Pittheus

Aegeus received an oracle at Delphi after failing to father a child. He was warned not to untie the mouth of his bulging wineskin until he reached the highest point of Athens, or he would one day die from grief. He could not understand the answer. On his journey back, he travelled to Troezen and stayed with Pittheus, son of Pelops. Pittheus was considered very wise. He welcomed Aegeus and entertained him at his house.

Pittheus understood the oracle’s meaning. He gave Aegeus wine until he was drunk, then arranged for him to sleep with Aethra, his daughter. Another account says that Aethra and Aegeus fell deeply in love and wished to marry, but Aegeus had no cattle to offer as the bride price. On the same night, Poseidon also slept with Aethra.

Before leaving Troezen, Aegeus instructed Aethra to raise any male child without telling him who his father was. He placed a sword and a pair of sandals beneath a rock. When her son grew strong enough to move the rock and recover the tokens, Aethra was to send him to Athens carrying them. The rock stood on the road from Troezen to Hermium. Aethra was also to keep silent because Aegeus feared the sons of his brother Pallas, who might plot against her life.

Aethra gave birth to a boy at a place later called Genethlium. He was brought up in Troezen under Pittheus’s care. Pittheus spread the story that Poseidon was the boy’s father. Some accounts say that the child was named Theseus at once because the tokens had been left for him. Others say he received the name later at Athens. When Theseus grew up, Aethra led him to the rock and told him about his birth. He moved it without difficulty and recovered the sword and sandals. Though Pittheus and Aethra warned him, he chose to travel overland to Athens rather than take the safer sea route.