1.
Third, he slew at Crommyon the sow that was called Phaea after the old woman who bred
it;1 that sow,
some say, was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.
[2]
Fourth, he slew Sciron, the Corinthian, son of Pelops, or, as some say, of Poseidon. He
in the Megarian territory held the rocks called after him Scironian, and compelled
passers-by to wash his feet, and in the act of washing he kicked them into the deep to be
the prey of a huge turtle.
[3]
But Theseus seized him by the
feet and threw him into the sea.2 Fifth, in Eleusis he slew Cercyon, son of Branchus and a nymph
Argiope. This Cercyon compelled passers-by to wrestle, and in wrestling killed them. But
Theseus lifted him up on high and dashed him to the ground.3
[4]
Sixth, he slew Damastes, whom some call Polypemon.4 He had his
dwelling beside the road, and made up two beds, one small and the other big; and offering
hospitality to the passers-by, he laid the short men on the big bed and hammered them, to
make them fit the bed; but the tall men he laid on the little bed and sawed off the
portions of the body that projected beyond it.
So, having cleared the road, Theseus came to Athens.
[5]
But Medea, being then wedded to
Aegeus, plotted against him5 and persuaded Aegeus to beware of
him as a traitor. And Aegeus, not knowing his own son, was afraid and sent him against the
Marathonian bull.
[6]
And when Theseus had killed it, Aegeus
presented to him a poison which he had received the selfsame day from Medea. But just as
the draught was about to be administered to him, he gave his father the sword, and on
recognizing it Aegeus dashed the cup from his hands.6 And when Theseus was thus made known to his father and
informed of the plot, he expelled Medea.
[7]
And he was numbered among those who were to be sent as the third tribute to the Minotaur;
or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily.7 And as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned
alive, to spread white sails on the ship.8
[8]
And when he came to Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously disposed to him, offered
to help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she
besought Daedalus to disclose the way out of the labyrinth.
[9]
And at his suggestion she gave Theseus a clue when he went in; Theseus
fastened it to the door, and, drawing it after him, entered in.9 And having found the
Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed him by smiting him with his fists;
and drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with
Ariadne and the children10 at Naxos.
There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off;11 and having brought her to
Lemnos he enjoyed her, and begat Thoas,
Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.12
[10]
In his grief on account of Ariadne, Theseus forgot to spread white sails on his ship when
he stood for port; and Aegeus, seeing from the acropolis the ship with a black sail,
supposed that Theseus had perished; so he cast himself down and died.13
[11]
But Theseus succeeded to the sovereignty of
Athens, and killed the sons of Pallas, fifty
in number;14
likewise all who would oppose him were killed by him, and he got the whole government to
himself.
[12]
On being apprized of the flight of Theseus and his company, Minos shut up the guilty
Daedalus in the labyrinth, along with his son Icarus, who had been borne to Daedalus by
Naucrate, a female slave of Minos. But Daedalus constructed wings for himself and his son,
and enjoined his son, when he took to flight, neither to fly high, lest the glue should
melt in the sun and the wings should drop off, nor to fly near the sea, lest the pinions
should be detached by the damp.
[13]
But the infatuated
Icarus, disregarding his father's injunctions, soared ever higher, till, the glue melting,
he fell into the sea called after him Icarian, and perished.15 But Daedalus made
his way safely to Camicus in Sicily.
[14]
And Minos pursued Daedalus, and in every country that
he searched he carried a spiral shell and promised to give a great reward to him who
should pass a thread through the shell, believing that by that means he should discover
Daedalus. And having come to Camicus in Sicily,
to the court of Cocalus, with whom Daedalus was concealed, he showed the spiral shell.
Cocalus took it, and promised to thread it, and gave it to Daedalus;
[15]
and Daedalus fastened a thread to an ant, and, having bored a hole in
the spiral shell, allowed the ant to pass through it. But when Minos found the thread
passed through the shell, he perceived that Daedalus was with Cocalus, and at once
demanded his surrender.16 Cocalus promised to surrender him, and made an
entertainment for Minos; but after his bath Minos was undone by the daughters
of Cocalus; some say, however, that he died through being drenched with boiling
water.17
[16]
Theseus joined Hercules in his expedition against the Amazons and carried off Antiope,
or, as some say, Melanippe; but Simonides calls her Hippolyte.18 Wherefore the
Amazons marched against Athens, and having
taken up a position about the Areopagus19 they were vanquished by the Athenians under Theseus. And
though he had a son Hippolytus by the Amazon,
[17]
Theseus afterwards received from Deucalion20 in marriage Phaedra, daughter of Minos; and when her marriage was
being celebrated, the Amazon that had before been
married to him appeared in arms with her Amazons, and threatened to kill the assembled
guests. But they hastily closed the doors and killed her. However, some say that she was
slain in battle by Theseus.
[18]
And Phaedra, after she had
borne two children, Acamas and Demophon, to Theseus, fell in love with the son he had by
the Amazon, to wit, Hippolytus, and besought him
to lie with her. Howbeit, he fled from her embraces, because he hated all women. But
Phaedra, fearing that he might accuse her to his father, cleft open the doors of her
bed-chamber, rent her garments, and falsely charged Hippolytus with an assault.
[19]
Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon that Hippolytus might
perish. So, when Hippolytus was riding in his chariot and driving beside the sea, Poseidon
sent up a bull from the surf, and the horses were frightened, the chariot dashed in pieces, and Hippolytus, entangled in the reins, was dragged to death. And when
her passion was made public, Phaedra hanged herself.21
[20]
Ixion fell in love with Hera and attempted to force her; and when Hera reported it, Zeus,
wishing to know if the thing were so, made a cloud in the likeness of Hera and laid it
beside him; and when Ixion boasted that he had enjoyed the favours of Hera, Zeus bound him
to a wheel, on which he is whirled by winds through the air; such is the penalty he pays.
And the cloud, impregnated by Ixion, gave birth to Centaurus.22
[21]
[22] Caeneus was formerly a woman, but after that Poseidon had intercourse with her, she asked to become an invulnerable man; wherefore in the battle with the centaurs he thought scorn of wounds and killed many of the centaurs; but the rest of them surrounded him and by striking him with fir trees buried him in the earth.24 [23] Having made a compact with Pirithous that they would marry daughters of Zeus, Theseus, with the help of Pirithous, carried off Helen from Sparta for himself, when she was twelve years old,25 and in the endeavor to win Persephone as a bride for Pirithous he went down to Hades. And the Dioscuri, with the Lacedaemonians and Arcadians, captured Athens and carried away Helen, and with her Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, into captivity;26 but Demophon and Acamas fled. And the Dioscuri also brought back Menestheus from exile, and gave him the sovereignty of Athens.27 [24] But when Theseus arrived with Pirithous in Hades, he was beguiled; for, on the pretence that they were about to partake of good cheer, Hades bade them first be seated on the Chair of Forgetfulness, to which they grew and were held fast by coils of serpents. Pirithous, therefore, remained bound for ever, but Hercules brought Theseus up and sent him to Athens.28 Thence he was driven by Menestheus and went to Lycomedes, who threw him down an abyss and killed him.29“ And Theseus allied himself with Pirithous,23 when he engaged in war against the centaurs. For when Pirithous wooed Hippodamia, he feasted the centaurs because they were her kinsmen. But being unaccustomed to wine, they made themselves drunk by swilling it greedily, and when the bride was brought in, they attempted to violate her. But Pirithous, fully armed, with Theseus, joined battle with them, and Theseus killed many of them.
”Zenobius, Cent. v. 33.
