The turity. Some writers, thinking this one of the heaviest charges against him, endeavour to correct it by saying, that it was not Theseus that carried off Helen, but Idas and Lynceus who committed her to his care: and that therefore he refused to give her up, when demanded by Castor and Pollux; or rather that she was delivered to him by Tyndarus himself, to keep her from Enarsphorus, the son of Hippocöon, who endeavoured to possess himself by violence of her, though then but a child. But what authors generally agree in, as most probable, is as follows: the two friends went together to Sparta, and having seen the girl dancing in the temple of Diana Orthia 8, carried her off and fled. pursuers that were sent after them following no farther than Tegea, they thought themselves secure; and, having traversed Peloponnesus, entered into an agreement, that he who should gain Helen by lot should have her to wife, on condition of assisting to procure a wife for the other. In consequence of these terms, the lots being cast, she fell to Theseus; who received the virgin, and conveyed her, as she was not yet marriageable, to Aphidna. Here he placed his mother with her, aud committed them to the care of his friend Aphidnus, charging him to keep them in the utmost secrecy and safety; whilst, to pay his debt of service to Pirithöus, he himself travelled with him into Epirus, with a view to the daughter of Aïdoneus, king of the Molossi. Upon the altar of this temple the Spartans used to whip their children with the utmost severity, to teach them for titude. Helen, the reputed daughter of Jupiter by Leda the wife of Tyndarus, when thus carried off by Theseus and Pi rithöus, was at the utmost under ten years of age. A city near Athens. * * This prince named his wife Proserpine", his daughter Coré, and his dog Cerberus: with this dog he commanded all his daughter's suitors to fight, promising her to him that should overcome him. But understanding that Pirithöus came not with an intention to court his daughter, but to carry her off by force, he seized both him and his friend, destroyed Pirithöus immediately by means of his dog, and shut up Theseus in prison. In the mean while Menestheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and great-grandson of Erechtheus, appeared; the first (it is said) that undertook to be a demagogue, and by his eloquence to ingratiate himself with the people. He endeavoured also to exasperate and seduce the nobility, who had but ill borne with Theseus for some time, from the reflection that he had deprived every person of family of his separate government and command, and shut them up together in one city, where he used them as his subjects and slaves. Among the common people he sowed disturbance by telling them that, though they pleased themselves with the dream of liberty, in fact they were robbed of their country and religion; and, instead of many good and native kings, were lorded over by one man, a newcomer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus busily employed, the war declared by the Tyndaridæ greatly helped forward the sedition. Some 90 Proserpine and Coré was the same person, daughter to Aïdoneus, whose wife was named Ceres. Plutarch himself tells us so in his Morals, where he adds that by Proserpine is meant the Moon, whom Pluto, or the God of Darkness, sometimes carries off. Coré, indeed, signifies nothing more than " young woman" or " daughter;" and they might say "a daughter of Epirus," as we say "a daughter of France," or "of Spain." 91 Plato however (Repub. iii.) wishing to screen these "sons of the gods" from such discreditable imputations, rejects this tradition. * plainly affirm, that they were invited by Menestheus to invade the country. At first they did not proceed in a hostile manner, only demanding their sister: but the Athenians answering, that they neither had her among them nor knew where she was, they began their warlike operations. Academus however, finding it out by some means or other, told them she was concealed at Aphidnæ. Hence, not only the Tyndaridæ treated him honourably during his life; but the Lacedemonians, who in after-times often made inroads into Attica, and laid waste all the country besides, spared the Academy for his sake. But Dicæarchus says that Echedemus and Marathus, two Arcadians, being allies to the Tyndaridæ in that war, the place which is now denominated the Academy was, from one of them, first called Echedemy; and that from the other the district of Marathon had it's name, because he freely offered himself, in pursuance of some oracle, to be sacrificed at the head of the army. To Aphidna then they came, where they beat the enemy in a set battle, and afterward took the city and razed it to the ground. There (they tell us) Alycus, the son of Sciron, was slain fighting for Castor and Pollux; and that a certain place, within the territories of Megara, is called Alycus from his having been buried there: and Hereas writes, that Alycus received his death from Theseus's own hand. These verses also are cited, as a proof in point: For bright-hair'd Helen he was slain But it is not probable that Aphidna would have been taken, and his mother made prisoner, had Theseus been present. Aphidnæ, however, was taken, and Athens itself in danger. Menestheus seized this opportunity of persuading the people to receive the Tyndaridæ into the city, and to treat them hospitably; since they only levied war against Theseus, who was the aggressor, and were benefactors and deliverers to the rest of the Athenians. Their behaviour confirmed what he stated; for, though conquerors, they desired only to be admitted to the Mysteries, to which they had no less claim than Hercules 92, since they were equally allied to the city. This request was easily granted them, and they were adopted by Aphidnus, as Hercules was by Pylius. They had also divine honours paid them, with the title of Anakes, which was given them, either on account of the truce [anoche] which they made, or because of their great care that no one should be injured, though there were so many troops in the city (for the phrase anakós echein signifies to keep, or take care of any thing; and for this reason, perhaps, kings are called Anaktes): some again say, they were called Anakes, because of the appearance of their stars; for the Athenians use the words anekas and anekathen instead of and and anothen, that is, above' or on high ".' We are told that Ethra (the mother of Theseus) who was now a prisoner, was carried to Lacedæmon, and thence with Helen to Troy; and that Homer confirms it when, speaking of those that waited upon Helen, he mentions 98 For Castor and Pollux, like him, were sons of Jupiter, from whom the Athenians too pretended to derive their origin. It was necessary, however, that they should be naturalized before they were admitted to the Mysteries; and accordingly they were naturalized by adoption. 93 King of Thespiæ in Baotia. * "Of these M. Ricard prefers the second, as best confirmed by the name given to kings. * The beauteous Clymene, And Ethra born of Pittheus. 95 Others reject this verse, as not Homer's 5; as they do also the story of Munychus, who is said to have been the fruit of a secret commerce between Demophöon and Laodice, and brought up by Æthra at Troy. But Ister, in the thirteenth book of his History of Attica, gives an account of Æthra different from all the rest. He was informed (it seems) that after the battle, in which Alexander or Paris was routed by Achilles and Patroclus in Thessaly near the river Sperchius, Hector took and plundered the city of Træzene, and carried off Ethra, who had been left there. But this is highly improbable. It happened that Hercules, in passing through the country of the Molossi, was entertained by Aïdoneus the king; who accidentally made mention of the bold attempts of Theseus and Pirithöus, and of the manner in which he had punished them when discovered. Hercules was much disturbed to hear of the inglorious death of the one, and the danger of the other. As to Pirithöus however, he thought it vain to make any expostulations; but he begged to have Theseus released, and Aïdoneus granted his request. Theseus, thus set at liberty, returned to Athens, where his party was not yet entirely suppressed: and whatever temples and groves the city had assigned to him, he consecrated 95 It appears indeed scarcely probable, that Helen should have as a waiting-maid one, who was her mother-in-law and had been a queen and yet this story of Æthra's captivity seems not a little corroborated by a picture, which existed at Delphi, where she was to be scen shaven as a slave, and her grandson Demophöon is represented as meditating the means of her deliverance. (Pausan. x. 25.) * |