| Plutarch's Parallel Lives | |
| The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch | |
|
Theseus
As geographers crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the
world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to
the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of
wild beasts, unapproachable bogs, Seythian ice, or frozen sea, so,
in this great work of mine, in which I have compared the lives of
the greatest men with one another, after passing through those
periods which probable reasoning can reach to and real history
find a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther
off, Beyond this there is nothing but prodigies and fictions; the
only inhabitants are the poets and inventors of fables; there is
no credit, or certainty any farther. Yet, after publishing an
account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I
might, not without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being
brought by my history so near to his time. Considering therefore
with myself
Whom shall I set so great a man face to face? (as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as he who peopled
the beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in
opposition with the father of the invincible and renowned city of
Rome. Let us hope that Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit
to the purifying processes of Reason as to take the character of
exact history. We shall beg that we may meet with candid readers,
and such as will receive with indulgence the stories of antiquity.
Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. Both
of them had the repute of being sprung from the gods.
Both warriors; that by all the world's allowed.
Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigor of mind;
and of the two most famous cities of the world, the one built in
Rome, and the other made Athens be inhabited. Neither of them
could avoid domestic misfortunes nor jealousy at home; but toward
the close of their lives are both of them said to have incurred
great odium with their countrymen, if, that is, we may take the
stories least like poetry as our guide to truth.
Theseus was the son of Aegeus and Aethra. His lineage, by his
father's side, ascends as high as to Erechtheus and the first
inhabitants of Attica. By his mother's side, he was descended of
Pelops, who was the most powerful of all the kings of
Peloponnesus.
When Aegeus went from the home of Aethra in Troezen to Athens, he
left a sword and a pair of shoes, hiding them under a great stone
that had a hollow in it exactly fitting them; and went away making
her only privy to it, and commanding her that, if, when their son
came to man's estate, he should be able to lift up the stone and
take away what he had left there, she should send him away to him
with those things with all secrecy, and with injunctions to him as
much as possible to conceal his journey from everyone; for he
greatly feared the Pallantidae, who were continually mutinying
against him, and despised him for his want of children, they
themselves being fifty brothers, all sons of Pallas, the brother
of Aegeus.
When Aethra's son was born, some say that he was immediately named
Theseus, from the tokens which his father had put under the stone;
others that he received his name afterwards at Athens, when Aegeus
acknowledged him for his son. He was brought up under his
grandfather Pittheus, and had a tutor and attendant set over him
named Connidas, to whom the Athenians, even to this time, the day
before the feast that is dedicated to Theseus, sacrifice a ram,
giving this honor to his memory upon much juster grounds than to
Silanio and Parrhasius, for making pictures and statues of
Theseus. There being then a custom for the Grecian youth, upon
their first coming to a man's estate, to go to Delphi and offer
firstfruits of their hair to the god, Theseus also went thither,
and a place there to this day is yet named Thesea, as it is said,
from him. He clipped only the fore part of his head, as Homer says
the Abantes did. And this sort of tonsure was from him named
Theseis. The Abantes first used it, not in imitation of the
Arabians, as some imagine, nor of the Mysians, but because they
were a warlike people, and used to close fighting, and above all
other nations, accustomed to engage hand to hand; as Archilochus
testifies in these verses:
Slings shall not whirl, nor many arrows fly, Therefore, that they might not give their enemies a hold by their
hair, they cut it in this manner. They write also that this was
the reason why Alexander gave command to his captains that all the
beards of the Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest
hold for an enemy.
Aethra for some time concealed the true parentage of Theseus, and
a report was given out by Pittheus that he was the son of Neptune;
for the Troezenians pay Neptune the highest veneration. He is
their tutelar god, to him they offer all their firstfruits, and in
his honor stamp their money with a trident.
Theseus displaying not only great strength of body, but equal
bravery, and a quickness alike and force of understanding, his
mother Aethra, conducting him to the stone, and informing him who
was his true father, commanded him to take from thence the tokens
that Aegeus had left, and to sail to Athens. He without any
difficulty set himself to the stone and lifted it up; but refused
to take his journey by sea, though it was much the safer way, and
though his mother and grandfather begged him to do so. For it was
at that time very dangerous to go by land on the road to Athens,
no part of it being free from robbers and murderers. That age
produced a sort of men, in force of hand, and swiftness of foot,
and strength of body, excelling the ordinary rate, and wholly
incapable of fatigue; making use, however, of these gifts of
nature to no good or profitable purpose for mankind, but rejoicing
and priding themselves in insolence, and taking the benefit of
their superior strength in the exercise of inhumanity and cruelty,
and in seizing, forcing, and committing all manner of outrages
upon everything that fell into their hands; all respect for
others, all justice, they thought, all equity and humanity, though
naturally lauded by common people, either out of want of courage
to commit injuries or fear to receive them, yet no way concerned
those who were strong enough to win for themselves. Some of these
Hercules destroyed and cut off in his passage through these
countries, but some, escaping his notice, while he was passing by,
fled and hid themselves, or else were spared by him in contempt of
their abject submission; and after that Hercules fell into
misfortune, and, having slain Iphitus, retired to Lydia, and for a
long time was there slave to Omphale, a punishment which he had
imposed upon himself for the murder. Then, indeed, Lydia enjoyed
high peace and security, but in Greece and the countries about it
the like villainies again revived and broke out, there being none
to repress or chastise them. It was therefore a very hazardous
journey to travel by land from Athens to Peloponnesus; and
Pittheus, giving him an exact account of each of these robbers and
villains, their strength, and the cruelty they used to all
strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to go by sea. But he, it
seems, had long since been secretly fired by the glory of
Hercules, held him in the highest estimation, and was never more
satisfied than in listening to any that gave an account of him;
especially those that had seen him, or had been present at any
action or saying of his. So that he was altogether in the same
state of feeling as, in after ages, Themistocles was, when he said
that he could not sleep for the trophy of Miltiades; entertaining
such admiration for the virtues of Hercules that in his dreams
were all of that hero's actions, and in the day a continual
emulation stirred him up to perform the like. Besides, they were
related, being born of own cousins. For Aethra was daughter of
Pittheus, and Alcmena of Lysidice; and Lysidice and Pittheus were
brother and sister, children of Hippodamia and Pelpos. He thought
it therefore a dishonorable thing, and not to be endured, that
Hercules should go out everywhere, and purge both land and sea
from the wicked men, and he should fly from the like adventures
that actually came his way; not showing his true father as good
evidence of the greatness of his birth by noble and worthy
actions, as by the tokens that he brought with him, the shoes and
the sword.
With this mind and these thoughts, he set forward with a design to
do injury to nobody, but to repel and avenge himself of all those
that should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat he slew
Periphtes, in the neighborhood of Epidaurus, who used a club for
his arms, and from thence had the name of Corynetes, or the club-
bearer; who seized upon him, and forbade him to go forward in his
journey. Being pleased with the club, he took it, and made it his
weapon, continuing to use it as Hercules did the lion's skin, on
whose shoulders that served to prove how huge a beast he had
killed; and to the same end Theseus carried about him this club;
overcome indeed by him, but now, in his hands, invincible.
Passing on further towards the Isthmus of Peloponnesus, he slew
Sinnis, often surnamed the Bender of Pines, after the same manner
in which he himself had destroyed many others before. And this he
did without having either practiced or ever learnt the art of
bending these trees, to show that natural strength is above all
art. This Sinnis had a daughter of remarkable beauty and stature,
called Perigune, who, when her father was killed, fled, and was
sought after everywhere by Theseus; and coming into a place
overgrown with brushwood, shrubs, and asparagus-thorn, there, in a
childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them, as if they
understood her, to give shelter, with vows that if she escaped she
would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus calling upon
her, and giving her his promise that he would use her with
respect, and offer no injury, she came forth. Whence it is a
family usage amongst the people called Ioxids, from the name of
her grandson, Ioxus, both male and female, never to burn either
shrubs or asparagus-thorn, but to respect and honor them.
The Crommyonian sow, which they called Phaea, was a savage and
formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised.
Theseus killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and
engage her, so that he might not seem to perform all his great
exploits out of mere necessity; being also of opinion that it was
the part of a brave man to chastise villainous and wicked men when
attacked by them, but to seek out and overcome the more noble wild
beasts. Others relate that Phaea was a woman, a robber full of
cruelty, that lived in Crommyon, and had the name of Sow given her
from the foulness of her life and manners, and afterwards was
killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the borders of
Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a
notorious robber of all passengers, and, as others add, accustomed
out of insolence and wantonness, to stretch forth his feet to
strangers, commanding them to wash them, and then while they did
it, with a kick to send them down the rock into the sea.
In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match.
And going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes,
otherwise called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his
own bed, as he himself was used to do with all strangers; this he
did in imitation of Hercules, who always returned upon his
assailants the same sort of violence that they offered to him;
sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus in wrestling, and Cycnus in
single combat, and Termerus by breaking his skull in pieces
(whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Termerian mischief"),
for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by running
with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded with the
same violence from which they had inflicted upon others, justly
suffering after the same manner of their own injustice.
As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the
River Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and
saluted him, and upon his desire to use the purifications, then in
custom, they performed them with all the usual ceremonies, and
having offered propitiatory sacrifices to the gods, invited him
and entertained him at their house, a kindness which, in all his
journey hitherto, he had not met.
On the eighth day of Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon, he arrived
at Athens, where he found the public affairs full of all
confusion, and divided into parties and factions. Aegeus also, and
his whole private family, laboring under the same distemper; for
Medea, having fled from Corinth, was living with him. She was
first aware of Theseus, whom as yet Aegeus did not know, and he
being in years, full of jealousies and suspicions, and fearing
everything by reason of the faction that was then in the city, she
easily persuaded him to kill him by poison at a banquet, to which
he was to be invited as a stranger. He, coming to the
entertainment, thought it not fit to discover himself at once,
but, willing to give his father the occasion of first finding him
out, the meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he
designed to cut with it; Aegeus, at once recognizing the token,
threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced
him, and, having gathered together all his citizens, owned him
publicly before them, who, on their part, received him gladly for
the fame of his greatness and bravery.
The sons of Pallas, who were quiet, upon expectation of recovering
the kingdom after Aegeus's death, who was without issue, as soon
as Theseus appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly
resenting that Aegeus first, as adopted son only of Pandion, and
not at all related to the family of Erechtheus, should be holding
the kingdom, and that after him, Theseus, a visitor and stranger,
should be destined to succeed to it, broke out into open war. And,
dividing themselves into two companies, one part of them marched
openly from Sphettus, with their father, against the city; the
other, hiding themselves in the village of Gargettus, lay in
ambush, with a design to set upon the enemy on both sides. They
had with them a crier of the township of Agnus, named Leos, who
discovered to Theseus all the designs of the Pallentidae. He
immediately fell upon those that lay in amuscade, and cut them all
off; upon tidings of which Pallas and his company fled and were
dispersed.
From hence they say is derived the custom among the people of the
township of Pallene to have no marriages or any alliance with the
people of Agnus, nor to suffer the criers to pronounce in their
proclamations the words used in all other parts of the country,
Acouete Leoi (Hear ye people), hating the very sound of Leo,
because of the treason of Leos.
Theseus, longing to be in action, and desirous also to make
himself popular, left Athens to fight with the bull of Marathon,
which did no small mischief to the inhabitants of Tetrapolis. And,
having overcome it, he brought it alive in triumph through the
city, and afterwards sacrificed it to the Delphian Apollo. The
story of Hecale, also, of her receiving and entertaining Theseus
in this expedition, seems to be not altogether void of truth; for
the townships round about, meeting upon a certain day, used to
offer a sacrifice, which they called Hecalesia, to Jupiter
Hecaleius, and to pay honor to Hecale, whom, by a diminutive name,
they called Hecalene, because she, while entertaining Theseus, who
was quite a youth, addressed him, as old people do, with similar
endearing diminutives; and having made a vow to Jupiter that he
was going to the fight, that, if he returned in safety, she would
offer sacrifices in thanks of it, and dying before he came back,
she had these honors given her by way of return for her
hospitality, by the command of Theseus, as Philochorus tells us.
Not long afterwards came the third time from Crete the collectors
of the tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following
occasion. Androgeus having been treacherously murdered in the
confines of Attica, not only Minos, his father, put the Athenians
to extreme distress by a perpetual war, but the gods also laid
waste their country; both famine and pestilence lay heavy upon
them, and even their rivers were dried up. Being told by the
oracle that if they appeased and reconciled Minos, the anger of
the gods would cease and they should enjoy rest from the miseries
they labored under, they sent heralds, and with much supplication
were at last reconciled, entering into an agreement to send to
Crete every nine years a tribute of seven young men and as many
virgins, as most writers agree in stating; and the most poetical
story adds that the Minotaur destroyed them, or that, wandering in
the Labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they
miserably ended their lives there, and that this Minotaur was (as
Euripides hath it)
A mingled form, where two strange shapes combined, Now when the time of the third tribute was come, and the fathers
who had any young men for their sons were to proceed by lot to the
choice of those that were to be sent, there arose fresh
discontents and accusations against Aegeus among the people, who
were full of grief and indignation that he, who was the cause of
all their miseries, was the only person exempt from the
punishment; adopting and setting his kingdom upon a foreign son,
he took no thought, they said, of their destitution and loss of
their lawful children. These things sensibly affected Theseus,
who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rather partake of,
the sufferings of his fellow citizens, offered himself for one
without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the
nobleness, and with love for the goodness, of the act; and Aegeus,
after prayers and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not to be
persuaded, proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot.
Hellanicus, however, tells us that the Athenians did not send the
young men and virgins by lot, but that Minos himself used to come
and make his own choice, and pitched upon Theseus before all
others; according to the conditions agreed upon between, namely,
that the Athenians should furnish them with a ship, and that the
young men who were to sail with him should carry no weapon of war;
but that if the Minotaur was destroyed the tribute should cease.
On the two former occasions of the payment of the tribute,
entertaining no hopes of safety or return, they sent out the ship
with a black sail, as to unavoidable destruction; but now, Theseus
encouraging his father and speaking greatly of himself, as
confident that he should kill the Minotaur, he gave the pilot
another sail, which was white, commanding him, as he returned, if
Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but if not, to sail with
the black one, and to hang out that sign of his misfortune.
Simonides says that the sail which Aegeus delivered to the pilot
was not white, but
Scarlet, in the juicy bloom The lot being cast, and Theseus having received out of the
Prytaneum those upon whom it fell, he went to the Delphinium, and
made an offering for them to Apollo of his suppliant's badge,
which was a bough of a consecrated olive tree, with white wool
tied about it.
Having thus performed his devotion, he went to sea, the sixth day
of Munychion, on which day even to this time the Athenians send
their virgins to the same temple to make supplication to the gods.
It is farther reported that he was commanded by the oracle at
Delphi to make Venus his guide, and to invoke her as the companion
and conductress of his voyage, and that, as he was sacrificing a
she goat to her by the seaside, it was suddenly changed into a he,
and for this cause that goddess had the name of Epitragia.
When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as
well as poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by
Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, and being instructed by
her now to use it so as to conduct him through the windings of the
Labyrinth, he escaped out of it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed
back, taking along with him Ariadne and the young Athenian
captives. Pherecydes adds that he bored holes in the bottom of the
Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit. Demon writes that Taurus,
the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the mouth of
the port, in a naval combat, as he was sailing out for Athens. But
Philochorus gives us the story thus: That at the setting forth of
the yearly games by King Minos, Taurus was expected to carry away
the prize, as he had done before; and was much grudged the honor.
His character and manners made his power hateful, and he was
accused, moreover, of too near familiarity with Pasiphae, for
which reason, when Theseus desired the combat, Minos readily
complied. And as it was a custom in Crete that the women also
should be admitted to the sight of these games, Ariadne, being
present, was struck with admiration of the manly beauty of
Theseus, and the vigor and address which he showed in combat,
overcoming all that encountered with him. Minos, too, being
extremely pleased with him, especially because he had overthrown
and disgraced Taurus, voluntarily gave up the young captives to
Theseus, and remitted the tribute to the Athenians.
There are yet many traditions about these things, and as many
concerning Ariadne, all inconsistent with each other. Some relate
that she hung herself, being deserted by Theseus. Others that she
was carried away by his sailors to the isle of Naxos, and married
to Oenarus, priest of Bacchus; and that Theseus left her because
he fell in love with another,
"For Aegle's love was burning in his breast."
Now Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos, and,
having sacrificed to the god of the island, dedicated to the
temple the image of Venus which Ariadne had given him, and danced
with the young Athenians a dance that, in memory of him, they say
is still preserved among the inhabitants of Delos, consisting in
certain measured turnings and returnings, imitative of the
windings and twistings of the Labyrinth. And this dance, as
Dicaearchus writes, is called among the Delians, the Crane. This
he danced round the Ceratonian Altar, so called from its
consisting of horns taken from the left side of the head. They
also say that he instituted games in Delos, where he was the first
that began the of giving a palm to the victors.
When they were come near the coast of Attica, so great was the joy
for the happy success of their voyage, that neither Theseus
himself nor the pilot remembered to hang out the sail which should
have been the token of their safety to Aegeus, who, in despair at
the sight, threw himself headlong from a rock, and perished in the
sea. But Theseus, being arrived at the port of Phalerum, paid
there the sacrifices which he had vowed to the gods at his setting
out to sea, and sent a herald to the city to carry the news of his
safe return. At his entrance, the herald found the people for the
most part full of grief for the loss of their king, others, as may
well be believed, as full of joy for the tidings that he brought,
and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands for his good
news, which he indeed accepted of, but hung them upon his herald's
staff; and thus returning to the seaside before Theseus had
finished his libation to the gods, he stayed apart for fear of
disturbing the holy rites, but, as soon as the libation was ended,
went up and related the king's death, upon the hearing of which,
with great lamentations and a confused tumult of grief, they ran
with all haste to the city. And from hence, they say, it comes
that at this day, in the feast of Oschoporia, the herald is not
crowned, but his staff, and all who are present at the libation
cry out "eleleu, iou, iou," the first of which confused sounds is
commonly used by men in haste, or at a triumph, the other is
proper to people in consternation or disorder of mind.
Theseus, after the funeral of his father, paid his vows to Apollo
the seventh day of Pyanepsion; for on that day the youth that
returned with him safe from Crete made their entry into the city.
They say, also, that the custom of boiling pulse at this feast is
derived from hence; because the young men that escaped put all
that was left of their provision together, and, boiling it in one
common pot, feasted themselves with it, and ate it all up
together. Hence, also, they carry in procession an olive branch
bound about with wool (such as they then made use of in their
supplications), which they call Eiresione, crowned with all sorts
of fruits, to signify that scarcity and barrenness was ceased,
singing in their procession this song:
Eiresione brings figs, and Eiresione brings loaves; The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had
thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the
time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as
they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place,
insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the
philosophers, for the logical question as to things that grow; one
side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other
contending that it was not the same.
Now, after the death of his father Aegeus, forming in his mind a
great and wonderful design, he gathered together all the
inhabitants of Attica into one town, and made them one people of
one city, whereas before they lived dispersed, and were not easy
to assemble upon any affair, for the common interest. Nay, the
differences and even wars often occurred between them, which he by
his persuasions appeased, going form township to township, and
from tribe to tribe. And those of a more private and mean
condition readily embracing such good advice, to those of greater
power he promised a commonwealth without monarchy, a democracy, or
people's government, in which he should only be continued as their
commander in war and the protector of their laws, all things else
being equally distributed among them;--and by this means brought
a part of them over to his proposal. The rest, fearing his power,
which was already grown very formidable, and knowing his courage
and resolution, chose rather to be persuaded than forced into a
compliance. He then dissolved all the distant state-houses,
council halls, and magistracies, and built one common state-house
(the Prytaneum) and council hall on the site of the present upper
town, and gave the name of Athens to the whole state, ordaining a
common feast and sacrifice, which he called Panathenaea, or the
sacrifice of all the united Athenians. He instituted also another
sacrifice, called Metoecia, or Feast of Migration, which is yet
celebrated on the sixteenth day of Hecatombaeon. Then, as he had
promised, he laid down his regal power and proceeded to order a
commonwealth, entering upon this great work not without advice
from the gods. For having sent to consult the oracle of Delphi
concerning the fortune of his new government and city, he received
this answer:
Son of the Pitthean maid, Which oracle, they say, one of the sibyls long after did in a
manner repeat to the Athenians, in this verse:
The bladder may be dipt, but not be drowned.
Farther yet designing to enlarge his city, he invited all
strangers to come and enjoy equal privileges with the natives, and
it is said that the common form, "Come hither all ye people," was
the words that Theseus proclaimed when he thus set up a
commonwealth, in a manner, for all nations. Yet he did not suffer
his state, by the promiscuous multitude that flowed in, to be
turned into confusion and be left without any order or degree, but
was the first that divided the commonwealth into three distinct
ranks, the noblemen, the husbandmen, and artificers. To the
nobility he committed the care of religion, the choice of
magistrates, the teaching and dispensing of the laws, and
interpretation and direction in all sacred matters; the whole city
being, as it were, reduced to an exact equality, the nobles
excelling the rest in honor, the husbandmen in profit, and the
artifices in number. And that Theseus was the first, who, as
Aristotle says, out of an inclination to popular government,
parted with the regal power, Homer also seems to testify, in his
catalogue of ships, where he gives the name of "People" to the
Athenians only.
He also coined money, and stamped it with the image of an ox,
either in memory of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, whom he
vanquished, or else to put his people in mind to follow husbandry;
and from this coin came the expression so frequent among the
Greeks, as a thing being worth ten or a hundred oxen. After this
he joined Megara to Attica, and erected that famous pillar on the
isthmus, which bears an inscription of two lines, showing the
bounds of the two countries that meet there. On the east side the
inscription is,-"Peloponnesus there, Ionia here," And on the west
side,-"Peloponnesus here, Ionia there."
He also instituted the games, in emulation of Hercules, being
ambitious that as the Greeks, by that hero's appointment,
celebrated the Olympian games to the honor of Jupiter, so, by his
institution, they should celebrate the Isthmian to the honor of
Neptune. At the same time he made an agreement with the
Corinthians, that they should allow those that came from Athens to
the celebration of the Isthmian games as much space of honor
before the rest to behold the spectacle in as the sail of the ship
that brought them thither, stretched to its full extent, could
cover; so Hellenicus and Andro of Halicarnassus have established.
Concerning his voyage into the Euxine Sea, Philochorus and some
others write that he made it with Hercules, offering him his
service in the war against the Amazons, and had Antiope given him
for the reward of his valor; but the greater number, of whom are
Pherecides, Hellanicus, and Herodorus, with a navy under his own
command, and took the Amazon prisoner,--the more probable story,
for we do not read that any other, of all those that accompanied
him in this action, took any Amazon prisoner. Bion adds, that, to
take her, he had to use deceit and fly away; for the Amazons, he
says, being naturally lovers of men, were so far from avoiding
Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, that they sent him
presents to his ship; but he, having invited Antiope, who brought
them, to come aboard, immediately set sail and carried her away.
An author named Menecrates, that wrote the History of Nicaea in
Bithynia, adds, that Theseus, having Antiope aboard his vessel,
cruised for some time about those coasts, and that there were in
the same ship three young men of Athens, that accompanied him in
his voyage, all brothers, whose names were Euneos, Thoas, and
Soloon. The last of these fell desperately in love with Antiope;
and escaping the notice of the rest, revealed the secret only to
one of his most intimate acquaintance, and employed him to
disclose his passion to Antiope. She rejected his pretences with a
very positive denial, yet treated the matter with much gentleness
and discretion, and made no complaint to Theseus of anything that
had happened; but Soloon, the thing being desperate, leaped into a
river near the seaside and drowned himself. As soon as Theseus was
aquainted with his death, and his unhappy love that was the cause
of it, he was extremely distressed, and, in the height of his
grief, an oracle which he had formerly received at Delphi came
into his mind; for he had been commanded by the priestess of
Apollo Pythius, that, wherever in a strange land he was most
sorrowful and under the greatest affliction, he should build a
city there, and leave some of his followers to be governors of the
place. For this cause he there founded a city, which he called,
from the name of Apollo, Pythopolis, and, in honor of the
unfortunate youth, he named the river that runs by it Soloon, and
left the two surviving brothers intrusted with the care of the
government and laws, joining with them Hermus, one of the nobility
of Athens, from whom a place in the city is called the House of
Hermus; though by an error in the accent it has been taken for the
House of Hermes, or Mercury, and the honor that was designed to
the hero, transferred to the god.
This was the origin and cause of the Amazonian invasion of Attica,
which would seem to have been no slight or womanish enterprise.
For it is impossible that they should have placed their camp in
the very city, and joined battle close by the Pnyx and the hill
called Museum, unless, having first conquered the country round
about, they had thus with impunity advanced to the city. That they
made so long a journey by land, and passed the Cimmerian Bosphorus
when frozen, as Hellanicus writes, is difficult to be believed.
That they encamped all but in the city is certain, and may be
sufficiently confirmed by the names that the places thereabout yet
retain, and the graves and the monuments of those that fell the
battle. Both armies being in sight, there was a long pause and
doubt on each side which should give the first onset; at last
Theseus, having sacrificed to Fear, in obedience to the command of
an oracle he had received, gave them battle, in which action a
great number of the Amazons were slain. At length, after four
months, a peace was concluded between them by the mediation of
Hippolyta (for so this historian calls the Amazon whom Theseus
married, and not Antiope), though others write that she was slain
with a dart by Molpadia, while fighting by Theseus's side, and
that the pillar which stands by the temple of Olympian Earth was
erected to her honor. Nor is it to be wondered at, that in events
of such antiquity, history should be in disorder. This is as much
as is worth telling concerning the Amazons.
The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to
have been begun as follows: The fame of the strength and valor of
Theseus being spread through Greece, Pirithous was desirous to
make a trial and proof of it himself, and to this end seized a
herd of oxen which belonged to Theseus, and was driving them away
from Marathon, and, when news was brought that Theseus pursued him
in arms, he did not fly, but turned back and went to meet him. But
as soon as they had viewed one another, each so admired the
gracefulness and beauty, and was seized with such a respect for
the courage of the other, that they forgot all thoughts of
fighting; and Pirithous, first stretching out his hand to Theseus,
bade him be judge in this case himself, and promised to submit
willingly to any penalty he should impose. But Theseus not only
forgave him all, but entreated him to be his friend and brother in
arms; and they ratified their friendship by oaths. After this
Pirithous married Deidamia, and invited Theseus to the wedding,
entreating him to come and see his country, and make acquaintance
with the Lapithae; he had at the same time invited the Centaurs to
the feast, who, growing hot with wine and beginning to be insolent
and wild, the Lapithae took immediate revenge upon them, slaying
many of them upon the place, and afterwards, having overcome them
in battle, drove the whole race of them out of their country,
Theseus all along taking the part of the Lapithae, and fighting on
their side.
Theseus was now fifty years old, as Hellanicus states, when he
carried off Helen, who was yet too young to be married. Some
writers, to take away this accusation of one of the greatest
crimes laid to his charge, say that he did not steal away Helen
himself, but that Idas and Lynceus brought her to him, and
committed her to his charge, and that, therefore, he refused to
restore her at the demand of Castor and Pollux; or, indeed, they
say her own father, Tyndarus, had sent her to be kept by him, for
fear of Enarophorus, the son of Hippocoon, who would have carried
her away by force when she was yet a child. But the most probable
account, and that which has witnesses on its side, is this:
Theseus and Pirithous went both together to Sparta, and, having
seized the young lady as she was dancing in the temple of Diana
Orthia, fled away with her. There were presently men in arms sent
to pursue, but they followed no farther than to Tegea; and Theseus
and Pirithous being now out of danger, having passed through
Peloponnesus, made an agreement between themselves, that he to
whom the lot should fall should have Helen to his wife, but should
be obliged to assist in procuring another for his friend. The lot
fell upon Theseus, who conveyed her to Aphidnae, not being yet
marriageable, and delivered her to one of his allies, called
Aphidnus, and having sent his mother, Aethra, after to take care
of her, desired him to keep them so secretly that none might know
where they were; which done, to return the same service to his
friend Pirithous, he accompanied him in his journey to Epirus, in
order to steal away the king of the Molossians' daughter. The
king, his own name being Aidoneus, or Pluto, called his wife
Proserpina, and his daughter Cora, and a great dog which he kept
Cerberus, with whom he ordered all that came as suitors to his
daughter to fight, and promised her to him that should overcome
the beast. But having been informed that the design of Pirithous
and his companion was not to court his daughter, but to force her
away, he caused them both to be seized, and threw Pirithous to be
torn to pieces by the dog, and put Theseus into prison, and kept
him.
About this time Menetheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus,
and great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded
to have affected popularity and ingratiated himself with the
multitude, stirred up and exasperated the most eminent men of the
city, who had long borne a secret grudge to Theseus, conceiving
that he had robbed them of their several little kingdoms and
lordships, and, having pent them all up in one city, was using
them as his subjects and slaves. He put also the meaner people
into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere dream of
liberty, though indeed they were deprived both of that and their
proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and
gracious kings of their own, they had given themselves up to be
lorded over by a newcomer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus
busied in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor
and Pollux brought against Athens came very opportunity to farther
the sedition he had been promoting, and some say that he by his
persuasions was wholly the cause of their invading the city. At
their first approach they committed no acts of hostility, but
peaceably demanded their sister Helen; but the Athenians returning
answer that they neither had her nor knew where she was disposed
of, they prepared to assault the city, when Academus, having, by
whatever means, found it out, disclosed to them that she was
secretly kept at Aphidnea. For which reason he was both highly
honored during his life by Castor and Pollux, and the
Lacedaemonians, when often in after times they made excursions
into Attica, and destroyed all the country round about, spared the
Academy for the sake of Academus.
Hercules, passing by the Molossians, was entertained in his way by
Aidoneus the king, who, in conversation, accidentally spoke of the
journey of Theseus and Pirithous into his country, of what they
had designed to do, and what they were forced to suffer. Hercules
was much grieved for the inglorious death of the one and the
miserable condition of the other. As for Pirithous, he thought it
useless to complain; but begged to have Theseus released for his
sake, and obtained that favor from the king. Theseus, being thus
set at liberty, returned to Athens, where his friends were not
wholly suppressed, and dedicated to Hercules all the sacred places
which the city had set apart for himself, changing their names
from Thesea to Herculea, four only excepted, as Philochorus
writes. And wishing immediately to resume the first place in the
commonwealth, and manage the state as before, he soon found
himself involved in factions and troubles; those who long had
hated him had now added to their hatred contempt; and the minds of
the people were so generally corrupted, that, instead of obeying
commands with silence, they expected to be flattered into their
duty. He had some thoughts to have reduced them by force, but was
overpowered by demagogues and factions. And at last, despairing of
any good success of his affairs in Athens, he sent away his
children privately to Euboea, commending them to the care of
Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon; and he himself, having solemnly
cursed the people of Athens in the village of Gargettus, in which
there yet remains the place called Araterion, or the place of
cursing, sailed to Scyros, where he had lands left him by his
father, and friendship, as he thought, with those of the island.
Lycomedes was then king of Scyros. Theseus, therefore, addressed
himself to him, and desired to have his lands put into his
possession, as designing to settle and dwell there, though others
say that he came to beg his assistance against the Athenians. But
Lycomedes, either jealous of the glory of so great a man, or to
gratify Menestheus, having led him up to the highest cliff of the
island, on pretense of showing him from thence the lands that he
desired, threw him headlong down from the rock and killed him.
Others say he fell down of himself by a slip of his foot, as he
was walking there, according to his custom, after supper. At that
time there was no notice taken, nor were any concerned for his
death, but Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens. His
sons were brought up in a private condition, and accompanied
Elephenor to the Trojan war, but, after the decease of Menestheus
in that expedition, returned to Athens, and recovered the
government. But in succeeding ages, beside several other
circumstances that moved the Athenians to honor Theseus as a
demigod, in the battle which was fought at Marathon against the
Medes, many of the soldiers believed they saw an apparition of
Theseus in arms, rushing on at the head of them against the
barbarians. And after the Median war, Phaedo being archon of
Athens, the Athenians, consulting the oracle at Delphi, were
commanded to gather together the bones of Theseus, and, laying
them in some honorable place, keep them as sacred in the city. But
it was very difficult to recover these relics, or so much as to
find out the place where they lay, on account of the inhospitable
and savage temper of the barbarous people that inhabited the
island. Nevertheless, afterwards, when Cimon took the island (as
is related in his life), and had a great ambition to find the
place where Theseus was buried, he, by chance, spied an eagle upon
a rising ground pecking with her beak and tearing up the earth
with her talons, when on the sudden it came into his mind, as it
were by some divine inspiration, to dig there, and search for the
bones of Theseus. There were found in that place a coffin of a man
of more than ordinary size, and a brazen spear-head, and a sword
lying by it, all which he took aboard his galley and brought with
him to Athens. Upon which the Athenians, greatly delighted, went
out to meet and receive the relics with splendid procession and
with sacrifices, as if it were Theseus himself returning alive to
the city. He lies interred in the middle of the city, near the
present gymnasium. His tomb is a sanctuary and refuge for slaves,
and all those of mean condition that fly from the persecution of
men in power, in memory that Theseus while he lived was an
assister and protector of the distressed, and never refused the
petitions of the afflicted that fled to him. The chief and most
solemn sacrifice which they celebrate to him is kept on the eighth
day of Pyanepsion, on which he returned with the Athenian young
men from Crete. Besides which, they sacrifice to him on the eighth
day of every month, either because he returned from Troezen the
eighth day of Hecatombaeon, as Diodorus the geographer writes, or
else thinking that number to be proper to him, because he was
reputed to be born of Neptune, because they sacrifice to Neptune
on the eighth day of every month. The number eight being the first
cube of an even number, and the double of the first square, seemed
to be am emblem of the steadfast and immovable power of this god,
who from thence has the names of Asphalius and Gaeiochus, that is,
the establisher and stayer of the earth.
Return to
©2013 About.com. All rights reserved. | |
