HOW THESEUS LIFTED THE STONE Once upon a time there was a princess in Troezene, Aithra, the daughter of Pittheus the king.

She had one fair son, named Theseus, the bravest lad in all the land; and Aithra never smiled but when she looked at him, for her husband had forgotten her, and lived far away.

And she used to go up to the mountain above Troezene, to the temple of Poseidon and sit there all day looking out across the bay, over Methana, to the purple peaks of AEgina and the Attic shore beyond.

And when Theseus was full fifteen years old she took him up with her to the temple, and into the thickets of the grove which grew in the temple-yard.

And she led him to a tall plane-tree, beneath whose shade grew arbutus, and lentisk, and purple heather-bushes.