rakles to the Euxine, took part in the campaign against
the Amazons, and received Antiope as the reward for his valour; but most
historians, among whom are Pherekydes, Hellanikus, and Herodorus, say
that Theseus made an expedition of his own later than that of Herakles,
and that he took the Amazon captive, which is a more reasonable story.
For no one of his companions is said to have captured an Amazon; while
Bion relates that he caught this one by treachery and carried her off;
for the Amazons, he says, were not averse to men, and did not avoid
Theseus when he touched at their coast, but even offered him presents.
He invited the bearer of these on board his ship; and when she had
embarked he set sail. But one, Menekrates, who has written a history of
the town of Nikaea in Bithynia, states that Theseus spent a long time in
that country with Antiope, and that there were three young Athenians,
brothers, who were his companions in arms, by name Euneon, Thoas, and
Soloeis. Soloeis fell in love with Antiope, and, without telling his
brothers, confided his passion to one of his comrades. This man laid the
matter before Antiope, who firmly rejected his pretensions, but treated
him quietly and discreetly, telling Theseus nothing about it. Soloeis,
in despair at his rejection, leaped into a river and perished; and
Theseus then at length learned the cause of the young man's death. In
his sorrow he remembered and applied to himself an oracle he had
received from Delphi. It had been enjoined upon him by the Pythia that
whenever he should be struck down with special sorrow in a foreign land,
he should found a city in that place and leave some of his companions
there as its chiefs. In consequence of this the city which he founded
was called Pythopolis, in honour of the Pythian Apollo, and the
neighbouring river was called Soloeis, after the youth who died in it.
He left there the brothers of Soloeis as the chiefs and lawgivers of the
new city, and together, with them one Hermus, an Athenian Eupatrid. In
consequence of this, the people of Pythopolis call a certain place in
their city the house of Hermes, by a mistaken accentuation transferring
the honour due to their founder, to their god Hermes.

XXVII. This was the origin of the war with the Amazons; and it seems to
have been carried on in no feeble or womanish spirit, for they never
could have encamped in the city nor have fought a battle close to the
Pnyx and the Museum unless they