aised
him, and told him stories of the famous strong man, Heracles, whose name
was well known through all Greece. Theseus could not bear to be beaten
at lifting any weight, and, if he failed, he would rise early and try
again in the morning, for many men, as soon as they rise from bed, can
lift weights which are too heavy for them later in the day.

When Theseus was seven years old, Aethra found for him a tutor, named
Connidas, who taught him the arts of netting beasts and hunting, and how
to manage the dogs, and how to drive a chariot, and wield sword and
shield, and to throw the spear. Other things Connidas taught him which
were known to few men in Greece, for Connidas came from the great rich
island of Crete. He had killed a man there in a quarrel, and fled to
Troezene to escape the revenge of the man's brothers and cousins. In
Crete many people could read and write, which in Greece, perhaps none
could do, and Connidas taught Theseus this learning.

When he was fifteen years old, Theseus went, as was the custom of young
princes, to the temple of Delphi, not to ask questions, but to cut his
long hair, and sacrifice it to the god, Apollo. He cut the forelock of
his hair, so that no enemy, in battle, might take hold of it, for
Theseus intended to fight at close quarters, hand to hand, in war, not
to shoot arrows and throw spears from a distance. By this time he
thought himself a man, and was always asking where his father was, while
Aethra told him how her husband had left her soon after their marriage,
and that she had never heard of him since, but that some day Theseus
might find out all about him for himself, which no other person would
ever be able to do.

Aethra did not wish to tell Theseus too soon the secret of the great
stone, which hid she knew not what. She saw that he would leave her and
go to seek his father, if he was able to raise the stone and find out
the secret, and she could not bear to lose him, now that day by day he
grew more like his father, her lost lover. Besides, she wanted him not
to try to raise the stone till he came to his strength. But when he was
in his nineteenth year, he told her that he would now go all over Greece
and the whole world seeking for his father. She saw that he meant what
he said, and one day she led him alone to the glen where the great stone
lay, and sat down with him there, now talking, and now silent as if she
were listening to the pleasant song of the burn that fell