Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/135

 GREEK HEROES 121 designed by Alcamenes in the western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. But in the earlier works, from the seventh century B.C. on, Hercules is the regular opponent of the Centaurs. Together with Pirithotis, Theseus then carried off the youthful Helen from Sparta, and brought her to the mountain stronghold Aphidnae in northern Attica, from which she was afterwards released by her brothers, the Dioscuri. Meanwhile Theseus (prob- ably, according to the older idea, at Hermione) went down into the lower world with his friend to steal Per- sephone for him. Both of them grew fast to a rock at the entrance, but Theseus was afterwards released by Hercules. 157. During the absence of Theseus, Menestheus, who in the Iliad is leader of the Athenians, had usurped the power at Athens. Theseus was therefore compelled, soon after his return from the lower world, to leave the city again. He went to the island Scyros, and was there treach- erously cast into the sea by king Lycomedes. Later, how- ever, Demophoon and Acamas, sons of Phaedra, gained the dominion in Athens. The bones of Theseus, which, it was claimed, had been miraculously discovered, were brought to Athens from Scyros in the year 468 B.C., and interred in a newly erected sanctuary between the gymnasium of Ptolemaeus and the Anakeion. His real worship at Athens began after the opening of the fifth century B.C., when the Ionian democracy came into power. 158. In art Theseus was represented perhaps even as early as the eighth or the seventh century B.C. in battle with the Minotaur, or standing near Ariadne. In works of the sixth century the contests with the bull and the