Peirifoy's beautiful wife, Hippodamia, did not live long; she died in the full bloom of her beauty. The widowed Peirifoy, having mourned his wife, after some time decided to marry again. He went to his friend Theseus in Athens, and there they decided to kidnap the beautiful Helen. She was still a very young girl, but the fame of her beauty resounded far throughout Greece. Friends arrived secretly in Laconia and kidnapped Helen while she was dancing merrily with her friends during the festival of Artemis. Theseus and Peirifoy grabbed Helen and quickly carried her to the mountains of Arcadia, and from there, through Corinth and Isthmus, they brought her to Attica, to the fortress of Athens. The Spartans rushed in pursuit, but could not overtake the kidnappers. Having hidden Elena in the city of Athens, in Attica, the friends cast lots to see which of them should own the wondrous beauty. The lot fell to Theseus. But even earlier, the friends swore an oath to each other that the one who gets the beautiful-haired Elena must help the other get a wife.
When Helen went to Theseus, Peirifoy demanded from his friend that he help him get Persephone, the wife of the terrible god Hades, ruler of the kingdom of the shadows of the dead, as his wife. Theseus was horrified, but what could he do? He made an oath, he could not break it. He had to accompany Peirifoy to the kingdom of the dead. Through a gloomy crevice near the village of Colona, near Athens, friends descended into the underworld. There, in the kingdom of horrors, both friends appeared before Hades and demanded that he give them Persephone. The gloomy ruler of the kingdom of the dead was angry, but hid his anger and invited the heroes to sit on a throne carved into the rock at the very entrance to the kingdom of the dead. As soon as both heroes sat down on the throne, they became rooted to it and could no longer move. This is how Hades punished them for their wicked demand.
While Theseus remained in the kingdom of Hades, the brothers of the beautiful Helen, Castor and Polydeuces, looked everywhere for their sister. Finally, they found out where Theseus hid Helen. They immediately besieged Athens, and the impregnable fortress could not stand. Castor and Polydeuces took her, freed her sister, and together with her they took Theseus’s mother, Ephra, into captivity. Castor and Polydeuces gave power over Athens and all of Attica to Menestheus, Theseus’s longtime enemy. Theseus spent a long time in the kingdom of Hades. He suffered severe torment there, but finally the greatest of the heroes, Hercules, freed him.
Theseus returned again to the light of the sun, but this return did not bring him joy. Impregnable Athens was destroyed, Helen was freed, his mother was in grave captivity in Sparta, the sons of Theseus, Demophon and Acamant, were forced to flee from Athens, and all power was in the hands of the hated Menestheus. Theseus left Attica and retired to the island of Euboea, where he had possessions. Misfortune now accompanied Theseus. The king of Skyros, Lycomedes, did not want to give Theseus his possessions; he lured the great hero onto a high cliff and pushed him into the sea. Thus the greatest hero of Attica died from the treacherous hand. Only many years after the death of Menestheus, the sons of Theseus returned to Athens after the campaign at Troy. There, in Troy, the sons of Theseus found his mother Ephra. She was brought there as a slave by the son of King Priam, Paris, along with the beautiful Helen he kidnapped.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru