Theseus and Pirithous swore each to marry a daughter of Zeus — the Athenian hid the child Helen at Aphidnae and went down with his friend to fetch Persephone; Hades bound them on the Chair of Forgetfulness until Heracles raised Theseus alone, while the Dioscuri stormed Aphidnae and led Aethra away captive.1
The oath of the comrades
Theseus and Peirithous, son of Ixion and king of the Lapiths, bound themselves by oath: each would marry a daughter of Zeus. Theseus took Helen, still a child, and carried her off from Sparta; Peirithous would have Persephone herself — a vow that drove them both to the house of Hades.2
Helen at Aphidnae
Theseus hid Helen and her brothers' future prize at Aphidnae in Attica, leaving his mother Aethra to guard the girl. While he and Pirithous descended, Castor and Polydeuces — Helen's divine brothers — marched against the fortress, recovered their sister, and took Aethra captive to serve her in Sparta until the Trojan War.3
The Chair of Forgetfulness
In the underworld Hades welcomed the pair with feigned hospitality and seated them on the Chair of Forgetfulness — or Stone of Unforgetting — from which they could not rise, while coils of serpents held them fast. Pirithous had come to steal the queen of the dead; the lord of the shades kept him bound for ever.4
Heracles raises Theseus
When Heracles came down for Cerberus on his last labour, he found the trapped comrades and raised Theseus from the chair — though the earth quaked when he tried to free Pirithous, and the Lapith remained in Hades for his impiety. Theseus returned to find Helen gone, Aethra a captive, and Menestheus son of Peteos already seizing the throne of Athens.5
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