But when she saw them she wept long in silence, hiding her fair face in her shawl; and Theseus stood by her wondering, and wept also, he knew not why. And when she was tired of weeping, she lifted up her head, and laid her finger on her lips, and said, 'Hide them in your bosom, Theseus my son, and come with me where we can look down upon the sea.'
Then they went outside the sacred wall, and looked down over the bright blue sea; and Aithra said -'Do you see this land at our feet?'
And he said, 'Yes; this is Troezene, where I was born and bred.'
And she said, 'It is but a little land, barren and rocky, and looks towards the bleak north-east. Do you see that land beyond?'
'Yes; that is Attica, where the Athenian people dwell.'
'That is a fair land and large, Theseus my son; and it looks toward the sunny south; a land of olive-oil and honey, the joy of Gods and men. For the Gods have girdled it with mountains, whose veins are of pure silver, and their bones of marble white as snow; and there the hills are sweet with thyme and basil, and the meadows with violet and asphodel, and the nightingales sing all day in the thickets, by the side of ever-flowing streams. There are twelve towns well peopled, the homes of an ancient race, the children of Kekrops the serpent king, the son of Mother Earth, who wear gold cicalas among the tresses of their golden hair; for like the cicalas they sprang from the earth, and like the cicalas they sing all day, rejoicing in the genial sun. What would you do, son Theseus, if you were king of such a land?'
Then Theseus stood astonished, as he looked across the broad bright sea, and saw the fair Attic shore, from Sunium to Hymettus and Pentelicus, and all the mountain peaks which girdle Athens round. But Athens itself he could not see, for purple AEgina stood before it, midway across the sea.
Then his heart grew great within him, and he said, 'If I were king of such a land I would rule it wisely and well in wisdom and in might, that when I died all men might weep over my tomb, and cry, "Alas for the shepherd of his people!"'
And Aithra smiled, and said, 'Take, then, the sword and the sandals, and go to AEgeus, king of Athens, who lives on Pallas' hill; and say to him, "The stone is lifted, but whose is the pledge beneath it?" Then show him the sword and the sandals, and take what the Gods shall send.'
But Theseus wept, 'Shall I leave you, O my mother?'
But she answered, 'Weep not for me. That which is fated must be; and grief is easy to those who do nought but grieve.
Full of sorrow was my youth, and full of sorrow my womanhood.
Full of sorrow was my youth for Bellerophon, the slayer of the Chimaera, whom my father drove away by treason; and full of sorrow my womanhood, for thy treacherous father and for thee; and full of sorrow my old age will be (for I see my fate in dreams), when the sons of the Swan shall carry me captive to the hollow vale of Eurotas, till I sail across the seas a slave, the handmaid of the pest of Greece. Yet shall I be avenged, when the golden-haired heroes sail against Troy, and sack the palaces of Ilium; then my son shall set me free from thraldom, and I shall hear the tale of Theseus' fame. Yet beyond that I see new sorrows; but I can bear them as I have borne the past.'
Then she kissed Theseus, and wept over him; and went into the temple, and Theseus saw her no more.
