Theseus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. I. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914.

But after publishing my account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I might not unreasonably go back still farther to Romulus, now that my history had brought me near his times. And as I asked myself,

  1. With such a warrior (as Aeschylus says) who will dare to fight?
[*](The actual text in Aeschylus:τοιῷδε φωτὶ πέμπε—τίς ξυστήσεται; )
  1. Whom shall I set against him? Who is competent?
[*](The actual text in Aechylus:τίνʼ ἀντιτάξεις τῷδε; τίς Προίτου πυλῶν | κλῄθρων λυθέντων προστατεῖν φερέγγυος· ) it seemed to me that I must make the founder of lovely and famous Athens the counterpart and parallel to the father of invincible and glorious Rome.

May I therefore succeed in purifying Fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of History. But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible, and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity.