CASTOR AND POLLUX.

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into the world inclosed in an egg: the common story is that Leda had two eggs, one inclosing Pollux and Helen, the children of Jupiter, and the other Castor and Clytemnestra, of whom Tyndarus was the father: Pollux became exceedingly expert in wrestling and the use of the cestus, and Castor in horsemanship.

It is related of Pollux that he received from his father the gift of immortality, though most of the Demigods were subject to death like mere men: Castor was killed in battle, and Pollux loved him so tenderly that he continually importuned Jupiter to restore him to life: Jupiter at length consented that they should live and die by turns, and thus divide the gift of immortality between them: accordingly they live and die alternately every day, or as other accounts say, every six months: they seem however to have vanished from the earth before the disastrous adventures of their sister Helen and the siege of Troy, and their life is therefore probably as signs in heaven under the name of Gemini: in the belt of the zodiac they are delineated side by side, mounted on horseback: and under this figure they are represented by the Romans as sometimes appearing in their armies, turning the tide of battle in favour of the republic".

• Hom. Od. A. 229. Schol. in Od. λ. 297. Apollodorus, iii. 10. Pind. Nem. x. 113 et seqq. Hom. Il. y. 243.

Plut. in Coriolan.

CHAP. XXVII.

OF THESEUS.

Egeus, King of Athens.-The Pallantides, his Nephews. -Egeus consults Pittheus.-Birth of Theseus.-Bred at Troezene.-His Adventures with Corynetes, Sinnis, and other Robbers.-The Bed of Proerustes.-Medea attempts to poison Theseus.-Theseus kills the Minotaur, and Delivers his Country.-Egeus casts himself into the Sea.-Rivalship of Ariadne and Phædra for the Love of Theseus.-Ariadne becomes the Wife of Bacchus.-Friendship of Theseus and Pirithous.-Marriage of Pirithous.-Battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha.-Theseus and Pirithous descend into Hell.-Phædra causes Theseus to murder Hippolitus, his Son.

THE most eminent of the Demigods of Greece after Bacchus and Hercules, is Theseus: he was king of Athens, and was the first governor of that city who divided the people into tribes, and gave a regular and civilised form to the state: the gratitude of his countrymen exalted him into a Demigod, and their refinement and genius have conferred uncommon lustre upon the events of his story: I have before observed that the temple of Theseus was one of the richest and most magnificent that Athens contained: he is also understood to have been one of the Argonauts, though some particulars of his life seem to be inconsistent with that supposition.

w Plut. in Thes. Diodor. iv. 59.

BIRTH OF THESEUS.

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Ægeus, king of Athens, had a brother named Pallas, the father of fifty sons: Egeus had himself no children: the children of Pallas, as they grew up, had the folly and wickedness to insult Ægeus upon his misfortune in not being a father, and to hint to him that they set no great value on his favour, since, let him think of it as he would, Athens and its throne would infallibly be theirs, whenever he died.

Egeus could ill digest the rudeness of these striplings, who did every thing but shove him from his throne; and was very desirous to have a son by whose means to quash their fond expectations: he consulted the oracle on the subject, which returned him a very obscure answer; and in his way back he visited the court of Pittheus king of Trozene, the brother of Atreus and Thyestes: Pittheus was supposed to be the deepest politician of his time: he privately married his daughter Æthra to Egeus, but would not send her to Athens, lest the impious sons of Pallas might find secret means of destroying the mother and her child when born: Ægeus, when he took leave of his bride, led her into a neighbouring field, and placing a sword and a pair of sandals in a hole he had dug for that purpose, covered them with a stone so huge that no common man could move it: he bade her, if she had a son, to send him to Athens with that sword and those sandals, as soon as he should be strong enough to remove the stone that covered them, but in the mean time carefully to conceal his parentage: this was a project suggested by Pittheus.

As the parentage of Theseus (such was the name of the son that was born), was not to be divulged, his mother gave out that Neptune was

252

ADVENTURES OF THESEUS.

his father: but, contrary to the custom of the Grecian heroes, Theseus, when he came home to Athens, laid aside this pretence, and was careful for the most part to call himself the son of Ægeus.

When Theseus was sixteen years of age, Æthra led him into the field before mentioned, revealed to him the secret of his birth, and caused him to remove the stone, and to set out with the sword and sandals for Athens.

:

Before he went, Pittheus gave him his last advice like a careful grandfather, he recommended to him to take the safest road, which he said was by sea: Hercules, he added, had for a time. cleared Greece of robbers, monsters, and wild beasts but now Hercules was absent, the roads were as much infested as ever: at the name of Hercules the youthful courage of Theseus took fire: he intreated his grandfather to let him go by land: "Consider, sir," said he, I go to claim a crown my birth is unknown; my rights are disputed: what figure shall I make, an untried stripling, before the insolent sons of my uncle Pallas? no; my desire is, to enter my father's capital, with trophies in my hand more expressive of my birth, and affirmative of my pretensions, than even the sword and sandals which my mother Ætbra has given me:" Pittheus yielded to the ardent spirit of the hero.

Many and critical were the adventures to which Theseus was exposed between Trozene and Athens, but he came out victorious from them all: he killed Corynetes, a robber, the son of Vulcan, famous for the terrible club he bore, not far from Træezene: his next encounter was with Sinnis, a cruel outlaw, who tied all strangers he could

BED OF PROCRUSTES.

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catch to the heads of two tall pines, which he bent together for that purpose and then let go, by means of which the unfortunate victims were torn in pieces: Theseus tied him to his own pines, and put him to the death he had inflicted on so many others: his third exploit was the killing Phæa, the sow of Crommyon near Corinth, mother to the wild boar of Calydon: according to other accounts Phæa was a female robber, who first enticed travellers by courtship into her den, and then murdered them: the fourth adventure of Theseus was the destruction of Sciron, a giant, who first compelled his aptives to wash his feet, and then hurled them from a high rock into the sea: his fifth adventure was the death of Cercy on, the son of Vulcan, and king of Eleusis, who compelled all strangers to wrestle with him, and had hitherto conquered and killed all he encountered: Theseus defeated him in wrestling, and then put him to death: the last and most celebrated exploit of the Athenian hero in this journey, was against Procrust a cruel tyrant, who with mock hospitality, invited every stranger to sleep under his roof and then placing them upon his own bed, if it proved too long, stretched them with pullies, and dislocated their joints, till he had drawn them out to the requisite stature, and if it was too short, chopped off their feet, and part of their legs, till he had brought them to his own size: Theseus destroyed this monster.

With the club of Corynetes, the bed of Procrustes, and the other trophies of his valour, Theseus entered the city of Athens: it is said that Medea had by this time married Egeus: this is inconsistent with Theseus's being one of the Argonauts: both cannot be true.