of Salamis was worshipped as a god, and the virtue of Peleus and Telamon
is known to all. Yet Skeiron was the son-in-law of Kychreus, and
father-in-law of Aeakus, and grandfather of Peleus and Telamon, who were
both of them sons of Endeis, the daughter of Skeiron and his wife
Chariklo. It is not then reasonable to suppose that these, the noblest
men of their time, would make alliances with a malefactor, and give and
receive from him what they prized most dearly. But they say that Theseus
slew Skeiron, not when he first went to Athens, but that afterwards he
took the town of Eleusis which belonged to the Megarians, by dealing
treacherously with Diokles, who was the chief magistrate there, and that
on that occasion he killed Skeiron. This is what tradition says on both
sides.

XI. At Eleusis Theseus overcame Kerkyon of Arcadia in wrestling and
killed him, and after journeying a little farther he killed Damastes,
who was surnamed Prokroustes, by compelling him to fit his own body to
his bed, just as he used to fit the bodies of strangers to it. This he
did in imitation of Herakles; for he used to retort upon his aggressors
the same treatment which they intended for him. Thus Herakles offered up
Busiris as a sacrifice, and overcame Antaeus in wrestling, and Kyknus in
single combat, and killed Termerus by breaking his skull. This is, they
say, the origin of the proverb, "A Termerian mischief," for Termerus, it
seems, struck passers-by with his head, and so killed them. So also did
Theseus sally forth and chastise evildoers, making them undergo the same
cruelties which they practised on others, thus justly punishing them for
their crimes in their own wicked fashion.

XII. As he proceeded on his way, and reached the river Kephisus, men of
the Phytalid race were the first to meet and greet him. He demanded to
be purified from the guilt of bloodshed, and they purified him, made