Chapter XXVIII: Theseus

There was a great and famous city in Greece called Athens, about which, when it was first built, there arose a strife between the sea-god Poseidon and the wise goddess Athene, as to which of them should be its protector, for the Greek cities were each under the special care and guardianship of some god or goddess. As they could not agree about it, the other gods said that they must each bring a present to the city, and that it should belong to whichever of them gave it the best present. The gods assembled one day in the fortress, which had been built on a hill in the middle of the city.[1] Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and out sprang a noble animal which was the first horse that had ever been seen, and the gods admired the beautiful creature very much. Then it was the turn of Athene, and she brought forth the olive tree, which bears the olives from which oil is made, and explained how the fruit could be made use of. After this the gods gave their judgment, and they said:--'This is such a stony land that the citizens would find the noble horse of little service, for the horse cannot go well {177} over uneven ground, but the olive-tree would flourish, and would be useful to the citizens in many ways.' So the city was placed under the guardianship of Athene and was named after her, and the citizens planted olive-trees all over the country and found in these their chief wealth. They took great care of the tree in the fortress from which all the others had sprung, and it outlived its children and its grandchildren. But after many years had passed, the country was invaded by some enemies who laid waste all the beautiful houses and temples and even burnt the sacred olive-tree itself down to the roots. On the next day, however, when all round it there was nothing to be seen but smoking ruins, behold! a new olive-tree had sprung from the ashes of the old one, which grew, and became in time a large tree.

The city of Athens was at one time ruled over by a king named Aegeus, who had a wife but no children. This was a great sorrow to him, but his brother Pallas was very glad of it, for he had fifty sons, and he thought that if Aegeus died without children his sons would inherit the kingdom. After a time however the wife of Aegeus died, and soon afterwards he went to stay with a king who lived in the city of Troezen, which was several days' journey from Athens; there he was secretly married to the king's beautiful daughter Aethra, and his great wish was fulfilled, for Aethra had a young son. Aegeus would not however take him back to Athens with him, for he feared that his brother's sons, the wild Pallantidae, would try to kill him. So he resolved to leave the child to be brought up by his mother in Troezen, and before he set out on {178} his journey home he buried his sword and his sandals underneath a huge stone, and told Aethra that when the child was strong enough to heave up the stone and take the sword and sandals from under it, he must leave her and come to him at Athens. After this he went back to his kingdom without telling any one that the gods had given him a son. Aethra loved her son very dearly; she named him Theseus, and brought him up with great care, and he grew handsome and strong, and delighted above everything in listening to his mother whilst she told him stories about all the old heroes, and especially about the strong Heracles, who had killed so many monsters and driven away all the robbers out of the land. Theseus did not know who his father was, but when he had become a young man and the down was beginning to grow upon his chin, Aethra thought he would be strong enough to lift the stone, and she took him to the place where it lay, and told him that underneath it were the sword and sandals of his father who was Aegeus, the king of Athens. Without much difficulty Theseus heaved up the huge stone, though it had become deeply embedded in the earth; and then Aethra told him that his father was still alive, and that he was to take the sword and sandals and go to him at Athens; and Theseus rejoiced at hearing this, and prepared to set off at once. It was a very dangerous journey from Troezen to Athens for there were many robbers on the way, and the old king wanted to give Theseus a ship, so that he might go by sea with much less risk. His mother also was anxious that he should take the easier journey, but Theseus was a brave {179} hero, and instead of being afraid of the robbers, he was only eager to meet with them. So they were obliged to let him have his own way, and comforted themselves by praying to the gods to protect him.

Theseus accordingly set out on his journey, and he had not long left Troezen when he came to a savage robber who lurked by the roadside, and who was called the Club-carrier. He had a very ugly face, and was lame, but very strong; and he used to lie on the grass among the trees, and whenever a traveller passed by, he sprang out and struck him down with a heavy iron club which he wielded quite easily, and then he robbed him of his goods. When Theseus came along the road, the robber sprang out to kill him; but Theseus avoided the blow, so that the heavy club struck the earth beside him, and then he wrestled with the robber. He at last succeeded in wrenching the club out of his hand, and then he battered his head with it, so that the Club-carrier died by the same weapon with which he had killed others. This was the first heroic deed that Theseus had performed, and he took the iron club away with him to serve both for a weapon and a trophy.

Soon afterwards he came to a fir-wood, where there lived a robber called the Fir-bender. He was tall and strong, with long bristly hair, and he looked very fierce and wild. It was his delight to seize travellers and torture them cruelly: he used to bend two flexible fir-trees down to the ground, and tie each of the traveller's feet to one of these trees, and then he let them spring apart, and broke out into a hideous laugh when he saw the body torn in two and one half hanging to each of the trees. Theseus knew that the robber lived in the {180} forest, and he went straight to his house. The Fir-bender came out to seize him, but Theseus wrestled with him and threw him. He resolved to punish him with the torture that he had himself devised, and he bent down two young fir-trees and tore the robber's body in two, though he screamed horribly and entreated Theseus to spare him. The Fir-bender had a daughter called Perigune who lived with him in the forest. She was not at all like her father, but was, on the contrary, gentle and good, and she used to tend the plants and flowers that grew near their house. When she saw that Theseus had killed her father, she was afraid and thought he would kill her too, so she hid herself among some large-leaved plants, and said to them, just as if they could understand her, that if they would shelter her she would never pluck any of them again. Theseus looked everywhere for her, but he could not see her on account of the thick leaves. He guessed that she must have hidden herself, and so he called out to her not to be afraid, for he would not do her any harm. His voice sounded so kind that she was encouraged to come out, and they sat and talked together, and Perigune gave him some food, after which Theseus took leave of her and went away. The girl never plucked any flowers from the plants among which she had hidden herself, nor from any others of the same kind, and when she became the wife of a hero she taught her children that they must never do so either, and they in turn brought up their children in the same way, so that no one who was of the race of the robber ever injured any plants of that kind.

Theseus had heard that there was a fierce she-boar {181} in the neighbourhood that did a great deal of damage, and he resolved that he would rid the people of her. He came upon her footprints in the grass, and followed them till he had tracked her to her den. She started up to kill him with her tusks, and a fierce struggle followed, in which Theseus handled his club valiantly, and at last hit the boar a mighty blow on the head which cracked her skull and made an end of her. Then Theseus wiped the dew from his forehead and continued his journey. His road now lay along a rocky path above the sea, and he presently came to a rock which was the abode of the robber Sciron. He was a strong, powerful man, who amused himself in a very horrible manner. He used to sit on a rock above the sea, blocking up the road so that no one could pass, and he compelled every traveller who came that way to wash his feet, and while they were doing this he kicked them over the cliff, so that they fell down into the sea where there lurked a great tortoise ready to eat them up. Theseus treated the robber just as he had treated others; he was the stronger of the two, and he compelled Sciron to do as he told him, and wash his feet, and then he kicked him over the cliff, and the tortoise seized him by the neck and gobbled him up.

That same evening Theseus reached the house of the wicked Stretcher, whose custom it was to sit before his door and invite travellers to lodge with him for the night. He always fed them sumptuously, but at bed-time he brought out two bedsteads, a big one and a little one, and he took the short people to the big bedstead and killed them by stretching out their limbs till they were as long as the couch, (for which reason he was called the {182} Stretcher) and the tall people he laid upon the little bedstead and lopped off as much of their limbs as extended beyond it, and then he left them to bleed to death. Theseus behaved as if he did not know about the robber's wicked practices: he ate and drank and carried on a cheerful conversation, but when the robber led him into the sleeping-chamber, Theseus seized him round the body, threw him on to the short bedstead, and then drew his sword and hewed off his legs above the knees; then two great streams of blood gushed forth, and the robber died. Theseus dragged the body out into the open air where it was devoured by wolves, vultures, and ravens, but he himself lay down to rest in the house and slept till the morning, and when the day dawned, he went on his way. The Stretcher was the last robber he met with, and ever after this journey of his, travellers could go from Troezen to Greece without fear of being robbed and killed, and as they journeyed they thought of the young hero Theseus to whom they owed their safety.

Theseus soon afterwards arrived in Athens. He first of all bathed himself in a stream near the city, for he was covered with dust and blood, and when he was cleansed, he entered the town and was conducted to his father's palace. He went in saying that he was a stranger, and begged the king to show him hospitality. Aegeus was now old, and he was very sorrowful, for he thought that his son must be dead and that the wicked Pallantidae would succeed to the kingdom. The witch Medea was with him, for he had received her when she fled from Corinth in her chariot drawn by dragons.[2] {183} She was wise and crafty in speech, and she had succeeded in gaining so great an influence over the king that he asked her advice in all things, and followed it. No one knew who Theseus was except Medea, but she knew, for she could find out any secret by means of her magic arts. She was not at all pleased that Theseus had come to Athens, for she feared that the king would set greater store by his son than by her, and that her power would now be at an end. So she told Aegeus that the stranger was a kinsman of the Pallantidae, and that he had come for the purpose of killing him. The poor old king believed what she told him and was seized with fear, and he asked her what he had better do to save his life. Medea answered that she would mix some poison with the wine that Theseus was to drink, and Aegeus gave her leave to do so. But while they were at dinner, it happened that Theseus wanted to cut off a piece of roasted meat, and he drew his sword to cut it, for the Greeks had not at that time learnt the use of knives and forks. Then Aegeus recognised the sword, and he sprang up and dashed the goblet from the table; the poisoned wine flowed all over the floor, but Aegeus paid no attention to it, for he had flung his arms round Theseus, and was embracing him and crying out, 'My son, my son.' Both the father and son rejoiced greatly at thus finding each other, and they had many things to ask and to tell, and when Theseus related how he had destroyed the robbers, the joy of the old king was doubled at finding that his son was so brave a hero. Meanwhile he gave no thought to the wicked Medea who had intended to poison Theseus, and she went out and called her dragon-car. It came rushing through {184} the air towards her, and she got into it and flew away, and has never been seen again.

The old king was quite happy now, and he sent a herald to proclaim all through the city that Theseus was his son and the heir to his kingdom. No one grudged him his happiness except the wicked Pallas and his sons, who till now had been the chief men in the city. They were rich and had a great many servants, and they assembled them all in a little wood near the city, intending to leave some of them there in ambush, and to lead the others towards the city and shout to Theseus to come out and fight them. They thought that he would come out against them with a few men only, and that after the battle had begun, they would be joined by the servants left in the wood which would make the odds very unequal; and they hoped that they would thus be able to kill Theseus, and then go on into the city and murder the old king. But after they had made all their preparations, one of the servants went to Aegeus and revealed the treachery they were planning. Then Theseus went out towards the wood, followed by a number of the citizens, and slew the men who were in ambush there, and when the rest heard that, they were afraid, and fled from the country.

Theseus was anxious to perform some heroic deed which would benefit the Athenians and make them love and honour him. There was at that time a fierce bull in the country who killed men and cattle, and who was called the Bull of Marathon, because he lived near Marathon, which is close to Athens. It was the same beast that had formerly been called the Cretan Bull, and had been brought by Heracles from Crete, at the {185} command of Eurystheus, as his seventh Labour.[3] Ever since that time the savage bull had been at large in Greece, doing much damage. Theseus went out against him without either sword or club, for he wished to overcome the bull by his own hero-strength alone, and bring him alive to Athens; some of the citizens went with him, but only to look on at a distance. When Theseus came in sight of the bull, he stood still, and the bull rushed at him, bellowing and lowering his head to run his horns into him and toss him up high into the air, as he had tossed many a one before. But Theseus seized him by the horns and dragged him aside, and then a mighty wrestling took place,--the eyes of the young hero glowed like fire, and the veins of his arms were swollen high with the effort he had to make. When they had wrestled for some time, the bull grew tired and tried to get free, but Theseus held him fast and dragged him into the city, and all the Athenians came out to meet him, and they praised him and said that he was like Heracles. Theseus then took the bull to the temple of Apollo to sacrifice him to the god. He cut off the hairs from the animal's forehead, as the custom was, and laid them in the flame of the fire that was burning on the altar and prayed to Apollo, and then he took up the sacrificial axe, and felled the great bull to the ground with a single blow. The sacrifice was then performed in the usual manner, and it was the most splendid animal that had ever been offered to any god. The Athenians were proud of their strong young prince, and they loved and honoured him.

Not long after this, the time came round when the {186} Athenians were obliged to send their tribute to the king of Crete; it was, indeed, a shameful tribute,--seven youths and seven maidens, who were sent to perish there miserably. Minos, the king of Crete, had had a son named Androgeus, who had once happened to come to Athens just when there was a feast going on, and sports in which all the young men vied with one another in feats of skill and strength; and he had taken part in the sports, and had excelled all others and won the prize of honour. But the Athenians were very angry at his having beaten them, and they lay in wait for him as he was on his way home, and fell upon him and killed him. When his father, King Minos, heard of this, he swore that the Athenians should suffer for it, and he prepared his ships and sailed with a mighty army to fight against Athens. The gods took the part of Minos and sent a pestilence among the Athenians; they also dried up their rivers and spoiled their harvests, so that there was great distress throughout the country. At last the Athenians were obliged to sue for peace, and Minos granted it on condition that every nine years they should give him a tribute of seven youths and seven maidens. There was a wonderful house in Crete where the youths and maidens who were sent as tribute met with a miserable death. The house was called the Labyrinth, and it was as large as a town, and had countless courts and galleries. Those who entered it without being familiar with its passages could never find their way out again, and they hurried from one to another of the numberless rooms looking for the entrance door, but all in vain,--they only became more and more hopelessly lost in the bewildering house, and {187} at last a monster who lived there, came and ate them up. He was called the Minotaur, and he had the form of a man, excepting his head, which was that of a bull, and he had a bull's voice.

When the time for paying the tribute came round, all the youths and maidens of Athens had to assemble in the market-place. Then two brazen vessels were brought out, and they put a number of balls into each of them; into one vessel they put as many balls as there were youths in the city, and into the other as many balls as there were maidens; seven of the balls in each vessel were black, and all the rest were white. All the youths and maidens in turn had to put their hand into one of the vessels and draw out a ball without looking, and those who drew the black balls had to go on board the ship that was waiting to take them to Crete. For this sorrowful journey the ship always had black sails instead of white ones.

For the third time the Athenians were now obliged to pay the tribute of seven youths and seven maidens to the king of Crete. When Theseus heard about it, he begged his father to let him sail with them, for he hoped that he would be able to kill the monster and deliver the Athenians. The king was afraid that Theseus would never come back, notwithstanding the great deeds he had already performed, and he refused at first to give his consent; but Theseus said that it would be a disgrace to him if he did not go, and he persisted in his request till his father granted it. When the others had been chosen by lot, they all went on board the ship which was ready to sail, and Aegeus and many others went down to the shore to take leave of {188} them. All were heart-broken at the parting excepting Theseus, but he was in very good spirits, for he hoped this would be the last time that such a journey would have to be made. The old king gave him a white sail which he begged him to hoist if he came back in safety, saying, 'If you are alive when the ship returns, let me know it by this signal; but if on the contrary you have perished, the black sail will tell me the sad news as soon as the ship comes in sight.' Theseus promised to do as his father wished, and then he went on board the vessel and gave the signal to the sailors, who plied their oars and pushed off from the land. And Aegeus returned home and prayed to the gods to bring his son back to him in safety.

After some time the voyage came to an end, and the ship with the black sails arrived in Crete. Minos sent his soldiers to conduct the youths and maidens to a dungeon where they were to remain till the next day, and as they passed through the streets many people crowded to look at them, lamenting that the young lives should be sacrificed. The procession went past the palace gate where King Minos was standing with his daughter Ariadne, who was a very beautiful girl. When Ariadne saw Theseus she could not help gazing at him, for she thought he looked more like a true hero than any one she had ever seen, though many heroes came to her father's court. She could not bear to think that he must perish, and all night long, when every one else was asleep, she lay awake on her couch thinking how she could save him. In the morning she watched for an opportunity and went to the prison, where she bad no difficulty in getting in because she was the {189} king's daughter. She called Theseus apart, and told him that she loved him and longed to save him, and she gave him a ball of thread and said that he must secretly fasten one end of it to the entrance of the Labyrinth and unravel it as he went along, so that he might be able to find his way out again. She also gave him a sharp sword which she had taken from her father's armoury, that he might be armed for his struggle with the Minotaur. Theseus thanked the beautiful Ariadne, and told her that he was the son of the king of Athens, and that if he escaped in safety from the Labyrinth he would take her home with him to be his wife. She willingly consented to this, and then left the prison, and soon afterwards the guards came to take the prisoners to the Labyrinth; they did not see the sword and the ball of thread which Ariadne had given to Theseus, for he had hidden them in his robe. When they reached the Labyrinth they led the prisoners a long way into it and then left them, thinking that they would never find their way out again, for they did not notice that Theseus had unfastened his ball at the entrance and let the thread pass through his fingers as he went along. When the guards had turned back, the youths and maidens thought they would have to wander about hopelessly until the Minotaur came and devoured them, but Theseus spoke to them encouragingly, and said that by the help of the gods he would slay the monster and bring them out of their trouble. About mid-day they heard the monster bellowing in the distance; he was still some way from them, but he scented human blood, and as he came nearer his bellowing grew louder and louder. The {190} others crowded together in a corner, each wanting to be the last to meet him, but Theseus stood forward in the middle of the room with his naked sword raised, waiting for his approach. He was as tall again as a man, and he had powerful fists and a huge mouth, and on his head were two great horns. He stretched out his arm to seize Theseus and opened his mouth to bite off his head, but Theseus sprang behind him and hewed off one of his legs at the knee joint, and then the huge giant fell down and bellowed until the walls shook with the noise he made. Theseus measured with his eye to see where his heart must be, and taking careful aim, he stabbed him through the back at that place. A great stream of blood gushed out, and the monster lay on the ground groaning and moaning and beating about wildly with his arms; he did not hit any one, however, and before long he was dead. The youths and maidens all came round Theseus, and they fell down and kissed his feet and hands. They waited till it was dark, and then set out to leave the Labyrinth, Theseus going in front and winding up the ball of thread as he went. They passed through room after room and court after court, till at last they reached the door, where they found Ariadne waiting for them; she had stolen away from the palace, and was full of joy when she saw them arrive. Then they all went together to the ship, which at once put out to sea, and by daybreak they were already far away. King Minos thought his daughter must have been carried off by robbers, for it never occurred to him that she could have sailed away with the prisoners whom he believed to have been devoured by the Minotaur, and he searched for her all over the island. When he {191} heard, some time afterwards, what had really happened, he was so amazed at the bravery of Theseus that he never again ventured to demand the tribute from the Athenians.

When Theseus and his companions had sailed for some days, they came to the island of Naxos, and as it was evening, they went ashore to sleep. Naxos was the favourite country of Dionysus, the wine-god; he often used to stay in the island, and he caused the finest vines to grow there. Theseus and his companions slept on the shore, and towards morning, Dionysus appeared to Theseus in a dream and said to him, 'Rise up and return home at once with your friends, but leave Ariadne behind you, for I myself have chosen her to be my wife.' Theseus awoke very sorrowful at having to leave the beautiful Ariadne, but he knew that he must do as the god commanded, and he roused his companions and told them his dream, and then they went softly down to the ship and sailed away, leaving Ariadne asleep on the island. When it was bright daylight, Ariadne awoke and found herself alone. She sprang up and ran down to the shore, and seeing the ship some way out at sea, she thought they had forgotten her, and waved her veil as a signal for them to come back. The ship's crew saw her, but they sailed on all the same, and then Ariadne sat down on the shore and wept bitterly, for she thought that Theseus had abandoned her because he did not love her, and that she was left to perish in misery and distress. As she sat thus weeping, with her beautiful head resting on her hand, and with her mind full of sad thoughts, she heard a sound of flute-playing on the island, which came nearer and nearer, and a {192} crowd of men and women appeared before her in a strange procession. The foremost was a marvellously beautiful youth, who had a crown of vine-leaves on his head, and drove in a golden chariot drawn by two spotted panthers. The youth was Dionysus, and he went up to Ariadne and said, 'Do not be afraid; I am the god who created the vine, and I love you, and am going to make you my wife.' The marriage was celebrated that very day, and all the woods and valleys in the island resounded with sweet music; the Bacchantes danced and sang, and the old Silenus who had taken care of Dionysus in his childhood[4] was intoxicated the whole day long by way of doing honour to his master. Ariadne was now the wife of the god Dionysus, and she became immortal, and was gifted with perpetual youth.

The ship that carried away Theseus soon reached Athens, but Theseus was so absorbed in thoughts of Ariadne that he forgot to hoist the white sails which were to announce his safe return. The aged Aegeus had passed many long hours since his son had left him in sitting on a high rock from which he could see far over the sea. At last he spied a sail coming towards him, but when it approached a little nearer, he saw that it was a black one. Then he thought that the ship was returning without Theseus, and he threw himself over into the sea because he could not bear to live any longer. Some of the people who were on the shore saw what he had done, and they at once got into a boat and sailed to the place where he had disappeared, hoping to save him; but they were too late, for when they found him he was already dead. They laid the {193} corpse on a bier, and were standing sadly round it when the ship came sailing in. The youths on board raised a shout of joy at reaching their home again, but the others beckoned to them to be silent, and pointed to the corpse. When Theseus knew that his father had killed himself at the sight of the black sail, he was very much distressed, and he threw himself upon the corpse shedding bitter tears. In the evening the Athenians carried the bier to the palace, and the next day they raised a funeral pyre, and when they had burnt the body, they placed the ashes in a costly urn. Theseus sorrowed long for his father, and bitterly regretted that he had not remembered the white sail at the right time. Theseus was now king, and he ruled over the city of Athens for a great number of years, and performed many brave deeds. The Athenians had never before had such a noble hero for their king, and they lived in peace and safety, for their enemies feared Theseus and did not dare to attack them. It happened once, that in sailing along the coast of Asia, Theseus arrived at the country of the Amazons,--a nation of warlike women,[5]--one of whom was standing on the shore when Theseus landed. She was so beautiful that he determined to carry her off to be his wife, but the Amazons never welcomed strangers, and when Theseus went up to her she raised her lance, intending to pierce him with it. Theseus however was not afraid, and putting his arms round the maiden, he carried her off to the ship and his comrades rowed away as fast as they could. The other Amazons came running down to the shore when they heard the cries of their sister, but they could not {194} overtake the ship. The Amazon that Theseus had carried off was named Hippolyta. At first she was very angry with him, but soon she came to love him with all her heart and had no wish to go home again. When they reached Athens, Hippolyta became the wife of Theseus, and the gods sent them a little son whom they named Hippolytus. Hippolyta was now queen of Athens; but the Amazons had made up their minds to deliver their sister and punish the stranger who had run away with her, and they took ship and sailed to Greece. It was a strange sight to see women with helmets on their heads and shields at their sides, managing the vessels; and when they came to Greece every one was afraid of them. They did not know who it was that had carried off their sister, so they made inquiries; and when they found it was Theseus, they set out for Athens, and as soon as they entered his dominions they began to lay waste the cornfields and kill both men and women. Some of the people escaped, however, and hastened to the city to warn the king that the Amazons were marching towards it, and he armed his people and led them out to the fight. Then a fierce battle took place, and many of the Athenians were killed. Queen Hippolyta stood on the wall of the city watching the battle, full of anxiety lest Theseus should be killed by the Amazons, and she longed so much to help him that at last she armed herself with a spear and shield, and went out to take part in the fray. The Amazons thought at first that she had come to join them, but when they found out what was the real state of the case they became furious. They were now more angry with her than with Theseus, and they hurled their lances at her till one of them hit her in {195} the breast, and she sank down and died. Theseus was standing by her, and when he saw that she was dead, he was seized with uncontrollable fury, and he struck down one after another of the Amazons until they were all killed. It was a great victory, and the first that any one had ever gained over the Amazons, but Theseus could take no pleasure in it because of the loss of Hippolyta.

There was a nation in Greece called the Lapithae, whose king, Pirithoüs, was a brave and noble hero. He had heard so much about Theseus that he resolved to try whether he was as much of a hero as every one said. So he entered his country and stole some cattle and carried them away. When Theseus heard of it, he set out in pursuit of Pirithoüs, who took no pains to escape from him, but rather the contrary, for he had stolen the cattle, not for the sake of having them, but because he wanted to see what Theseus would be like when he was angry. When Theseus overtook him, Pirithoüs marvelled at his strength and beauty and at the fire of his eyes which were glowing with impatience for the fight, and Theseus on his part was so delighted with the brave and manly appearance of Pirithoüs that he quite forgot that he had been angry with him. Pirithoüs went up to him holding out his hand, and said, 'I will atone for the theft I have committed; you may impose upon me whatever punishment you will.' Theseus gave him his hand in return, and said that he would impose no punishment, but would rather make a sacred friendship with him. They promised each other that they would be as brothers, and would always be ready to stand by one another, and called upon Zeus {196} to witness their oaths and bless their friendship, and then they returned, each to his own country.

Some time after this, Pirithoüs invited a number of guests to celebrate his marriage with a beautiful princess, and the most honoured of all the guests was Theseus. All the great men among the Lapithae were at the wedding, and also the savage Centaurs, who had the lower part of their bodies formed like the bodies of horses. But when the fierce Centaurs became intoxicated, they tried to run away with the bride of Pirithoüs and the other women, and the marriage feast ended in a bloody fight. The vessels that had been used at the feast served for arms, and they threw goblets, dishes, and drinking cups at one another. The Centaurs were stronger than the Lapithae, and would certainly have gained the victory if the Lapithae had not had the help of Theseus, who had brought his iron club with him and struck down the Centaurs with it, till the dead bodies of those whom he had killed lay upon the ground in heaps and the few that remained took to flight. Then peace was restored, though not before a great number of the Lapithae had perished, and Theseus returned home, glad that he had been able to give this proof of his friendship for Pirithoüs.

Theseus was always ready to help those who were in the right, and as his fame spread far and wide, every one who was oppressed came to Athens and stood before the Altar of Pity which had been raised in the centre of the market-place. Then Theseus inquired into his case, and if he found that he had been wronged, he took care to see that justice was done. This gained for him the hatred of the wicked oppressors, but all those who cared for justice honoured and loved him.

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Theseus had reigned for a long time, and his son Hippolytus had grown up to be a man, when he resolved to marry again, and asked Minos the king of Crete to let him have his daughter Phaedra, the sister of Ariadne, for his wife. Minos had long before this forgiven Theseus for having killed the Minotaur and carried off Ariadne, and he willingly consented to give him his younger daughter in marriage. Phaedra was many years younger than Theseus and had been quite a child when he was in Crete, but she now became queen of Athens, and Theseus loved her dearly and did all he could to please her. His son, who had been named Hippolytus after his mother, did not live at Athens, but in Troezen with his grandmother who had brought him up since the death of Hippolyta. He was noble and virtuous, and he loved the chase and all manly pursuits, and honoured, above all other gods and goddesses, the huntress-goddess Artemis. Hippolytus came one day to Athens on a visit, and when Phaedra saw him, she was so dazzled by his youth and beauty that she began to love him passionately, and after his return she used to spend many hours every day sitting on the city walls and looking towards Troezen. She used to take her old nurse there with her, and talk to her about Hippolytus, and tell her how willingly she would give up honour and riches for his sake. The next time Hippolytus came to Athens she had a secret conversation with him, and begged him to flee away and take her with him to be his wife. But Hippolytus was angry with her for plotting such treachery against his father, and he was so shocked at what she had said that he mounted his chariot and drove his spirited horses {198} back towards Troezen. Phaedra now hated him for having spurned her, and she thought of a plan by which she might revenge herself upon him. She went to Theseus and told him with many tears that Hippolytus had proposed to her to run away with him and become his wife, and Theseus believed what she told him, and he was very, very angry, and said that Hippolytus should atone for it with his life.

Theseus was loved by the gods, and especially by Poseidon the sea-god, who had once promised him that if ever he prayed to him in any time of trouble, he would certainly grant his request, whatever it might be. Many years had passed away since then, and Theseus had never had so great a desire for anything as to think of asking the sea-god for it; but now that Phaedra accused his son of this great crime, he entreated Poseidon to fulfil his dearest wish and cause Hippolytus to die immediately. At that moment, Hippolytus who was driving along the sea-shore, saw the waves suddenly part asunder and a hideous monster come out of them, who roared horribly. The frightful appearance of the monster and the noise he made, rendered the horses quite unmanageable, and Hippolytus could not hold them in. They ran away with the chariot, dragging it over stones and rocks, till at last it was upset, and Hippolytus was thrown out and trampled to death. The people found his body and brought it to Athens, and Theseus knew that Poseidon had granted his prayer. But when Phaedra saw the corpse, she was so grieved and sick at heart that she went into her sleeping chamber and hanged herself, and then the old nurse told the king the whole truth. When Theseus knew {199} that his innocent son had perished because of his virtue, he was quite overcome with grief, and threw himself upon the corpse, kissing it and weeping passionately, and for many days he shut himself up alone in his palace and refused either to eat or drink.

Theseus thought that the best way of regaining his spirits would be to undertake some new exploit which would give a fresh turn to his thoughts. The wife of Pirithoüs was also dead, and the two heroes determined to set out together to seek for two beautiful women whom they might carry off to become their wives. They had heard that Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, had a lovely daughter named Helena, and they set out for Sparta, and reached it just at the time of the festival of Artemis. The maidens of the city kept the festival by dancing round the altar of the goddess, and Helena was among them, and was distinguished from all the others by her marvellous beauty. The two heroes rushed in among the maidens and seized Helena, and when they had carried her off to a place of safety, they cast lots for her, to see whose wife she should be. The lot fell to Theseus, and he took her to his mother Aethra and begged her to take care of the maiden until he should return for her, for he wanted to go and help his friend also to carry off a wife by force. They were so bold as to resolve that they would descend into the Land of Shades and steal away the queen of the Lower World, although this was in undertaking so daring that nothing like it had ever before been attempted by any hero. They passed through the chasm which was the entrance to the Lower World, and went down far below the earth till at last they reached the Land of {200} Shades. They were now very tired, and as they expected to have a hard struggle before they could get possession of the queen, they thought they would rest a little first, and sat down on a stone which they saw near them. But when they wanted to get up again, they found that they had stuck fast to the stone and could not move. The king of the Lower World, who knew for what purpose they had dared to come into his dominions, had prevented their getting up again, and he punished them by obliging them to sit there for ever.

So the two heroes were kept prisoners in the Lower World; and meanwhile, the brothers of Helena, whose names were Castor and Pollux, set out to free their sister. Their mother was the beautiful Leda, wife of King Tyndareus, who was sitting one day by the river bank when a snow-white swan came sailing by. Leda was charmed with his beauty and called him to come to her, and the swan came on shore and embraced her. It was not a real swan however, but Zeus, who loved the beautiful Leda, and had come to her in this form. Some time after this, Leda had four children; there were two large eggs, and out of each egg there came a little boy and a little girl. Two of them were the children of Zeus, and their names were Pollux and Helena; the other two were called Castor and Clytaemnestra. When they grew up, the two brothers, Castor and Pollux, became glorious heroes. No one understood so well how to tame wild horses as Castor, and no one was so skilled in wrestling as Pollux.[6] They were also kind and gentle, and loved one another so dearly that they shared everything, and they performed {201} many heroic deeds together, and won great fame. But in the course of time, Castor died and passed into the Lower World, where he became an unthinking shade. Pollux did not die, for it was decreed that as he was a son of Zeus he should become immortal and live among the gods. But his immortality was a burden to him, for he could not bear to live without his brother, and he begged his father Zeus to grant them both the same fate, so that they might either be both in Olympus or both in the Lower World. Zeus was pleased at their love for one another, and he said that they should both be in Olympus one day and both be in the Lower World on the alternate day, and thus they should always remain together. The two brothers were named the Dioscuri, or the children of Zeus, and two bright stars which stand close to one another in the sky are named after them.

At the time however when Theseus carried off Helena, the brothers were still alive and in the first bloom of their youth. They set out with their companions for Athens, thinking that Theseus must have taken their sister to his capital; but when they reached it they were told that he had gone away on an adventurous enterprise, and the Athenians took a solemn oath that the maiden was not within their walls. The brothers asked where she was hidden, and one of the citizens who knew, told them; then they went away without doing any harm to any one, and marched to Troezen, where they compelled Aethra to let them take their beautiful sister home with them.

Theseus and Pirithoüs sat upon the stone for many years, until the time came when Heracles was {202} commanded by Eurystheus to descend into the Lower World and fetch up the three-headed dog Cerberus.[7] When the captive heroes saw him, they called to him and told him of their trouble, and begged him to help them. Then Heracles seized the hand of Theseus with such a mighty grasp that the stone was compelled to leave go and allow him to get up. He next seized hold of Pirithoüs, but at that moment the earth quaked, and fearful sounds were heard, which signified that the gods would not grant freedom to Pirithoüs, but doomed him to sit upon the stone for ever, because he had presumed to desire the queen of the Lower World for his wife.

So Theseus was obliged to leave his friend in the Land of Shades, and he took leave of him and returned to the Upper World; but in the meanwhile his hair had turned grey, and his appearance had become very much altered. Now while he was a prisoner in the Lower World, a mischief-making person had been telling the people that their king spent all his time in going about on daring expeditions, and was of no use to his subjects; so when Theseus came back to Athens, he found that the people had no longer any affection or esteem for him. He would not live amongst those who did not make him welcome, and he left his country and got into a ship and sailed to the island of Scyros. Part of the island belonged to a king named Lycomedes, but the rest of it belonged to Theseus, and he had resolved to spend the remaining days of his life there, so he went to the king and told him so. The king was by no means pleased, for he was a cowardly man and he thought that Theseus would not leave him in peaceful {203} possession of his share, but would make himself king of the whole island. He pretended, however, to welcome Theseus, and said that he would take him to a mountain where he would have a view of the whole country. They both climbed up the mountain, which had a steep precipice on one side of it, and when Theseus was preoccupied in looking at the country, Lycomedes got behind him and pushed him over the cliff. Theseus died from the great fall, and thus the strong hero lost his life at the hands of one cowardly man. They found his body lying at the foot of the precipice with the bones broken, and they buried him in the island.

Many years passed away, and the age of the heroes and the sons of the gods had quite gone by, when the Athenians sent one day to the Oracle at Delphi to inquire of the Pythia about the future. The Pythia told them that they had better fetch the bones of Theseus from Scyros and keep them in their city, because these bones would prove a great blessing to them. They did not fail to attend to this direction, and sent ships manned with a large number of Athenians to the island of Scyros, to seek for the bones of Theseus and bring them home. But no one could tell them where the grave of the hero was, for during that long time it had been forgotten. They went all over the island seeking for it, and at last it was revealed to them by a sign from heaven: a mighty eagle swooped down on to a hill and pecked the ground many times with his beak, then he soared up again and disappeared among the clouds. The Athenians dug into the hill and found a coffin containing bones much larger than the bones of the men of that time, and {204} there was also a sword and spear in the same coffin. They knew by the sign that had been given them from heaven that these were the bones of Theseus, and they carried the coffin to their finest ship and sailed home with it. The ship was beautifully adorned with garlands and streamers, and when it reached Athens the citizens put on their best clothes and came out to meet it, singing and playing on the flute, just as if it were Theseus himself who was returning to his country. They buried his bones in the middle of the city, and consecrated the spot as a Refuge or place of safety: if, for example, a slave were pursued by his master and he could succeed in reaching the tomb of Theseus, the master had no longer any right to touch him. In this manner the Athenians honoured the memory of Theseus, who during his lifetime had always been so ready to take the part of the weak against the strong. They also came in time to look upon him as a god, and offered sacrifices to him.

[1] This fortress was afterwards called the Acropolis of Athens.

[2] See page 175.

[3] See page 122.

[4] See page 66.

[5] See page 125.

[6] See page 157.

[7] See page 135.

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