BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY

THE AGE OF FABLE

OR STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

by Thomas Bulfinch

[1855]

CHAPTER XX

THESEUS – DAEDALUS – CASTOR AND POLLUX

THESEUS

THESEUS was the son of AEgeus, king of Athens, and of AEthra,
daughter of the king of Troezen. He was brought up at Troezen, and
when arrived at manhood was to proceed to Athens and present himself
to his father. AEgeus on parting from AEthra, before the birth of
his son, placed his sword and shoes under a large stone and directed
her to send his son to him when he became strong enough to roll away
the stone and take them from under it. When she thought the time had
come, his mother led Theseus to the stone, and he removed it with ease
and took the sword and shoes. As the roads were infested with robbers,
his grandfather pressed him earnestly to take the shorter and safer
way to his father’s country- by sea; but the youth, feeling in himself
the spirit and the soul of a hero, and eager to signalize himself like
Hercules, with whose fame all Greece then rang, by destroying the
evil-doers and monsters that oppressed the country, determined on
the more perilous and adventurous journey by land.

His first day’s journey brought him to Epidaurus, where dwelt a
man named Periphetes, a son of Vulcan. This ferocious savage always
went armed with a club of iron, and all travellers stood in terror
of his violence. When he saw Theseus approach he assailed him, but
speedily fell beneath the blows of the young hero, who took possession
of his club and bore it ever afterwards as a memorial of his first
victory.

Several similar contests with the petty tyrants and marauders of the
country followed, in all of which Theseus was victorious. One of these
evil-doers was called Procrustes, or the Stretcher. He had an iron
bedstead, on which he used to tie all travellers who fell into his
hands. If they were shorter than the bed, he stretched their limbs
to make them fit it; if they were longer than the bed, he lopped off a
portion. Theseus served him as he had served others.

Having overcome all the perils of the road, Theseus at length
reached Athens, where new dangers awaited him. Medea, the sorceress,
who had fled from Corinth after her separation from Jason, had
become the wife of AEgeus, the father of Theseus. Knowing by her
arts who he was, and fearing the loss of her influence with her
husband if Theseus should be acknowledged as his son, she filled the
mind of AEgeus with suspicions of the young stranger, and induced
him to present him a cup of poison; but at the moment when Theseus
stepped forward to take it, the sight of the sword which he wore
discovered to his father who he was, and prevented the fatal
draught. Medea, detected in her arts, fled once more from deserved
punishment, and arrived in Asia, where the country afterwards called
Media, received its name from her. Theseus was acknowledged by his
father, and declared his successor.

The Athenians were at that time in deep affliction, on account of
the tribute which they were forced to pay to Minos, king of Crete.
This tribute consisted of seven youths and seven maidens, who were
sent every year to be devoured by the Minotaur, a monster with a
bull’s body and a human head. It was exceedingly strong and fierce,
and was kept in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalus, so artfully
contrived that whoever was enclosed in it could by no means find his
way out unassisted. Here the Minotaur roamed, and was fed with human
victims.

Theseus resolved to deliver his countrymen from this calamity, or to
die in the attempt. Accordingly, when the time of sending off the
tribute came, and the youths and maidens were, according to custom,
drawn by lot to be sent, he offered himself as one of the victims,
in spite of the entreaties of his father. The ship departed under
black sails, as usual, which Theseus promised his father to change for
white, in case of his returning victorious. When they arrived in
Crete, the youths and maidens were exhibited before Minos; and
Ariadne, the daughter of the king, being present, became deeply
enamoured of Theseus, by whom her love was readily returned. She
furnished him with a sword, with which to encounter the Minotaur,
and with a clue of thread by which he might find his way out of the
labyrinth. He was successful, slew the Minotaur, escaped from the
labyrinth, and taking Ariadne as the companion of his way, with his
rescued companions sailed for Athens. On their way they stopped at the
island of Naxos, where Theseus abandoned Ariadne, leaving her asleep.*
His excuse for this ungrateful treatment of his benefactress was
that Minerva appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to do so.

* One of the finest pieces of sculpture in Italy, the recumbent
Ariadne of the Vatican, represents this incident. A copy is in the
Athenaeum gallery, Boston.

On approaching the coast of Attica, Theseus forgot the signal
appointed by his father, and neglected to raise the white sails, and
the old king, thinking his son had perished, put an end to his own
life. Theseus thus became king of Athens.

One of the most celebrated of the adventures of Theseus is his
expedition against the Amazons. He assailed them before they had
recovered from the attack of Hercules, and carried off their queen
Antiope. The Amazons in their turn invaded the country of Athens and
penetrated into the city itself; and the final battle in which Theseus
overcame them was fought in the very midst of the city. This battle
was one of the favourite subjects of the ancient sculptors, and is
commemorated in several works of art that are still extant.

The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous was of a most
intimate nature, yet it originated in the midst of arms. Pirithous had
made an irruption into the plain of Marathon, and carried off the
herds of the king of Athens. Theseus went to repel the plunderers. The
moment Pirithous beheld him, he was seized with admiration; he
stretched out his hand as a token of peace, and cried, “Be judge
thyself- what satisfaction dost thou require?” “Thy friendship,”
replied the Athenian, and they swore inviolable fidelity. Their
deeds corresponded to their professions, and they ever continued
true brothers in arms. Each of them aspired to espouse a daughter of
Jupiter. Theseus fixed his choice on Helen, then but a child,
afterwards so celebrated as the cause of the Trojan war, and with
the aid of his friend he carried her off. Pirithous aspired to the
wife of the monarch of Erebus; and Theseus, though aware of the
danger, accompanied the ambitious lover in his descent to the
underworld. But Pluto seized and set them on an enchanted rock at
his palace gate, where they remained till Hercules arrived and
liberated Theseus, leaving Pirithous to his fate.

After the death of Antiope, Theseus married Phaedra, daughter of
Minos, king of Crete. Phaedra saw in Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, a
youth endowed with all the graces and virtues of his father, and of an
age corresponding to her own. She loved him, but he repulsed her
advances, and her love was changed to hate. She used her influence
over her infatuated husband to cause him to be jealous of his son, and
he imprecated the vengeance of Neptune upon him. As Hippolytus was one
day driving his chariot along the shore, a sea-monster raised
himself above the waters, and frightened the horses so that they ran
away and dashed the chariot to pieces. Hippolytus was killed, but by
Diana’s assistance AEsculapius restored him to life. Diana removed
Hippolytus from the power of his deluded father and false
stepmother, and placed him in Italy under the protection of the
nymph Egeria.

Theseus at length lost the favour of his people, and retired to
the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros, who at first received him
kindly, but afterwards treacherously slew him. In a later age the
Athenian general Cimon discovered the place where his remains were
laid, and caused them to be removed to Athens, where they were
deposited in a temple called the Theseum, erected in honour of the
hero.

The queen of the Amazons whom Theseus espoused is by some called
Hippolyta. That is the name she bears in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer
Night’s Dream,”- the subject of which is the festivities attending the
nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta.

Mrs. Hemans has a poem on the ancient Greek tradition that the
“Shade of Theseus” appeared strengthening his countrymen at the battle
of Marathon.

Theseus is a semi-historical personage. It is recorded of him that
he united the several tribes by whom the territory of Attica was
then possessed into one state, of which Athens was the capital. In
commemoration of this important event, he instituted the festival of
Panathenaea, in honour of Minerva, the patron deity of Athens. This
festival differed from the other Grecian games chiefly in two
particulars. It was peculiar to the Athenians, and its chief feature
was a solemn procession in which the Peplus, or sacred robe of
Minerva, was carried to the Parthenon, and suspended be, fore the
statue of the goddess. The Peplus was covered with embroidery,
worked by select virgins of the noblest families in Athens. The
procession consisted of persons of all ages and both sexes. The old
men carried olive branches in their hands, and the young men bore
arms. The young women carried baskets on their heads, containing the
sacred utensils, cakes, and all things necessary for the sacrifices.
The procession formed the subject of the bas-reliefs which embellished
the outside of the temple of the Parthenon. A considerable portion
of these sculptures is now in the British Museum among those known
as the “Elgin marbles.”

OLYMPIC AND OTHER GAMES

It seems not inappropriate to mention here the other celebrated
national games of the Greeks. The first and most distinguished were
the Olympic, founded, it was said, by Jupiter himself. They were
celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectators flocked to
them from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa and Sicily. They
were repeated every fifth year in midsummer, and continued five
days. They gave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events
by Olympiads. The first Olympiad is generally considered as
corresponding with the year 776 B.C. The Pythian games were celebrated
in the vicinity of Delphi, the Isthmian on the Corinthian Isthmus, the
Nemean at Nemea, a city of Argolis.

The exercises in these games were of five sorts: running, leaping,
wrestling, throwing the quoit, and hurling the javelin, or boxing.
Besides these exercises of bodily strength and agility there were
contests in music, poetry and eloquence. Thus these games furnished
poets, musicians and authors the best opportunities to present their
productions to the public, and the fame of the victors was diffused
far and wide.

DAEDALUS

The labyrinth from which Theseus escaped by means of the clew of
Ariadne was built by Daedalus, a most skilful artificer. It was an
edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings opening into one
another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like the river
Maeander, which returns on itself, and flows now onward, now backward,
in its course to the sea. Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos,
but afterwards lost the favour of the king, and was shut up in a
tower. He contrived to make his escape from his prison, but could
not leave the island by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all
the vessels, and permitted none to sail without being carefully
searched. “Minos may control the land and sea,” said Daedalus, “but
not the regions of the air. I will try that way.” So he set to work to
fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus. He wrought
feathers together, beginning with the smallest and adding larger, so
as to form an increasing surface. The larger ones he secured with
thread and the smaller with wax, and gave the whole a gentle curvature
like the wings of a bird. Icarus, the boy, stood and looked on,
sometimes running to gather up the feathers which the wind had blown
away, and then handling the wax and working it over with his
fingers, by his play impeding his father in his labours. When at
last the work was done, the artist, waving his wings, found himself
buoyed upward, and hung suspended, poising himself on the beaten
air. He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to
fly, as a bird tempts her young ones from the lofty nest into the air.
When all was prepared for flight he said, “Icarus, my son, I charge
you to keep at a moderate height, for if you fly too low the damp will
clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt them. Keep near me
and you will be safe.” While he gave him these instructions and fitted
the wings to his shoulders, the face of the father was wet with tears,
and his hands trembled. He kissed the boy, not knowing that it was for
the last time. Then rising on his wings, he flew off, encouraging
him to follow, and looked back from his own flight to see how his
son managed his wings. As they flew the ploughman stopped his work
to gaze, aid the shepherd leaned on his staff and watched them,
astonished at the sight, and thinking they were gods who could thus
cleave the air.

They passed Samos and Delos on the left and Lebynthos on the
right, when the boy, exulting in his career, began to leave the
guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven. The
nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers
together, and they came off. He fluttered with his arms, but no
feathers remained to hold the air. While his mouth uttered cries to
his father it was submerged in the blue waters of the sea which
thenceforth was called by his name. His father cried, “Icarus, Icarus,
where are you?” At last he saw the feathers floating on the water, and
bitterly lamenting his own arts, he buried the body and called the
land Icaria in memory of his child. Daedalus arrived safe in Sicily,
where he built a temple to Apollo, and hung up his wings, an
offering to the god.

Daedalus was so proud of his achievements that he could not bear the
idea of a rival. His sister had placed her son Perdix under his charge
to be taught the mechanical arts. He was an apt scholar and gave
striking evidences of ingenuity. Walking on the seashore he picked
up the spine of a fish. Imitating it, he took a piece of iron and
notched it on the edge, and thus invented the saw. He, put two
pieces of iron together, connecting them at one end with a rivet,
and sharpening the other ends, and made a pair of compasses.
Daedalus was so envious of his nephew’s performances that he took an
opportunity, when they were together one day on the top of a high
tower to push him off. But Minerva, who favours ingenuity, saw him
falling, and arrested his fate by changing him into a bird called
after his name, the Partridge. This bird does not build his nest in
the trees, nor take lofty flights, but nestles in the hedges, and
mindful of his fall, avoids high places.

The death of Icarus is told in the following lines by Darwin:

“…with melting wax and loosened strings
Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings;
Headlong he rushed through the affrighted air,
With limbs distorted and dishevelled hair;
His scattered plumage danced upon the wave,
And sorrowing Nereids decked his watery grave;
O’er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,
And strewed with crimson moss his marble bed;
Struck in their coral towers the passing bell,
And wide in ocean tolled his echoing knell.”

CASTOR AND POLLUX

Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda and the Swan, under
which disguise Jupiter had concealed himself. Leda gave, birth to an
egg from which sprang the twins. Helen, so famous afterwards as the
cause of the Trojan war, was their sister.

When Theseus and his friend Pirithous had carried off Helen from
Sparta, the youthful heroes, Castor and Pollux, with their
followers, hastened to her rescue. Theseus was absent from Attica
and the brothers were successful in recovering their sister.

Castor was famous for taming and managing horses, and Pollux for
skill in boxing. They were united by the warmest affection and
inseparable in all their enterprises. They accompanied the
Argonautic expedition. During the voyage a storm arose, and Orpheus
prayed to the Samothracian gods, and played on his harp, whereupon the
storm ceased and stars appeared on the heads of the brothers. From
this incident, Castor and Pollux came afterwards to be considered
the patron deities of seamen and voyagers, and the lambent flames,
which in certain states of the atmosphere play round the sails and
masts of vessels, were called by their names.

After the Argonautic expedition, we find Castor and Pollux engaged
in a war with Idas and Lynceus. Castor was slain, and Pollux,
inconsolable for the loss of his brother, besought Jupiter to be
permitted to give his own life as a ransom for him. Jupiter so far
consented as to allow the two brothers to enjoy the boon of life
alternately, passing one day under the earth and the next in the
heavenly abodes. According to another form of the story, Jupiter
rewarded the attachment of the brothers by placing them among the
stars as Gemini the Twins.

They received divine honours under the name of Dioscuri (sons of
Jove). They were believed to have appeared occasionally in later
times, taking part with one side or the other, in hard-fought
fields, and were said on such occasions to be mounted on magnificent
white steeds. Thus in the early history of Rome they are said to
have assisted the Romans at the battle of Lake Regillus, and after the
victory a temple was erected in their honour on the spot where they
appeared.

Macaulay, in his “Lays of Ancient Rome,” thus alludes to the legend:

“So like they were, no mortal
Might one from other know;
White as snow their armour was,
Their steeds were white as snow.
Never on earthly anvil
Did such rare armour gleam,
And never did such gallant steeds
Drink of an earthly stream.

“Back comes the chief in triumph
Who in the hour of fight
Hath seen the great twin Brethren
In harness on his right.
Safe comes the ship to haven,
Through billows and through gales,
If once the great Twin Brethren
Sit shining on the sails.”