again. He wanted this
young man to be his comrade in dangers and upon quests. And Peirithous
looked upon Theseus, and he felt that he was greater and nobler than he
had thought. They became friends and sworn brothers, and together they
went into far countries.

Now there was in Epirus a savage king who had a very fair daughter. He
had named this daughter Persephone, naming her thus to show that she
was held as fast by him as that other Persephone was held who ruled in
the Underworld. No man might see her, and no man might wed her. But
Peirithous had seen the daughter of this king, and he desired above all
things to take her from her father and make her his wife. He begged
Theseus to help him enter that king's palace and carry off the maiden.

So they came to Epirus, Theseus and Peirithous, and they entered the
king's palace, and they heard the bay of the dread hound that was there
to let no one out who had once come within the walls. Suddenly the
guards of the savage king came upon them, and they took Theseus and
Peirithous and they dragged them down into dark dungeons.

Two great chairs of stone were there, and Theseus and Peirithous were
left seated in them. And the magic powers that were in the chairs of
stone were such that the heroes could not lift themselves out of them.
There they stayed, held in the great stone chairs in the dungeons of
that savage king.

Then it so happened that Heracles came into the palace of the king. The
harsh king feasted Heracles and abated his savagery before him. But he
could not forbear boasting of how he had trapped the heroes who had
come to carry off Persephone. And he told how they could not get out of
the stone chairs and how they were held captive in his dark dungeon.
Heracles listened, his heart full of pity for the heroes from Greece
who had met with such a harsh fate. And when the king mentioned that
one of the heroes was Theseus, Heracles would feast no more with him
until he had promised that the one who had been his comrade on the Argo
would be let go.

The king said he would give Theseus his liberty if Heracles would carry
the stone chair on which he was seated out of the dungeon and into the
outer world. Then Heracles went down into the dungeon. He found the two
heroes in the great chairs of stone. But one of them, Peirithous, no
longer breathed. Heracles took the great chair of stone that Theseus
was seated in, and he carried it up, up, from the dungeon and out int