out of danger, having passed through Peloponnesus, made an agreement
between themselves, that he to whom the lot should fall should have
Helen to his wife, but should be obliged to assist in procuring another
for his friend. The lot fell upon Theseus, who conveyed her to Aphidnae,
not being yet marriageable, and delivered her to one of his allies,
called Aphidnus, and having sent his mother, Aethra, after to take care
of her, desired him to keep them so secretly that none might know
where they were; which done, to return the same service to his friend
Pirithous, he accompanied him in his journey to Epirus, in order to
steal away the king of the Molossians' daughter. The king, his own name
being Aidoneus, or Pluto, called his wife Proserpina, and his daughter
Cora, and a great dog which he kept Cerberus, with whom he ordered all
that came as suitors to his daughter to fight, and promised her to him
that should overcome the beast. But having been informed that the design
of Pirithous and his companion was not to court his daughter, but to
force her away, he caused them both to be seized, and threw Pirithous to
be torn to pieces by the dog, and put Theseus into prison, and kept him.

About this time Menetheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and
great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded to have
affected popularity and ingratiated himself with the multitude, stirred
up and exasperated the most eminent men of the city, who had long borne
a secret grudge to Theseus, conceiving that he had robbed them of their
several little kingdoms and lordships, and, having pent them all up in
one city, was using them as his subjects and slaves. He put also the
meaner people into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere
dream of liberty, though indeed they were deprived both of that and
their proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and
gracious kings of their own, they had given themselves up to be
lorded over by a newcomer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus busied
in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor and Pollux
brought against Athens came very opportunity to farther the sedition he
had been promoting, and some say that he by his persuasions was wholly
the cause of their invading the city. At their first approach they
committed no acts of hostility, but peaceably demanded their sister
Helen; but the Athenians returning answer that they neither had her nor
knew where