River Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and
saluted him, and upon his desire to use the purifications, then in
custom, they performed them with all the usual ceremonies, and
having offered propitiatory sacrifices to the gods, invited him
and entertained him at their house, a kindness which, in all his
journey hitherto, he had not met.

On the eighth day of Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon, he arrived
at Athens, where he found the public affairs full of all
confusion, and divided into parties and factions. Aegeus also, and
his whole private family, laboring under the same distemper; for
Medea, having fled from Corinth, was living with him. She was
first aware of Theseus, whom as yet Aegeus did not know, and he
being in years, full of jealousies and suspicions, and fearing
everything by reason of the faction that was then in the city, she
easily persuaded him to kill him by poison at a banquet, to which
he was to be invited as a stranger. He, coming to the
entertainment, thought it not fit to discover himself at once,
but, willing to give his father the occasion of first finding him
out, the meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he
designed to cut with it; Aegeus, at once recognizing the token,
threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced
him, and, having gathered together all his citizens, owned him
publicly before them, who, on their part, received him gladly for
the fame of his greatness and bravery.

The sons of Pallas, who were quiet, upon expectation of recovering
the kingdom after Aegeus's death, who was without issue, as soon
as Theseus appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly
resenting that Aegeus first, as adopted son only of Pandion, and