagem. The Amazons, he says, were naturally
friendly to men, and did not fly from Theseus when he touched
upon their coasts, but actually sent him presents, and he invited the one
who brought them to come on board his ship; she came on board, and he
put out to sea.
And a certain Menecrates, who published a history of the Bithynian city
of Nicaea, says that Theseus, with Antiope on board his ship, spent some
time in those parts, [3] and that there chanced to be with him on this
expedition three young men of Athens who were brothers, Euneos, Thoas,
and Solois. This last, he says, fell in love with Antiope unbeknown to
the rest, and revealed his secret to one of his intimate friends. That
friend
made overtures to Antiope, who positively repulsed the attempt upon her,
but treated the matter with discretion and gentleness, and made no
denunciation to Theseus. [4] Then Solois, in despair, threw himself into
a river and drowned himself, and Theseus, when he learned the fate of the
young man, and what had caused it, was grievously disturbed, and in his
distress called to mind a certain oracle which he had once received at
Delphi. For it had there been enjoined upon him by the Pythian priestess
that when, in a strange land, he should be sorest vexed and full of
sorrow, he should found a city there, and leave some of his followers to
govern it. [5] For this cause he founded a city there, and called it, from
the Pythian god, Pythopolis, and the adjacent river, Solois, in honor of
the young man. And he left there the brothers of Solois, to be the city's
presidents and law-givers, and with them Hermus, one of the noblemen of
Athens. From him also the Pythopolitans call a place in the city the
House of Hermes, incorrectly changing1 the second syllable, and transferring
the honor from a hero to a god.
27. Well, then, such were the grounds
for the war of the Amazons, which seems to have been no trivial nor womanish
enterprise for Theseus.
For they would not have pitched their camp within the city, nor fought
hand to hand battles in the neighborhood of the Pnyx and the Museum,
had they not mastered the surrounding country and approached the city with
impunity. [2] Whether, now, as Hellanicus writes, they came round
by the Cimmerian Bosporus, which they crossed on the ice, may be doubted;
but the fact that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is
attested both by the names of the localities there and by the graves of
those who fell in battle.
Now for a long time there was hesitation and delay on both sides in making
the attack, but finally Theseus, after sacrificing to Fear, in obedience
to an oracle, joined battle with the women. [3] This battle, then, was
fought on the day of the month Boedromion on which, down to the present
time, the Athenians celebrate the Boedromia. Cleidemus, who wishes to be
minute, writes that the left wing of the Amazons extended to what is
now called the Amazoneum, and that with their right they touched the Pnyx
at Chrysa; that with this left wing the Athenians fought, engaging the
Amazons from the Museum, and that the graves of those who fell are on either
side of the street which leads to the gate by the chapel of
Chalcodon, which is now called the Peiraic gate. [4] Here, he says. the
Athenians were routed and driven back by the women as far as the shrine
of the Eumenides, but those who attacked the invaders from the Palladium
and Ardettus and the Lyceum, drove their right wing back as far as to
their camp, and slew many of them. And after three months, he says, a treaty
of peace was made through the agency of Hippolyta; for Hippolyta
is the name which Cleidemus gives to the Amazon whom Theseus married, not
Antiope.
But some say that the woman was slain with a javelin by Molpadia, while
fighting at Theseus's side, and that the pillar which stands by the
sanctuary of Olympian Earth was set up in her memory. [5] And it is not
astonishing that history, when dealing with events of such great
antiquity, should wander in uncertainty, indeed, we are also told that
the wounded Amazons were secretly sent away to Chalcis by Antiope, and
were nursed there, and some were buried there, near what is now called
the Amazoneum. But that the war ended in a solemn treaty is attested not
only by the naming of the place adjoining the Theseum, which is called
Horcomosium,1 but also by the sacrifice which, in ancient times, was
offered to the Amazons before the festival of Theseus. [6] And the Megarians,
too, show a place in their country where Amazons were buried, on
the way from the market-place to the place called Rhus2 , where the Rhomboid3
stands. And it is said, likewise, that others of them died near
Chaeroneia, and were buried on the banks of the little stream which, in
ancient times, as it seems, was called Thermodon, but nowadays, Haemon;
concerning which names I have written in my Life of Demosthenes.4 It appears
also that not even Thessaly was traversed by the Amazons
without opposition, for Amazonian graves are to this day shown in the vicinity
of Scotussa and Cynoscephalae.
28. So much, then, is worthy
of mention regarding the Amazons. For the "Insurrection of the Amazons,"
written by the author of the
Theseid, telling how, when Theseus married Phaedra, Antiope and the Amazons
who fought to avenge her attacked him, and were slain by
Heracles, has every appearance of fable and invention. [2] Theseus did,
indeed, marry Phaedra, but this was after the death of Antiope, and he
had
a son by Antiope, Hippolytus, or, as Pindar says,1 Demophoon. As for the
calamities which befell Phaedra and the son of Theseus by Antiope,
since there is no conflict here between historians and tragic poets, we
must suppose that they happened as represented by the poets uniformly.
29. There are, however, other stories
also about marriages of Theseus which were neither honorable in their beginnings
nor fortunate in their
endings, but these have not been dramatized. For instance, he is said to
have carried off Anaxo, a maiden of Troezen, and after slaying Sinis and
Cercyon to have ravished their daughters; also to have married Periboea,
the mother of Aias, and Phereboea afterwards, and Iope, the daughter of
Iphicles; [2] and because of his passion for Aegle, the daughter of Panopeus,
as I have already said,1 he is accused of the desertion of Ariadne,
which was not honorable nor even decent; and finally, his rape of Helen
is said to have filled Attica with war, and to have brought about at last
his
banishment and death, of which things I shall speak a little later.
[3] Of the many exploits performed in those days by the bravest men, Herodorus
thinks that Theseus took part in none, except that he aided the
Lapithae in their war with the Centaurs; but others say that he was not
only with Jason at Colchis,2 but helped Meleager to slay the Calydonian
boar, and that hence arose the proverb "Not without Theseus" that he himself,
however, without asking for any ally, performed many glorious
exploits, and that the phrase "Lo! another Heracles" became current with
reference to him. [4] He also aided Adrastus in recovering for burial
the bodies of those who had fallen before the walls of the Cadmeia,3 not
by mastering the Thebans in battle, as Euripides has it in his tragedy,4
but by persuading them to a truce; for so most writers say, and Philochorus
adds that this was the first truce ever made for recovering the bodies
of those slain in battle, [5] although in the accounts of Heracles it is
written that Heracles was the first to give back their dead to his enemies.
And
the graves of the greater part of those who fell before Thebes are shown
at Eleutherae, and those of the commanders near Eleusis, and this last
burial was a favour which Theseus showed to Adrastus. The account of Euripides
in his Suppliants5 is disproved by that of Aeschylus in his
"Eleusinians," where Theseus is made to relate the matter as above.
30. The friendship of Peirithous
and Theseus is said to have come about in the following manner. Theseus
had a very great reputation for
strength and bravery, and Peirithous was desirous of making test and proof
of it. Accordingly, he drove Theseus's cattle away from Marathon,
and when he learned that their owner was pursuing him in arms, he did not
fly, but turned back and met him. [2] When, however, each beheld the
other with astonishment at his beauty and admiration of his daring, they
refrained from battle, and Peirithous, stretching out his hand the first,
bade Theseus himself be judge of his robbery, for he would willingly submit
to any penalty which the other might assign. Then Theseus not only
remitted his penalty, but invited him to be a friend and brother in arms;
whereupon they ratified their friendship with oaths.
[3] After this, when Peirithous was about to marry Deidameia, he asked
Theseus to come to the wedding, and see the country, and become
acquainted with the Iapithae. Now he had invited the Centaurs also to the
wedding feast. And when these were flown with insolence and wine, and
laid hands upon the women, the Lapithae took vengeance upon them. Some
of them they slew upon the spot, the rest they afterwards overcame in
war and expelled from the country, Theseus fighting with them at the banquet
and in the war. [4] Herodorus, however, says that this was not how
it happened, but that the war was already in progress when Theseus came
to the aid of the Lapithae and that on his way thither he had his first
sight of Heracles, having made it his business to seek him out at Trachis,
where the hero was already resting from his wandering and labours; and
he says the interview passed with mutual expressions of honor, friendliness,
and generous praise. [5] Notwithstanding, one might better side with
those historians who say that the heroes had frequent interviews with one
another, and that it was at the instigation of Theseus that Heracles was
initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis, and purified before his initiation,
when he requested it on account of sundry rash acts.
31. Theseus was already fifty years
old, according to Hellanicus, when he took part in the rape of Helen, who
was not of marriageable age.
Wherefore some writers, thinking to correct this heaviest accusation against
him, say that he did not carry off Helen himself, but that when Idas
and Lynceus had carried her off he received her in charge and watched over
her and would not surrender her to the Dioscuri1 when they
demanded her; or, if you will believe it, that her own father, Tyndareus,
entrusted her to Theseus, for fear of Enarsphorus, the son of Hippocoon,
who sought to take Helen by force while she was yet a child. But the most
probable account, and that which has the most witnesses in its favour,
is as follows.
[2] Theseus and Peirithous went to Sparta in company, seized the girl as
she was dancing in the temple of Artemis Orthia, and fled away with her.
Their pursuers followed them no farther than Tegea, and so the two friends,
when they had passed through Peloponnesus and were out of danger,
made a compact with one another that the one on whom the lot fell should
have Helen to wife, but should assist the other in getting another wife.
[3] With this mutual understanding they cast lots, and Theseus won, and
taking the maiden, who was not yet ripe for marriage, conveyed her to
Aphidnae. Here he made his mother a companion of the girl, and committed
both to Aphidnus, a friend of his, with strict orders to guard them in
complete secrecy. [4] Then he himself, to return the service of Peirithous,journeyed
with him to Epirus, in quest of the daughter of Aidoneus the
king of the Molossians. This man called his wife Phersephone, his daughter
Cora, and his dog Cerberus, with which beast he ordered that all
suitors of his daughter should fight, promising her to him that should
overcome it. However, when he learned that Peirithous and his friend were
come not to woo, but to steal away his daughter, he seized them both. Peirithous
he put out of the way at once by means of the dog, but Theseus
he kept in close confinement.
1 Castor and Pollux, her brothers.
32. Meanwhile Menestheus,
the son of Peteos, grandson of Orneus, and great-grandson of Erechtheus,
the first of men, as they say, to affect
popularity and ingratiate himself with the multitude, stirred up and embittered
the chief men in Athens. These had long been hostile to Theseus,
and thought that he had robbed each one of the country nobles of his royal
office,1 and then shut them all up in a single city, where he treated
them as subjects and slaves. The common people also he threw into commotion
by his reproaches. They thought they had a vision of liberty, he
said, but in reality they had been robbed of their native homes and religions
in order that, in the place of many good kings of their own blood,
they might look obediently to one master who was an immigrant and an alien.
[2] While he was thus busying himself, the Tyndaridae2 came up
against the city, and the war greatly furthered his seditious schemes;
indeed, some writers say outright that he persuaded the invaders to come.
At first, then, they did no harm, but simply demanded back their sister.
When, however, the people of the city replied that they neither had the
girl
nor knew where she had been left, they resorted to war. [3] But Academus,
who had learned in some way or other of her concealment at
Aphidnae, told them about it. For this reason he was honored during his
life by the Tyndaridae, and often afterwards when the Lacedaemonians
invaded Attica and laid waste all the country round about, they spared
the Academy,3 for the sake of Academus. [4] But Dicaearchus says that
Echedemus and Marathus of Arcadia were in the army of the Tyndaridae at
that time, from the first of whom the present Academy was named
Echedemia, and from the other, the township of Marathon, since in accordance
with some oracle he voluntarily gave himself to be sacrificed in
front of the line of battle.
To Aphidnae, then, they came, won a pitched battle, and stormed the town.
[5] Here they say that among others Alycus, the son of Sciron, who
was at that time in the army of the Dioscuri, was slain, and that from
him a place in Megara where he was buried is called Alycus. But Hereas
writes that Alycus was slain at Aphidnae by Theseus himself, and cites
in proof these verses about Alycus:--
whom once in the plain of Aphidnae,
Where he was fighting, Theseus, ravisher of fair-haired Helen,
Slew.
However, it is not likely that Theseus himself was present when both his
mother and Aphidnae were captured.
33. At any rate, Aphidnae was taken
and the city of Athens was full of fear, but Menestheus persuaded its people
to receive the
Tyndaridae into the city and show them all manner of kindness, since they
were waging war upon Theseus alone, who had committed the first
act of violence, but were benefactors and saviours of the rest of mankind.
And their behavior confirmed his assurances, for although they were
masters of everything, they demanded only an initiation into the mysteries,
since they were no less closely allied to the city than Heracles.
[2] This privilege was accordingly granted them, after they had been adopted
by Aphidnus, as Pylius had adopted Heracles. They also
obtained honors like those paid to gods, and were addressed as "Anakes,"
either on account of their "stopping" hostilities, or because of
their "diligent" care that no one should be injured, although there was
such a large army within the city for the phrase "anakos echein" is
used of such as "care for" or "guard anything" and perhaps it is for this
reason that kings are called "anaktes." There are also those who
say that the Tyndaridae were called "anakes" because of the appearance
of their twin stars in the heavens, since the Athenians use "anekas"
and "anekathen" for "ano" and "anothen, signifying above or on high.
34. They say that Aethra, the mother
of Theseus, who was taken captive at Aphidnae, was carried away to Lacedaemon,
and from thence to
Troy with Helen, and that Homer bears witness to his when he mentions as
followers of Helen:--
Aethra of Pittheus born, and Clymene large-eyed and lovely.
But some reject this verse of Homer's, as well as the legend of Munychus,
who was born in secret to Laodice from Demophoon, and whom
Aethra helped to rear in Ilium. [2] But a very peculiar and wholly divergent
story about Aethra is given by Ister in the thirteenth book of his
"Attic History." Some write, he says, that Alexander (Paris) was overcome
in battle by Achilles and Patroclus in Thessaly, along the banks of
the Spercheius, but that Hector took and plundered the city of Troezen,
and carried away Aethra, who had been left there. This, however, is very
doubtful.
35. Now while Heracles was the
guest of Aidoneus the Molossian, the king incidentally spoke of the adventure
of Theseus and Peirithous,
telling what they had come there to do, and what they had suffered when
they were found out. Heracles was greatly distressed by the inglorious
death of the one, and by the impending death of the other. As for Peirithous,
he thought it useless to complain, but he begged for the release of
Theseus, and demanded that this favour be granted him. [2] Aidoneus yielded
to his prayers, Theseus was set free, and returned to Athens, where
his friends were not yet altogether overwhelmed. All the sacred precincts
which the city had previously set apart for himself, he now dedicated to
Heracles, and called them Heracleia instead of Theseia, four only excepted,
as Philochorus writes. But when he desired to rule again as before,
and to direct the state, he became involved in factions and disturbances;
he found that those who hated him when he went away, had now added to
their hatred contempt, and he saw that a large part of the people were
corrupted, and wished to be cajoled into service instead of doing silently
what they were told to do. [3] Attempting, then, to force his wishes upon
them, he was overpowered by demagogues and factions, and finally,
despairing of his cause, he sent his children away privately into Euboea,
to Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon, while he himself, after invoking
curses upon the Athenians at Gargettus, where there is to this day the
place called Araterion,1 sailed away to the island of Scyros, where the
people were friendly to him, as he thought, and where he had ancestral
estates. Now Lycomedes was at that time king of Scyros. [4] To him
therefore Theseus applied with the request that his lands should be restored
to him, since he was going to dwell there, though some say that he
asked his aid against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either because he feared
a man of such fame, or as a favour to Menestheus, led him up to the
high places of the land, on pretence of showing him from thence his lands,
threw him down the cliffs, and killed him. Some, however, say that he
slipped and fell down of himself while walking there after supper, as was
his custom. [5] At the time no one made any account of his death, but
Menestheus reigned as king at Athens, while the sons of Theseus, as men
of private station, accompanied Elephenor on the expedition to Ilium;
but after Menestheus died there, they came hack by themselves and recovered
their kingdom. In after times, however, the Athenians were moved
to honor Theseus as a demigod, especially by the fact that many of those
who fought at Marathon against the Medes thought they saw an
apparition of Theseus in arms rushing on in front of them against the Barbarians.2
1 That is, the place of prayer, or cursing.
36. And after the Median
wars, in the Archonship of Phaedo,1 when the Athenians were consulting
the oracle at Delphi, they were told by
the Pythian priestess to take up the bones of Theseus, give them honorable
burial at Athens, and guard them there. But it was difficult to find the
grave and take up the bones, because of the inhospitable and savage nature
of the Dolopians, who then inhabited the island. However, Cimon took
the island, as I have related in his Life,2 and being ambitious to discover
the grave of Theseus, saw an eagle in a place where there was the
semblance of a mound, pecking, as they say, and tearing up the ground with
his talons. By some divine ordering he comprehended the meaning
of this and dug there, [2] and there was found a coffin of a man of extraordinary
size, a bronze spear lying by its side, and a sword. When these
relics were brought home on his trireme by Cimon, the Athenians were delighted,
and received them with splendid processions and sacrifices, as
though Theseus himself were returning to his city. And now he lies buried
in the heart of the city, near the present gymnasium,3 and his tomb is
a
sanctuary and place of refuge for runaway slaves and all men of low estate
who are afraid of men in power, since Theseus was a champion and
helper of such during his life, and graciously received the supplications
of the poor and needy. [3] The chief sacrifice which the Athenians make
in his honor comes on the eighth day of the month Pyanepsion, the day on
which he came back from Crete with the youths. But they honor him
also on the eighth day of the other months, either because he came to Athens
in the first place, from Troezen, on the eighth day of the month
Hecatombaeon, as Diodorus the Topographer states, or because they consider
this number more appropriate for him than any other since he was
said to be a son of Poseidon.4 [4] For they pay honors to Poseidon on the
eighth day of every month. The number eight, as the first cube of an
even number and the double of the first square, fitly represents the steadfast
and immovable power of this god, to whom we give the epithets of
Securer and Earth-stayer.
1 476-475 B.C.