"Enough! enough!" cried the robber. "Let me up, and you may pass on your
way."
"It is not enough," said Theseus; and he drew his sword and sat down by
the side of the spring. "You must wash my feet now. Come, set to work!"
Then Sciron, white with fear, washed his feet.
"And now," said Theseus, when the task was ended, "as you have done unto
others, so will I do unto you."
There was a scream in mid air which the mountain eagles answered from
above; there was a great splashing in the water below, and the turtle
fled in terror from its lurking place. Then the sea cried out: "I will
have naught to do with so vile a wretch!" and a great wave cast the body
of Sciron out upon the shore. But it had no sooner touched the ground
than the land cried out: "I will have naught to do with so vile a
wretch!" and there was a sudden earthquake, and the body of Sciron was
thrown back into the sea. Then the sea waxed furious, a raging storm
arose, the waters were lashed into foam, and the waves with one mighty
effort threw the detested body high into the air; and there it would
have hung unto this day had not the air itself disdained to give it
lodging and changed it into a huge black rock. And this rock, which men
say is the body of Sciron, may still be seen, grim, ugly, and desolate;
and one third of it lies in the sea, one third is embedded in the sandy
shore, and one third is exposed to the air.
IV. WRESTLER AND WRONG-DOER.
Keeping the sea always in view, Theseus went onward a long day's journey
to the north and east; and he left the rugged mountains behind and came
down into the valleys and into a pleasant plain where there were sheep
and cattle pasturing and where there were many fields of ripening
grain. The fame of his deeds had gone before him, and men and women
came crowding to the roadside to see the hero who had slain Club-carrier
and Pine-bender and grim old Sciron of the cliff.
"Now we shall live in peace," they cried; "for the robbers who devoured
our flocks and our children are no more."
Then Theseus passed through the old town of Megara, and followed the
shore of the bay towards the sacred city of Eleusis.
"Do not go into Eleusis, but take the road which leads round it through
the hills," whispered a poor man who was carrying a sheep to market.
"Why shall I do that?" asked Theseus.
"Listen, and I will tell you," was the answer. "There is a king in
Eleusis whose name is Cercyon, and he is a great wrestler. He makes
every stranger who comes into the city wrestle with him; and such is the
strength of his arms that when he has overcome a man he crushes the life
out of his body. Many travelers come to Eleusis, but no one ever goes
away."
"But I will both come and go away," said Theseus; and with his club upon
his shoulder, he strode onward into the sacred city.
"Where is Cercyon, the wrestler?" he asked of the warden at the gate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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