e mother of the Centaur Chiron,
was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she
happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is
called +philura+.

FABLE IV. [VII.402-468]

Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the
Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at
Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king,
however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches
away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. AEgeus then
makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of
Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several
princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of
his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there.

AEgeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality
is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage.
And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by
his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas.
For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought
with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the
teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark
entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the
Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes
sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains
formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with
triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields
with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the
nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of
being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock,
the rustics call it aconite.[75]

This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father AEgeus himself presented
to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the
presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived
upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck
the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised
clouds by her enchantments.

But the father, although he rejoices at his son's being safe, astonished
that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape
from death, heats the altars with fi