Theseus killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and
engage her, so that he might not seem to perform all his great
exploits out of mere necessity; being also of opinion that it was
the part of a brave man to chastise villainous and wicked men when
attacked by them, but to seek out and overcome the more noble wild
beasts. Others relate that Phaea was a woman, a robber full of
cruelty, that lived in Crommyon, and had the name of Sow given her
from the foulness of her life and manners, and afterwards was
killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the borders of
Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a
notorious robber of all passengers, and, as others add, accustomed
out of insolence and wantonness, to stretch forth his feet to
strangers, commanding them to wash them, and then while they did
it, with a kick to send them down the rock into the sea.

In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match.
And going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes,
otherwise called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his
own bed, as he himself was used to do with all strangers; this he
did in imitation of Hercules, who always returned upon his
assailants the same sort of violence that they offered to him;
sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus in wrestling, and Cycnus in
single combat, and Termerus by breaking his skull in pieces
(whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Termerian mischief"),
for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by running
with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded with the
same violence from which they had inflicted upon others, justly
suffering after the same manner of their own injustice.

As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the