#cercyon

[mostcuriousmythicist]

Alope, daughter of Cercyon, was very beautiful, Neptune embraced her, and from this embrace she bore a child which she gave to her nurse to expose, since she did not know its father. When the child was exposed, a mare came and furnished it milk. A certain shepherd, following the mare, saw the child and took it up. When he had taken it home, clothed in its royal garments, a fellow shepherd asked that it be given to him. The first gave it without the garments, and when strife rose between them, the one who had taken the child demanding signs it was free-born, but the other refusing to give them, they came to King Cercyon and presented their arguments. The one who had taken the child again demanded the garments, and when they were brought, Cercyon knew that they were taken from the garments of his daughter. Alope's nurse, in fear, revealed to the King that the child was Alope's, and he ordered that his daughter be imprisoned and slain, and the child exposed. Again the mare fed it; shepherds again found the child, and took him up, and reared him, feeling that he was being guarded by the will of the gods. They gave him the name Hippothous. When Theseus was journeying from Troezene, he killed Cercyon; Hippothous, however, came to Theseus and asked for his father's kingdom. Theseus willingly gave it to him when he learned he was the son of Neptune, from whom he claimed his own birth. The body of Alope, Neptune turned into a fountain, called by the name Alope.

Hyginus, Fabulae. 187

Find this interesting because we usually don’t get much of an idea in the lives of the bandits Theseus killed on his journey. I guess not too surprisingly they weren’t the most pleasant people.

[nardialrose]

-Matthew Wright, The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy (Volume 1): Neglected Authors

[rgraves1]

Source: Ancient Greece Reloaded website

The Labours of Theseus, Part 2

Continuing his journey to Athens, Theseus met Cercyon the Arcadian, whom some call the son of Branchus and the nymph Argiope; others, the son of Hephaestus, or Poseidon. He would challenge passers-by to wrestle with him and then crush them to death in his powerful embrace; (The Labours of Theseus, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves pp 329-332).

Theseus, a skilled wrestler, lifted the bully Cercyon up by his knees and threw him headfirst to the ground, crushing his skull and killing the Arcadian instantly. Close to Athens, in Attic Corydallus, the hero encountered the most monstrous of the predators that had plagued the Isthmus: the evil robber Procrustes, who would offer a night’s lodging to weary travellers. Procrustes had two beds in his house - one large and one small. To short guests he would offer the large bed and then rack them until they were stretched to fit the size of the bed exactly. To tall guests, Procrustes would offer his small bed, then hack off their legs until they fitted it exactly, and so the villain killed his victims and stole their goods. Theseus defeated Procrustes in combat and made him his prisoner. He then racked his captive on Procrustes’ own small bed until his limbs were ripped away, so despatching him. The Isthmus was cleared of bandits and Theseus made his way to Athens.