Plutarch
Translated by John Dryden
As geographers, Sosius, 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 the sandy deserts full of wild beasts, unapproachable
bogs, Scythian ice, or a frozen sea, so in this 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 to face?
Or whom oppose? Who's equal to the place?"
(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as him that 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.
In any case, however, where it shall be found contumaciously slighting
credibility and refusing to be reduced to anything like probable fact,
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
"Both warriors; that by all the world's
allowed." Both of them united with strength of body an
equal vigour of mind; and of the two most famous cities of the
world, the one built
The lineage of Theseus, by his father's side, ascends as high as to
Erectheus and the first inhabitants of
"Unto a friend suffice
A stipulated price;"
which,
also, Aristotle mentions. And Euripides, by calling Hippolytus
"scholar of the holy Pittheus," shows the opinion that
the world had of him. Aegeus, being desirous of children, and consulting the oracle of Delphi, received the celebrated answer which forbade
him the company of any woman before his return to
"Loose not the wine-skin foot, thou chief of men,
Until to Athens thou art come again."
Pittheus, therefore, taking advantage from the obscurity of the oracle,
prevailed upon him, it is uncertain whether by persuasion or deceit, to lie with his daughter Aethra. Aegeus afterwards, knowing her
whom he had lain with to be Pittheus's daughter, and suspecting
her to be with child by him, 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, if she brought forth a son who, when he came to
man's estate, should be able to lift up the stone and take away
what he had left there, she should send him way to him with those things
with all secrecy, and with injunctions to him as much as possible to
conceal his journey from every one; 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.
When Aethra was delivered of a son, some say that he was immediately named Theseus, from the tokens which his father had put under the
stone; others that he had received his name afterwards at
"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 begotten by Neptune; for the Troezenians pay
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 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
With this mind and these thoughts, he set forward with a design to
do injury to nobody, but to repel and revenge himself of all those that should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat, he slew
Periphetes, in the neighbourhood of
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 practised 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
her 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 her no injury, she came forth, and in due time bore him a
son, named Melanippus; but afterwards was married to Deioneus,
the son of Eurytus, the Oechalian, Theseus himself giving her
to him. Ioxus, the son of this Melanippus, who was born to Theseus, accompanied Ornytus in the colony that he carried with him into
Caria, whence it is a family usage amongst the people called
Ioxids, both male and female, never to burn either shrubs or
asparagus-thorn, but to respect and honour 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 and lust, 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. The writers of Megara,
however, in contradiction to the received report, and, as
Simonides expresses it, "fighting with all antiquity," contend that Sciron was neither a robber nor doer of violence, but a
punisher of all such, and the relative and friend of good and
just men; for Aeacus, they say, was ever esteemed a man of the
greatest sanctity of all the Greeks; and Cychreus, the
Salaminian, was honoured at Athens with divine worship; and the
virtues of Peleus and Telamon were not unknown to any one. Now Sciron
was son-in-law to Cychreus, father-in-law to Aeacus, and grandfather to Peleus and Telamon, who were both of them sons of Endeis, the
daughter of Sciron and Chariclo; it was not probable,
therefore, that the best of men should make these alliances
with one who was worst, giving and receiving mutually what was
of greatest value and most dear to them. Theseus, by their
account, did not slay Sciron in his first journey to
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, labouring under the same distemper; for Medea,
having fled from Corinth, and promised Aegeus to make him, by
her art, capable of having children, was living with him. She
first was 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 recognising 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; and it is said, that
when the cup fell, the poison was spilt there where now is the
enclosed space in the Delphinium; for in that place stood
Aegeus's house, and the figure of Mercury on the east side of
the temple is called the Mercury of Aegeus's gate.
The sons of Pallas, who before 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, an 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
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
Not long after arrived the third time from
"A mingled form where two strange shapes combined,
And different natures, bull and man, were joined." But Philochorus says that the Cretans will by no means allow the truth of this,
but say that the labyrinth was only an ordinary prison, having
no other bad quality but that it secured the prisoners from
escaping, and that Minos, having instituted games in honour of
Androgeus, gave, as a reward to the victors, these youths, who
in the meantime were kept in the labyrinth; and that the first
that overcame in those games was one of the greatest power and command
among them, named Taurus, a man of no merciful or gentle disposition, who treated the Athenians that were made his prize in a proud and
cruel manner. Also Aristotle himself, in the account that he
gives of the form of government of the Bottiaeans, is
manifestly of opinion that the youths were not slain by Minos,
but spent the remainder of their days in slavery in Crete; that
the Cretans, in former times, to acquit themselves of an ancient
vow which they had made, were used to send an offering of the first-fruits of their men to Delphi, and that some descendants of these
Athenian slaves were mingled with them and sent amongst them,
and, unable to get their living there, removed from thence,
first into Italy, and settled about Japygia; from thence again,
that they removed to Thrace, and were named Bottiaeans; and
that this is the reason why, in a certain sacrifice, the Bottiaean
girls sing a hymn beginning Let us go to Athens. This may show us
how dangerous it is to incur the hostility of a city that is mistress of eloquence and song. For Minos was always ill spoken of, and
represented ever as a very wicked man, in the Athenian
theatres; neither did Hesiod avail him by calling him "the
most royal Minos," nor Homer, who styles him
"Jupiter's familiar friend;" the tragedians got the better, and from the vantage ground of the stage showered down obloquy upon him, as
a man of cruelty and violence; whereas, in fact, he appears to
have been a king and a law-giver, and Rhadamanthus, a judge
under him, administering the statutes that he ordained.
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 settling his kingdom upon a bastard and foreign
son, he took no thought, they said, of their destitution and loss, not
of bastards, but 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 them, namely, that
the Athenians should furnish them with a ship and that the
young men that were to sail with him should carry no weapons 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,"
and
that this was to be the sign of their escape. Phereclus, son of
Amarsyas, according to Simonides, was pilot of the ship. But
Philochorus says Theseus had sent him by Scirus, from Salamis,
Nausithous to be his steersman, and Phaeax his look-out-man in the
prow, the Athenians having as yet not applied themselves to navigation; and that Scirus did this because one of the young men, Menesthes,
was his daughter's son; and this the chapels of Nausithous and
Phaeax, built by Theseus near the temple of Scirus, confirm. He
adds, also, that the feast named Cybernesia was in honour of
them. 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 of 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 sea-side, 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 how 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. Phercydes 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
There are yet many other 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; a verse which Hereas, the Megarian, says was formerly in the poet Hesiod's works, but
put out by Pisistratus, in like manner as he added in Homer's
Raising of the Dead, to gratify the Athenians, the line-
"Theseus, Pirithous, mighty son of gods." Others say Ariadne had sons also by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus; and among these is
the poet Ion of Chios, who writes of his own native city-
"Which once Oenopion, son of Theseus built."
But the more famous of the legendary stories everybody (as I may say) has in his
mouth. In Paeon, however, the Amathusian, there is a story
given, differing from the rest. For he writes that Theseus,
being driven by a storm upon the isle of Cyprus, and having
aboard with him Ariadne, big with child, and extremely
discomposed with the rolling of the sea, set her on shore, and left
her there alone, to return himself and help the ship, when, on a sudden, a violent wind carried him again out to sea. That the women of the
island received Ariadne very kindly, and did all they could to
console and alleviate her distress at being left behind. That they counterfeited kind letters, and delivered
them to her, as sent from Theseus, and, when she fell in labour,
were diligent in performing to her every needful service; but that she
died before she could be delivered, and was honourably interred. That soon after Theseus returned, and was greatly afflicted for her
loss, and at his departure left a sum of money among the people
of the island, ordering them to do sacrifice to Ariadne; and
caused two little images to be made and dedicated to her, one
of silver and the other of brass. Moreover, that on the second
day of Gorpiaeus, which is sacred to Ariadne, they have this ceremony
among their sacrifices, to have a youth lie down and with his voice
and gesture represent the pains of a woman in travail; and that the Amathusians call the grove in which they show her tomb, the grove
of Venus Ariadne.
Differing yet from this account, some of the Naxians write that there
were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Bacchus, in the isle of Naxos, and bore the children Staphylus
and his brother; but that the other, of a later age, was
carried off by Theseus, and, being afterwards deserted by him,
retired to Naxos, with her nurse Corcyna, whose grave they yet
show. That this Ariadne also died there, and was worshipped by
the island, but in a different manner from the former; for her
day is celebrated with general joy and revelling, but all the sacrifices performed to the latter are attended with mourning and gloom.
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 around the Ceratonian
Altar, so called from its consisting of horns taken
from the left side of the head. They say also that he
instituted games in
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
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
"Eiresione bring figs, and Eiresione bring loaves;
Bring us boney in pints, and oil to rub on our bodies,
And a strong flagon of wine, for all to go mellow to bed on."
Although some
hold opinion that this ceremony is retained in memory of the Heraclidae, who were thus entertained and brought up by the Athenians. But
most are of the opinion which we have given above.
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 of things that grow; one
side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other
contending that it was not the same.
The feast called Oschophoria, or the feast of boughs, which to this
day the Athenians celebrate, was then first instituted by Theseus. For
he took not with him the full number of virgins which by lot were to be carried away, but selected two youths of his acquaintance, of
fair and womanish faces, but of a manly and forward spirit, and
having, by frequent baths, and avoiding the heat and scorching
of the sun, with a constant use of all the ointments and washes
and dresses that serve to the adorning of the head or smoothing
the skin or improving the complexion, in a manner changed them
from what they were before, and having taught them farther to
counterfeit the very voice and carriage and gait of virgins so that there could not be the least difference perceived, he,
undiscovered by any, put them into the number of the Athenian
maids designed for Crete. At his return, he and these two
youths led up a solemn procession, in the same habit that is
now worn by those who carry the vine-branches. Those branches
they carry in honour of Bacchus and Ariadne, for the sake of their story
before related; or rather because they happened to return in autumn, the time of gathering the grapes. The women, whom they call
Deipnopherae, or supper-carriers, are taken into these
ceremonies, and assist at the sacrifice, in remembrance and
imitation of the mothers of the young men and virgins upon whom
the lot fell, for thus they ran about bringing bread and meat
to their children; and because the women then told their sons and
daughters many tales and stories, to comfort and encourage them under the danger they were going upon, it has still continued a custom
that at this feast old fables and tales should be told. For these
particularities we are indebted to the history of Demon. There
was then a place chosen out, and a temple erected in it to
Theseus, and those families out of whom the tribute of the
youth was gathered were appointed to pay tax to the temple for
sacrifices to him. And the house of the Phytalidae had the overseeing of these sacrifices, Theseus doing them that honour in recompense
of their former hospitality.
Now, after the death of his father Aegeus, forming in his mind a
great and wonderful design, he gathered together all the inhabitants of
"Son of the Pitthean maid,
To your town the terms and fates,
My father gives of many states.
Be not anxious nor 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 he 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 honour, the
husbandmen in profit, and the artificers 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 the 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, of
a thing being worth ten or a hundred oxen. After this he joined
"Peloponnesus there, Ionia here" and on the west side,-
"Peloponnesus here,
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 valour; but the greater number, of whom are Pherecydes,
Hellanicus, and Herodorus, write that he made this voyage many
years after Hercules, 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 Nicae 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 this 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 acquaintances, 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 acquainted 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
honour 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
honour that was designed to the hero, transferred to the god.
This was the origin and cause of the Amazonian invasion of
This is as much as is worth telling concerning the Amazons. For the
account which the author of the poem called the Theseid gives of this rising of the Amazons, how Antiope, to revenge herself upon
Theseus for refusing her and marrying Phaedra, came down upon
the city with her train of Amazons, whom Hercules slew, is
manifestly nothing else but fable and invention. It is true,
indeed, that Theseus married Phaedra, but that was after the
death of Antiope, by whom he had a son called Hippolytus, or, as
Pindar writes, Demophon. The calamities which befell Phaedra and this son, since none of the historians have contradicted the tragic
poets that have written of them, we must suppose happened as
represented uniformly by them.
There are also other traditions of the marriages of Theseus, neither honourable in their occasions nor fortunate in their events, which
yet were never represented in the Greek plays. For he is said
to have carried off Anaxo, a Troezenian, and having slain
Sinnis and Cercyon, to have ravished their daughters; to have
married Periboea, the mother of Ajax, and then Phereboea, and
then Iope, the daughter of Iphicles. And further, he is accused
of deserting Ariadne (as is before related), being in love with Aegle,
the daughter of Panopeus, neither justly nor honourably; and lastly, of the rape of Helen, which filled all Attica with war and blood,
and was in the end the occasion of his banishment and death, as
will presently be related.
Herodorus is of opinion, that though there were many famous expeditions undertaken by the bravest men of his time, yet Theseus never
joined in any of them, once only excepted, with the Lapithae,
in their war against the Centaurs; but others say that he
accompanied Jason to Colchis and Meleager to the slaying of the
Calydonian boar, and that hence it came to be a proverb, Not
without Theseus; that he himself, however, without aid of any one, performed
many glorious exploits, and that from him began the saying, He is
a second Hercules. He also joined Adrastus in recovering the bodies of those that were slain before Thebes, but not as Euripides in
his tragedy says, by force of arms, but by persuasion and
mutual agreement and composition, for so the greater part of
the historians write; Philochorus adds further that this was
the first treaty that ever was made for the recovering the bodies
of the dead, but in the history of Hercules, it is shown that it was
he who first gave leave to his enemies to carry off their slain. The burying-places of the most part are yet to be seen in the villa
called Eleutherae; those of the commanders, at
The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to
have been thus began; the fame of the strength and valour 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 the 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 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, and offering violence to the
women, 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 their part and fighting on their side. But Herodorus gives a different relation of these things; that Theseus came not
to the assistance of the Lapithae till the war was already
begun; and that it was in this journey that he had his first
sight of Hercules, having made it his business to find him out
at Trachis, where he had chosen to rest himself after all his
wanderings and his labours; and that this interview was
honourably performed on each part, with extreme respect, and good-will, and admiration of each other. Yet it is more credible, as others
write, that there were, before, frequent interviews between
them, and that it was by the means of Theseus that Hercules was
initiated at
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 were the ravishers, who 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 most 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 Diana
Orthia, fled away with her. There were presently men sent in
arms to pursue, but they followed no further 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 in pieces by his dog, and put Theseus into prison, and
kept him.
About this time, Menestheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and great-grandson of 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 of both that and of 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 new-comer and
a stranger. Whilst he was thus busied in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor and Pollux brought against
"And Alycus upon Aphidnae's plain,
By Theseus in the cause of Helen slain."
Though it is
not at all probable that Theseus himself was there when both
the city and his mother were taken.
Aphidnae being won by Castor and Pollux, and the city of Athens being
in consternation, Menestheus persuaded the people to open their gates, and receive them with all manner of friendship, for they were, he
told them, at enmity with none but Theseus, who had first
injured them, and were benefactors and saviours to all mankind
beside. And their behviour gave credit to those promises; for,
having made themselves absolute masters of the place, they
demanded no more than to be initiated, since they were as
nearly related to the city as Hercules was, who had
received the same honour. This their
desire they easily obtained, and were adopted by Aphidnus, as
Hercules had been by Pylius. They were honoured also like gods, and were called by a new name, Anaces, either from the cessation of
the war, or from the care they took that none should suffer any
injury, though there was so great an army within the walls; for
the phrase anakos ekhein is used of those who look to or care
for anything; kings for this reason, perhaps, are called
anactes. Others say, that from the appearance of their star in
the heavens, they were thus called, for in the Attic dialect this name
comes very near the words that signify above.
Some say that Aethra, Theseus's mother, was here taken prisoner, and
carried to Lacedaemon, and from thence went away with Helen to Troy, alleging this verse of Homer to prove that she waited upon Helen-
"Aethra of Pittheus born, and large eyed Clymene." Others reject this verse as none of Homer's, as they do likewise the whole fable
of Munychus, who, the story says, was the son of Demophon and
Laodice, born secretly, and brought up by Aethra at
Now Hercules, passing by the Molossians, was entertained in his way
to 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 favour from the king. Theseus,
being thus set at liberty, returned to
THE
END