aped
him by concealing themselves, or had been contemptuously spared by him
on account of their insignificance. But Herakles had the misfortune to
kill Iphitus, and thereupon sailed to Lydia and was for a long time a
slave in that country under Omphale, which condition he had imposed upon
himself as a penance for the murder of his friend. During this period
the country of Lydia enjoyed peace and repose; but in Greece the old
plague of brigandage broke out afresh, as there was now no one to put it
down. So that the journey overland to Athens from Peloponnesus was full
of peril; and Pittheus, by relating to Theseus who each of these
evildoers was, and how they treated strangers, tried to prevail upon him
to go by sea. But it appears that Theseus had for a long time in his
heart been excited by the renown of Herakles for courage: he thought
more of him than of any one else, and loved above all to listen to those
who talked of him, especially if they had seen and spoken to him. Now he
could no longer conceal that he was in the same condition as
Themistokles in later times, when he said that the trophy of Miltiades
would not let him sleep. Just so did the admiration which Theseus
conceived for Herakles make him dream by night of his great exploits,
and by day determine to equal them by similar achievements of his own.

VII. As it happened, they were connected, being second cousins; for
Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, and Alkmena the daughter of
Lysidike, and Lysidike and Pittheus were brother and sister, being the
children of Pelops and Hippodameia. So Theseus thought that it would be
a great and unbearable disgrace to him that his cousin should go
everywhere and clear the sea and land of the brigands who infested them,
and he should refuse to undertake the adventures that came in his way;
throwing discredit upon his reputed father by a pusillanimous flight by
sea, and upon his real father by bringing him only the sandals and an
unfleshed sword, and not proving his noble birth by the evidence of some
brave deed accomplished by him. In this spirit he set out on his
journey, with the intention of doing wrong to no one, but of avenging
himself on any one who offered wrong to him.

VIII. And first in Epidaurus he slew Periphetes, who used a club as his
weapon, and on this account was called the club-bearer, because he laid
hands upon him and forbade him to proceed farther on his way. The club
took his fancy, and he adopted