Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/136

 122 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Amazons appear, as well as the rape of Helen. None of the other adventures is to be found until the fifth cen- tury B.C. In the oldest representations his weapon is the sword, and in dress and bodily frame he is still un- distinguished from other heroes. Later, in imitation of the Hercules type, he usually carries a club and often a beast's skin ; but he is distinguished by the headdress of youth and by being more slender. Doubtless Theseus is a personality originally related to the Boeotian-Argive-Thessalian (Dorian) Hercules ; but his form has been perfected to correspond to the Ionian ideal of a hero. Like Hercules, he has many char- acteristics of an old sun god ; it being especially common that such divinities, as in this case, were considered the founders of communities of a race or a city. Cecrops : Ovid, Met. ii. 555 ; Hyginus, Fab. xlviii. Theseus : Ovid, Met. vii. 404 sg., East. iii. 473 ; Hyginus, Fab. xxxviii., xlii., xliii. ; Chaucer, Knight's Tale 2, et passim. Aethra : Ovid, Her. x. 131 ; Hyginus, Fab. xxxvii. Medea : Euripides, Medea; Ovid, Met. vii. 11 sq., Her. xii., xvi. 229 ; Hyginus, Fab. xxv., xxvi., xxvii. ; Shak., Merchant of Venice v. 1, 13 ; King Henry VI. pt. ii. v. 2, 59 ; Chaucer, Knight's Tale 1086. Hippolytus : Euripides, Hippolytus ; Ovid, Fast. iii. 265 ; Ver- gil, Aen. vii. 761 sq.; Hyginus, Fab. xlvii. ; Spenser, F. Q. i. v. 39. Pirithous : Homer, II. i. 263, xiv. 317 ; Ovid, Met. xii. 218. Hippodamia (daughter of Atrax) : Ovid, Met. xii. 210 sq. CYCLES OF MYTHS 1. MELEAGER AND THE CALYDONIAN HUNT 159. Meleager, the son of Oeneus, of Calydon, and Al- thaea, was a mighty hunter. With many companions he laid low a terrible wild boar sent by Artemis, which was