From Bulfinch's Mythology: Theseus - anthology.

« 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 ofHercules, 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 inwhich 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 inseveral 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 ofMarathon, 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; hestretched 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 sworeinviolable 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[ruler of the gods].

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 hecarried her off.

Pirithous aspired to the wife of the monarch of Erebus [the underworld]; and Theseus, though aware of the danger, accompanied the ambitious loverin his descent to the underworld.

But Pluto [god of the dead] seized and set them on an enchanted rock at his palace gate, where they remained till Hercules arrivedand liberated Theseus, leaving Pirithous to his fate. After the death of Antiope, Theseus married Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete.

Phædra saw in Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, a youth endowed with all thegraces 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 herinfluence 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 daydriving his chariot along the shore, a seamonster 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 Æsculapius restored him to life.

Diana [goddess of the moon and the hunt] removed Hippolytus from the power ofhis 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 treacherouslyslew 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 weredeposited 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 [17th-century English playwright and poet William]Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,'—the subject of which is the festivities attending the nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta. [British poet Felicia] 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, ofwhich Athens was the capital.

In commemoration of this important event, he instituted the festival of Panathenæa, 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 whichthe Peplus, or sacred robe of Minerva, was carried to the Parthenon, and suspended before 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 theirhands, and the young men bore arms.

The young women carried baskets on their heads, containing the sacred utensils, cakes, and all things necessary for thesacrifices.

The procession formed the subject of the bas-reliefs which embellished the outside of the temple of the Parthenon.

A considerable portion of thesesculptures is now in the British Museum among those known as the 'Elgin marbles.'… Ariadne We have seen in the story of Theseus how Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, after helping Theseus to escape from the labyrinth, was carried by him to the islandof Naxos and was left there asleep, while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without her.

Ariadne, on waking and finding herself deserted, abandonedherself to grief.

But Venus took pity on her, and consoled her with the promise that she should have an immortal lover, instead of the mortal one she had lost. The island where Ariadne was left was the favourite island of Bacchus, the same that he wished the Tyrrhenian mariners to carry him to, when they so treacherouslyattempted to make prize of him.

As Ariadne sat lamenting her fate, Bacchus [the god of wine] found her, consoled her, and made her his wife.

As a marriage presenthe gave her a golden crown, enriched with gems, and when she died, he took her crown and threw it up into the sky.

As it mounted the gems grew brighter and wereturned into stars, and preserving its form Ariadne's crown remains fixed in the heavens as a constellation, between the kneeling Hercules and the man who holds the. »