ed she
would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus calling upon her,
and giving her his promise that he would use her with respect, and
offer no injury, she came forth. Whence it is a family usage amongst the
people called Ioxids, from the name of her grandson, Ioxus, both male
and female, never to burn either shrubs or asparagus-thorn, but to
respect and honor them.

The Crommyonian sow, which they called Phaea, was a savage and
formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised. Theseus
killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and engage her, so
that he might not seem to perform all his great exploits out of mere
necessity; being also of opinion that it was the part of a brave man to
chastise villainous and wicked men when attacked by them, but to seek
out and overcome the more noble wild beasts. Others relate that Phaea
was a woman, a robber full of cruelty, that lived in Crommyon, and had
the name of Sow given her from the foulness of her life and manners, and
afterwards was killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the borders
of Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a
notorious robber of all passengers, and, as others add, accustomed out
of insolence and wantonness, to stretch forth his feet to strangers,
commanding them to wash them, and then while they did it, with a kick to
send them down the rock into the sea.

In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match. And
going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes, otherwise
called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his own bed, as he
himself was used to do with all strangers; this he did in imitation
of Hercules, who always returned upon his assailants the same sort of
violence that they offered to him; sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus
in wrestling, and Cycnus in single combat, and Termerus by breaking his
skull in pieces (whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Termerian
mischief"), for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by
running with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded with
the same violence from which they had inflicted upon others, justly
suffering after the same manner of their own injustice.

As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the River
Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and saluted him,
and upon his desire to use the purifications, then in custom, they
performed them with all the usual ce