THESEUS
There were the dense forests, and the mountainous ravines. At the
most dangerous points, robber gangs had taken up their positions;
these pillaged, killed, or at best ransomed the traveler, and there were
no police to stop them. These incidents combined with the purposeful
ferocity of wild beast and the evil power of the sullen elements until
one could hardly tell, when some foolhardy person came to
grief,
whether the malignity of the gods had struck
him
down, or merely
that of his fellow men. Nor, in the case of such monsters as the
sphinx or the gorgon who fell to Oedipus or to Bellerophon, could one
be sure whether the human strain, or the divine was preponderant.
Whatever was inexplicable was put on to the gods. Terror and
religion were so nearly one, that heroism often seemed an impiety.
The first and principal victory which man had to win was over
the gods.
In a fight, whether with man or with god, it
is
only by seizing
one's adversary's own weapon and turning it against
him
(as I did
with the club which belonged to Periphetes, the dark giant of Epi–
daurus) that one can be sure of final victory. And as for the thun–
derbolts of Zeus, I can tell you that the day will come when man
will possess himself even of them-as did Prometheus with fire. Yes,
those are decisive victories. But with women, at once my strength and
my weakness, I w.as always having to begin again. I escaped from
one, only to fall into the lap of some other. Nor did I ever conquer
a woman who had not first conquered me. Pirithous was right when
he told me (Ah! how well we used to get on!) that the important
thing was never to be unmanned by a woman, as was Hercules in the
arms of Omphale. And since I have never been able, and indeed have
never wished, to live without women, he would say to me, as I
darted off on each amorous chase, "Go ahead, if you must, but don't
get stuck." There was one woman who, ostensibly to safeguard my
life, would have bound me to herself by a cord-a thin one, it
is
true, but a fixed rein none the less. This same woman .... but of
that, more in due time.
Of them
all,
Antiope came nearest to catching me. She was
Queen of the Amazons, and like all her subjects had only one breast;
but this in no way impaired her beauty. An accomplished runner
and wrestler, she had muscles as firm and sturdy as those of our
athletes. I took her on in single combat. In my arms she struggled
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