μετὰ δὲ τὴν Αἰγέως τελευτὴν μέγα καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἔργον εἰς νοῦν βαλόμενος συνῴκισε τοὺς τὴν Ἀττικὴν κατοικοῦντας εἰς ἓν ἄστυ, καὶ μιᾶς πόλεως ἕνα δῆμον ἀπέφηνε, τέως σποράδας ὄντας καὶ δυσανακλήτους πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν πάντων συμφέρον, ἔστι δʼ ὅτε καὶ διαφερομένους ἀλλήλοις καὶ πολεμοῦντας.
After the death of Aegeus, Theseus conceived a wonderful design, and settled all the residents of Attica in one city, thus making one people of one city out of those who up to that time had been scattered about and were not easily called together for the common interests of all, nay, they sometimes actually quarrelled and fought with each other.
ἐπιὼν οὖν ἀνέπειθε κατὰ δήμους καὶ γένη, τῶν μὲν ἰδιωτῶν καὶ πενήτων ἐνδεχομένων ταχὺ τὴν παράκλησιν αὐτοῦ, τοῖς δὲ δυνατοῖς ἀβασίλευτον πολιτείαν προτείνων καὶ δημοκρατίαν αὐτῷ μόνον ἄρχοντι πολέμου καὶ νόμων φύλακι χρησομένην, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων παρέξουσαν ἅπασιν ἰσομοιρίαν.
He visited them, then, and tried to win them over to his project township by township and clan by clan. The common folk and the poor quickly answered to his summons; to the powerful he promised government without a king and a democracy, in which he should only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else everyone should be on an equal footing.
τοὺς μὲν ταῦτα ἔπειθεν, οἱ δὲ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ δεδιότες μεγάλην οὖσαν ἤδη καὶ τὴν τόλμαν, ἐβούλοντο πειθόμενοι μᾶλλον ἢ βιαζόμενοι ταῦτα συγχωρεῖν. καταλύσας οὖν τὰ παρʼ ἑκάστοις πρυτανεῖα καὶ βουλευτήρια καὶ ἀρχάς, ἓν δὲ ποιήσας ἅπασι κοινὸν ἐνταῦθα πρυτανεῖον καὶ βουλευτήριον ὅπου νῦν ἵδρυται τὸ ἄστυ, τήν τε πόλιν Ἀθήνας προσηγόρευσε καὶ Παναθήναια θυσίαν ἐποίησε κοινήν.
Some he readily persuaded to this course, and others, fearing his power, which was already great, and his boldness, chose to be persuaded rather than forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after doing away with the townhalls and council-chambers and magistracies in the several communities, and after building a common town-hall and council-chamber for all on the ground where the upper town of the present day stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic festival.
ἔθυσε δὲ καὶ Μετοίκια τῇ ἕκτῃ ἐπὶ δέκα τοῦ Ἑκατομβαιῶνος, ἣν ἔτι νῦν θύουσι. καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν ἀφείς, ὥσπερ ὡμολόγησε, διεκόσμει τὴν πολιτείαν ἀπὸ θεῶν ἀρχόμενος· ἧκε γὰρ αὐτῷ χρησμὸς ἐκ Δελφῶν μαντευομένῳ περὶ τῆς πόλεως·
He instituted also the Metoecia, or Festival of Settlement, on the sixteenth day of the month Hecatombaeon, and this is still celebrated. Then, laying aside the royal power, as he had agreed, he proceeded to arrange the government, and that too with the sanction of the gods. For an oracle came to him from Delphi, in answer to his enquiries about the city, as follows:—
Αἰγείδη Θησεῦ, Πιτθηΐδος ἔκγονε κούρης, / πολλαῖς τοι πολίεσσι πατὴρ ἐμὸς ἐγκατέθηκε / τέρματα καὶ κλωστῆρας ἐν ὑμετέρῳ πτολιέθρῳ. / ἀλλὰ σὺ μή τι λίην πεπονημένος ἔνδοθι θυμὸν / βουλεύειν· ἀσκὸς γὰρ ἐν οἴδματι ποντοπορεύσει. / τοῦτο δὲ καὶ Σίβυλλαν ὕστερον ἀποστοματίσαι πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ἱστοροῦσιν, ἀναφθεγξαμένην· ἀσκὸς βαπτίζῃ· δῦναι δέ τοι οὐ θέμις ἐστίν. /
Theseus, offspring of Aegeus, son of the daughter of Pittheus, / Many indeed the cities to which my father has given / Bounds and future fates within your citadel’s confines. / Therefore be not dismayed, but with firm and confident spirit / Counsel only; the bladder will traverse the sea and its surges. / And this oracle they say the Sibyl afterwards repeated to the city, when she cried:— Bladder may be submerged; but its sinking will not be permitted. /
ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον αὐξῆσαι τὴν πόλιν βουλόμενος ἐκάλει πάντας ἐπὶ τοῖς ἴσοις, καὶ τὸ δεῦρʼ ἴτε πάντες λεῴ κήρυγμα Θησέως γενέσθαι φασὶ πανδημίαν τινὰ καθιστάντος. οὐ μὴν ἄτακτον οὐδὲ μεμιγμένην περιεῖδεν ὑπὸ πλήθους ἐπιχυθέντος ἀκρίτου γενομένην τὴν δημοκρατίαν, ἀλλὰ πρῶτος ἀποκρίνας χωρὶς εὐπατρίδας καὶ γεωμόρους καὶ δημιουργούς,
Desiring still further to enlarge the city, he invited all men thither on equal terms, and the phrase Come hither all ye people, they say was a proclamation of Theseus when he established a people, as it were, of all sorts and conditions. However, he did not suffer his democracy to become disordered or confused from an indiscriminate multitude streaming into it, but was the first to separate the people into noblemen and husbandmen and handicraftsmen.
εὐπατρίδαις δὲ γινώσκειν τὰ θεῖα καὶ παρέχειν ἄρχοντας ἀποδοὺς καὶ νόμων διδασκάλους εἶναι καὶ ὁσίων καὶ ἱερῶν ἐξηγητάς, τοῖς ἄλλοις πολίταις ὥσπερ εἰς ἴσον κατέστησε, δόξῃ μὲν εὐπατριδῶν, χρείᾳ δὲ γεωμόρων, πλήθει δὲ δημιουργῶν ὑπερέχειν δοκούντων. ὅτι δὲ πρῶτος ἀπέκλινε πρὸς τὸν ὄχλον, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης φησί, καὶ ἀφῆκε τὸ μοναρχεῖν, ἔοικε μαρτυρεῖν καὶ Ὅμηρος ἐν νεῶν καταλόγῳ μόνους Ἀθηναίους δῆμον προσαγορεύσας.
To the noblemen he committed the care of religious rites, the supply of magistrates, the teaching of the laws, and the interpretation of the will of Heaven, and for the rest of the citizens he established a balance of privilege, the noblemen being thought to excel in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness, and the handicraftsmen in numbers. And that he was the first to show a leaning towards the multitude, as Aristotle says, and gave up his absolute rule, seems to be the testimony of Homer also, in the Catalogue of Ships, where he speaks of the Athenians alone as a people.
ἔκοψε δὲ καὶ νόμισμα, βοῦν ἐγχαράξας, ἢ διὰ τὸν Μαραθώνιον ταῦρον, ἢ διὰ τὸν Μίνω στρατηγόν, ἢ πρὸς γεωργίαν τοὺς πολίτας παρακαλῶν. ἀπʼ ἐκείνου δέ φασι τὸ ἑκατόμβοιον καὶ τὸ δεκάβοιον ὀνομασθῆναι. προσκτησάμενος δὲ τῇ Ἀττικῇ τὴν Μεγαρικὴν βεβαίως, τὴν θρυλουμένην ἐν Ἰσθμῷ στήλην ἔστησεν, ἐπιγράψας τὸ διορίζον ἐπίγραμμα τὴν χώραν δυσὶ τριμέτροις, ὧν ἔφραζε τὸ μὲν πρὸς ἕω τάδʼ οὐχὶ Πελοπόννησος, ἀλλʼ Ἰωνία· / τὸ δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέραν τάδʼ ἐστὶ Πελοπόννησος, οὐκ Ἰωνία. /
He also coined money, and stamped it with the effigy of an ox, either in remembrance of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, the general of Minos, or because he would invite the citizens to agriculture. From this coinage, they say, ten oxen and a hundred oxen came to be used as terms of valuation. Having attached the territory of Megara securely to Attica, he set up that famous pillar on the Isthmus, and carved upon it the inscription giving the territorial boundaries. It consisted of two trimeters, of which the one towards the east declared:— Here is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia; and the one towards the west:— Here is the Peloponnesus, not Ionia. /
καὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα πρῶτος ἔθηκε κατὰ ζῆλον Ἡρακλέους, ὡς διʼ ἐκεῖνον Ὀλύμπια τῷ Δΐ, καὶ διʼ αὐτὸν Ἴσθμια τῷ Ποσειδῶνι φιλοτιμηθεὶς ἄγειν τοὺς Ἕλληνας. ὁ γὰρ ἐπὶ Μελικέρτῃ τεθεὶς αὐτόθι νυκτὸς ἐδρᾶτο, τελετῆς ἔχων μᾶλλον ἢ θέας καὶ πανηγυρισμοῦ τάξιν. ἔνιοι δέ φασιν ἐπὶ Σκείρωνι τὰ Ἴσθμια τεθῆναι, τοῦ Θησέως ἀφοσιουμένου τὸν φόνον διὰ τὴν συγγένειαν· Σκείρωνα γὰρ υἱὸν εἶναι Κανήθου καὶ Ἡνιόχης τῆς Πιτθέως. οἱ δὲ Σίνιν,
He also instituted the games here, in emulation of Heracles, being ambitious that as the Hellenes, by that hero’s appointment, celebrated Olympian games in honor of Zeus, so by his own appointment they should celebrate Isthmian games in honor of Poseidon. For the games already instituted there in honor of Melicertes were celebrated in the night, and had the form of a religious rite rather than of a spectacle and public assembly. But some say that the Isthmian games were instituted in memory of Sciron, and that Theseus thus made expiation for his murder, because of the relationship between them; for Sciron was a son of Canethus and Henioche, who was the daughter of Pittheus.
οὐ Σκείρωνα, καὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα τεθῆναι διὰ τοῦτον ὑπὸ Θησέως, οὐ διʼ ἐκεῖνον. ἔταξεν οὖν καὶ διωρίσατο πρὸς τοὺς Κορινθίους Ἀθηναίων τοῖς ἀφικνουμένοις ἐπὶ τὰ Ἴσθμια παρέχειν προεδρίαν ὅσον ἂν τόπον ἐπίσχῃ καταπετασθὲν τὸ τῆς θεωρίδος νεὼς ἱστίον, ὡς Ἑλλάνικος καὶ Ἄνδρων ὁ Ἁλικαρνασεὺς ἱστορήκασιν.
And others have it that Sinis, not Sciron, was their son, and that it was in his honor rather that the games were instituted by Theseus. However that may be, Theseus made a formal agreement with the Corinthians that they should furnish Athenian visitors to the Isthmian games with a place of honor as large as could be covered by the sail of the state galley which brought them thither, when it was stretched to its full extent. So Hellanicus and Andron of Halicarnassus tell us.
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