Aethra

Aethra (Greek Aithra) is the name of several figures in Greek mythology. The best known is the daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen, who became the mother of the hero Theseus by Aegeus, and in some accounts also by Poseidon. The name is the Greek word for the clear, bright air, and it also belongs to an Oceanid who is the mother of the Hyades and Pleiades in one tradition.

Aethra, Mother of Theseus

Family

Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, son of Pelops and king of Troezen. Homer already names her, as “Aethra, daughter of Pittheus”, one of the two handmaids who attend Helen at Troy (Homer, Iliad 3.144). Her son was Theseus.

Aegeus and Poseidon

Aegeus, king of Athens, came to Troezen with an obscure oracle about having children. Pittheus understood it, made him drunk and caused him to lie with Aethra. In the same night Poseidon also had intercourse with her, according to Apollodorus (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7). Aegeus left a sword and sandals under a heavy rock and told Aethra that when the boy was able to lift it, she should send him to Athens with them (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7; Plutarch, Theseus 3.4–5).

Hyginus tells that Poseidon and Aegeus lay with Aethra on the same night in the sanctuary of Athena and that Poseidon left the child to Aegeus (Hyginus, Fabulae 37). Pausanias gives a different place for Poseidon’s meeting. Aethra, told by Athena in a dream, crossed over to the island of Sphaeria to pour libations for Sphaerus, the charioteer of Pelops, and there Poseidon lay with her. In return she founded a temple of Athena Apaturia and renamed the island Sacred Island (Pausanias 2.33.1).

Raising Theseus

Plutarch says that Aethra concealed the truth about his birth, and that Pittheus let it be reported that Poseidon was the father. When Theseus was a young man, Aethra brought him to the rock, told him the truth and bade him take his father’s tokens and go to Athens (Plutarch, Theseus 6.1–2). Apollodorus says that Theseus pushed away the rock, took the sandals and sword, and set out on foot for Athens (Apollodorus, Library 3.16.1).

Captive of the Dioscuri

When Theseus carried off Helen as a girl, he left her at Aphidnae in Attica, and Diodorus says he put his mother Aethra there to guard her (Diodorus Siculus 4.63). While Theseus was away with Peirithous in the Underworld, the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, marched against Aphidnae, took it, recovered Helen and led Aethra away as a captive (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7; Apollodorus, Epitome 1.23; Plutarch, Theseus 32–34.1; Pausanias 1.17.5). The scene is carved on the Chest of Cypselus: the sons of Tyndareus carry off Helen and drag Aethra away (Pausanias 5.19.3).

At Troy

In the Iliad Aethra is a servant of Helen at Troy (Homer, Iliad 3.144). Apollodorus says that Theseus’ sons Demophon and Acamas, who went to Troy, led Aethra away from there (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.22). In the poem of Lesches, as Pausanias reports it, Aethra came stealthily to the Greek camp when Troy fell, and the sons of Theseus recognised her. Demophon asked Agamemnon for her, and he agreed provided Helen consented, and Helen did (Pausanias 10.25.8). In Polygnotus’ painting of the sack of Troy at Delphi, Aethra stands among the captive women with her head shaved, and Demophon is considering how to rescue her (Pausanias 10.25.7, 10.26.1). Quintus of Smyrna tells that the brothers first took her for Priam’s queen and seized her, but when she told them she was the daughter of Pittheus and the mother of Theseus, they recognised their grandmother and promised to bring her home to Greece (Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 13.496–543). Ister, cited by Plutarch, told a different tale, in which Hector took Troezen and carried off Aethra, but Plutarch calls this very doubtful (Plutarch, Theseus 34.2).

Aethra, Daughter of Oceanus

A second Aethra is a daughter of Oceanus. Hyginus, following Musaeus, says that the fifteen daughters of Atlas and Aethra, the daughter of Oceanus, are the Pleiades and the Hyades, and that the Hyades were so named after their brother Hyas, who was killed by a lion (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21).

Aethra Sources

Homer, Iliad 3.144; Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7, 3.15.7, 3.16.1; Apollodorus, Epitome 1.23, 5.22; Plutarch, Theseus 3.4–5, 6.1–2, 32–34.2; Diodorus Siculus 4.63; Hyginus, Fabulae 37; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21; Pausanias 1.17.5, 2.33.1, 5.19.3, 10.25.7–8, 10.26.1; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 13.496–543.

See Also: Pittheus, Aegeus, Poseidon, Theseus, Adventures of Theseus, Helen, Oceanus, Atlas, Castor, Pollux