left wing of the Athenians, which charged from the Palladium, Ardettus "9, and the Lyceum, drove the right wing of the enemy to their camp, and slew many of them; and that after four months, a peace was concluded by means of Hippolyte (for so this author calls the Amazon who lived with Theseus, not Antiope): but some say this heroine fell fighting by Theseus's side, being pierced with a dart by Molpadia, and that a pillar, by the temple of the Olympian Earth 0, was set up over her grave. Nor is it to be regarded as matter of wonder that, in the account of things so very ancient, history should be thus uncertain; since we are told that some Amazons, wounded by Antiope, were privately sent to Chalcis to be cured, and that some were buried there at a place now called Amazonium. But that the war was ended by a league, we may assuredly gather from a place called Horcomosium, near the temple of Theseus, where it was ratified by oaths; as well as from an ancient sacrifice, which is offered to the Amazons the day before the feast of Theseus. The people of Megara

The Palladium was a court for the trial of murtherers. Ardettus was so named from an Athenian hero, who had quelled the discords of his fellow-citizens, and induced them to bind themselves by an oath to mutual union. Of this oath (called Heliatic) the formula is preserved by Demosthenes (in Timocr.) containing an adjuration of Apollo, Ceres, and Jupiter. Upon the situation of the place where it was admi nistered, and the etymology of it's name, different opinions are entertained. *

By this is meant the moon, so called (as Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Cessation of Oracles, supposes) because, like the Genii or Demons, she is neither so perfect as the gods, nor so imperfect as man. But, as some of the philosophers (we mean the Pythagoreans) had astronomy enough afterward to conclude that the sun is the centre of this system, we presume it might occur to thinking men in the more early ages, that the moon was an opaque, and therefore probably a terrene body, She was sometimes likewise called the Terrestrial Star.

likewise show a place, in the figure of a lozenge, where some Amazons were buried, as you go from the market-place to Rhus. Others also are said to have died by Charonea, and to have been buried by the rivulet, which it seems was formerly called Thermodon, but now Hæmon; of which I have given a farther account in the Life of Demosthenes. It appears too that the Amazons traversed Thessaly, not without opposition; for their sepulchres are shown to this day, between Scotussa and Cynoscephalæ.

This is all that is memorable in the story of the Amazons: for as to what the author of the Theseid relates, of the Amazons rising to take vengeance for Antiope, when Theseus quitted her and married Phædra, and of their being slain by Hercules, it has plainly the air of fable. He married Phædra indeed after the death ofAntiope, having had by the Amazon a son named Hippolytus, or (according to Pindar1) Demophöon. As to the calamities which befel Phædra and Hippolytus, since the historians do not differ from what the writers of tragedy have said of them, we may

st In this Pindar has fallen into a mistake, as Demophoon was one of his sons by Phædra: the other was Acamas. * Theseus, upon his marriage with Phædra, sent Hippolytus to be brought up by his own mother Athra, queen of Træzene: but, he coming afterward to some Athenian games, Phædra fell in love with him; and, having solicited him in vain to a compliance, in a fit of resentment accused him to Theseus of having made an attempt upon her chastity. The fable adds, that Theseus prayed to Neptune to punish him by some violent death; and, all solemn execrations (according to the notions of the heathens) necessarily taking effect, as Hippolytus was riding along the sea-shore, Neptune sent two sea-calves, which frightened the horses, overturned the chariot, and tore him to pieces. The poets subjoin, that the lustful queen hanged herself for grief; but as for Hippolytus, Diana being taken with his chastity, and pitying the sad fate which it had brought upon him, prevailed upon Esculapius to restore him to life, to be a companion of her diversions.

consider them as matters of fact. Some other marriages of Theseus are spoken of (but have not been represented upon the stage) which had neither an honourable beginning, nor a happy conclusion. For he is said to have forcibly carried off Anaxo of Trazene; and, having slain Sinnis and Cercyon, to have committed rapes upon their daughters: to have married Peribaa likewise, the mother of Ajax, and Phereboa, and Iope the daughter of Iphicles. Besides, they charge him with attaching himself to Egle, the daughter of Panopeus (as above related) and for her sake deserting Ariadne, contrary to the rules both of justice and honour; but above all with the rape of Helen, which involved Attica in war, and ended in his banishment and death, of which we shall speak more at large by and by.

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Though there were many expeditions undertaken by the heroes of those times, Herodorus thinks that Theseus was not concerned in any of them, except in assisting the Lapithæ against the Centaurs. Others write, that he attended Jason to Colchos, and Meleager in killing the boar; and that hence came the proverb, Nothing "without Theseus." It is allowed however that Theseus, without any assistance, did himself perform many great exploits; and that these extraordinary instances of his valour gave occasion to the saying, "This man is another Hercules." He assisted Adrastus likewise, in recovering the bodies of those who fell before Thebes; not by defeating the Thebans in battle, as Euripides has it in his tragedy 82, but by persuading them to a

82 This however Isocrates likewise affirms, in his panegyric upon Helen; though in his Panath. he observes, that Theseus sent embassadors to Eteocles: but the apparent contradiction is reconciled by his contemporary Lysias, who relates that Theseus, after an ineffectual attempt at negotiation, had more successful

truce, for so most writers agree; and Philochorus is of opinion, that this was the first truce ever known for burying the dead. But Hercules was, indeed, the first, as we have shown in his Life, who gave up to the enemy their dead. The buryingplace of the common soldiers is to be seen at Eleuthera, and of the officers at Eleusis; in which particular Theseus gratified Adrastus. Eschylus, in whose tragedy of the Eleusiniaus Theseus is introduced relating the matter as above, contradicts what Euripides has delivered in his Suppliants.

The friendship between Theseus and Pirithöus is said to have commenced thus: Theseus being much celebrated for his strength and valour, Pirithöus was desirous to prove it, and therefore drove away his oxen from Marathon: and, when he heard that Theseus pursued him in arms, instead of flying he turned back to meet him. But, as soon as they met, each was so struck with admiration of the other's person and courage, that they laid aside all thoughts of fighting; and Pirithöus, first giving Theseus his hand, bade him be judge in this cause himself, and he would willingly abide by his sentence. Theseus, in his turn, left the cause to him, and desired him to be his friend and fellow-warrior. They then confirmed their friendship with an oath. Pirithöus subsequently marrying Deidamia entreated Theseus to visit his country, and to become acquainted with the Lapitha 5. He had also

83

85

A city of Attica on the confines of Boeotia. (Pausan. i. 38.)* 84 All other writers call her Hippodamia, except Propertius, who calls her Ischomache. (II. ii. 9.) She was the daughter of Adrastus.

85 Homer calls the Lapitha heroes.' The Centaurs are feigned to have been half-men half-horses, either from their brutality, or because (if not the inventors of horsemanship) they generally appeared on horseback.

invited the Centaurs to the entertainment. These in their cups behaving with insolence and indecency, and not even refraining from the women, the Lapithæ rose up in their defence, killed some of the Centaurs upon the spot, and soon afterward beating them in a set battle with the assistance of Theseus drove them out of the country. Herodorus gives a different account of the matter. He says that, hostilities being already begun, Theseus came in aid to the Lapithe, and then had the first sight of Hercules; having made it his business to find him out at Trachin 86 where he reposed himself after all his wanderings and labours; and that this interview passed in marks of great respect, civility, and mutual compliments. But we are rather to follow those historians who write, that they had very frequent interviews; and that by means of Theseus Hercules was initiated into the Mysteries of Ceres, having first obtained lustration, as he desired, on account of several involuntary pollutions.

Theseus was now fifty years old, according to Hellanicus, when he was concerned in the rape of Helen, who had not yet arrived at her ma

86 A small place, near Mount Eta. *

87 Prior to initiation in the Greater Mysteries at Eleusis, a public lustration in the Smaller (celebrated at Agra, near the Ilissus) was indispensably necessary. After preparing himself by fasting and continence, the claimant was made to kneel upon the extended skin of a pregnant sow, which had been previously sacrificed to Jupiter; washed with sea-water, in which had been mingled salt, laurel, and barley; then passed through the fire, and finally crowned with flowers. A subsequent year of noviciate was employed in studying the ceremonies of this new Revelation, to all of which (except a few esoteric ones, reserved for the priesthood) he was fully admitted. He afterward wore the dress, in which he had been initiated, till it dropped in pieces; it was then consecrated to Ceres or Proserpine, or preserved for the use of children. (See Meursius on these particular Mysteries, &c.) *