Daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen, and mother of the hero Theseus, whom she reared in secret until he was strong enough to lift the rock and recover the token his father had hidden beneath it.1
Aegeus of Athens, childless and troubled by a cryptic oracle, lodged on his way home with Pittheus, son of Pelops. Understanding the oracle, Pittheus made his guest drunk and caused him to lie with his daughter Aethra; but that same night Poseidon also had intercourse with her, so the boy was claimed by both a king and a god. Aegeus charged her, should she bear a son, to rear him without telling whose he was, and beneath a rock he hid a sword and a pair of sandals, bidding her send the boy to Athens with these tokens once he could roll the stone aside. Aethra bore Theseus, and when he was grown he pushed away the rock, took up the sword and sandals, and hastened on foot to his father.2
Hyginus compresses the double conception into one night in one shrine: Neptune and Aegeus, son of Pandion, both lay with Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, in the temple of Minerva, and Neptune conceded the child to Aegeus. About to return to Athens, Aegeus set his sword beneath a stone and told her not to send their son until he could lift it by his own strength and bring the sword to his father. Hyginus adds that Aethra at the last killed herself out of grief for the death of her sons.3
Pausanias keeps two Troezenian traditions of her own. Before Aegeus came, Bellerophon had sought her: he came to Pittheus to ask for Aethra as his wife, but was banished from Corinth before the marriage could take place. And the divine union, Pausanias says, happened on a small island off Troezen: obedient to a dream from Athena, Aethra crossed over with libations for Sphaerus, the charioteer of Pelops, whose tomb stood there, and once she had crossed Poseidon lay with her. For this she founded a temple of Athena Apaturia on the island and changed its name from Sphaeria to the Sacred Island.4
Her end was bondage. After Theseus and Pirithous carried off the young Helen and hid her at Aphidnae in Aethra's keeping, Castor and Pollux took the town while Theseus was in Hades, recovered their sister, and led Aethra away captive; later, in the sack of Troy, her grandsons Demophon and Acamas, the sons of Theseus, led her away and freed her.5
So Homer finds her at Troy: Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, a handmaid who follows Helen to the Scaean gates of the city.6
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
