Reader

They say that Aethra, the mother of Theseus, who was taken captive at Aphidnae, was carried away to Lacedaemon, and from thence to Troy with Helen, and that Homer bears witness to his when he mentions as followers of Helen:—

Aethra of Pittheus born, and Clymene large-eyed and lovely.

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But some reject this verse of Homer’s, as well as the legend of Munychus, who was born in secret to Laodice from Demophoon, and whom Aethra helped to rear in Ilium.

But a very peculiar and wholly divergent story about Aethra is given by Ister in the thirteenth book of his Attic History. Some write, he says, that Alexander (Paris) was overcome in battle by Achilles and Patroclus in Thessaly, along the banks of the Spercheius, but that Hector took and plundered the city of Troezen, and carried away Aethra, who had been left there. This, however, is very doubtful.