e linen and the cloth of wool,
and walked home in the early morning to the palace of Pittheus.

When Theseus came to the palace, he went straight to the upper chamber
of his mother, where she was spinning wool with a distaff of ivory. When
he laid before her the sword and the shoon, the distaff fell from her
hand, and she hid her head in a fold of her robe. Theseus kissed her
hands and comforted her, and she dried her eyes, and praised him for his
strength. 'These are the sword and the shoon of your father,' she said,
'but truly the gods have taken away his strength and courage. For all
men say that Aegeus of Athens is not master in his own house; his
brother's sons rule him, and with them Medea, the witch woman, that once
was the wife of Jason.'

'The more he needs his son!' said Theseus. 'Mother, I must go to help
him, and be the heir of his kingdom, where you shall be with me always,
and rule the people of Cecrops that fasten the locks of their hair with
grasshoppers of gold.'

'So may it be, my child,' said Aethra, 'if the gods go with you to
protect you. But you will sail to Athens in a ship with fifty oarsmen,
for the ways by land are long, and steep, and dangerous, beset by cruel
giants and monstrous men.'

'Nay, mother,' said Theseus, 'by land must I go, for I would not be
known in Athens, till I see how matters fall out; and I would destroy
these giants and robbers, and give peace to the people, and win glory
among men. This very night I shall set forth.'

He had a sore and sad parting from his mother, but under cloud of night
he went on his way, girt with the sword of Aegeus, his father, and
carrying in his wallet the shoon with ornaments of gold.

III

ADVENTURES OF THESEUS

Theseus walked through the night, and slept for most of the next day at
a shepherd's hut. The shepherd was kind to him, and bade him beware of
one called the Maceman, who guarded a narrow path with a sheer cliff
above, and a sheer precipice below. 'No man born may deal with the
Maceman,' said the shepherd, 'for his great club is of iron, that cannot
be broken, and his strength is as the strength of ten men, though his
legs have no force to bear his body. Men say that he is the son of the
lame god, Hephaestus, who forged his iron mace; there is not the like of
it in the world.'

'Shall I fear a lame man?' said Theseus, 'and is it not easy, even if he
be so terrible a fighter, for me to pass him in the darkness, for I wal