Aethra
Princess of Troezen, mother of Theseus, who became a captive slave in Troy.
The Legend of Aethra
Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen, and mother of the hero Theseus. According to the most common tradition, she was visited on the same night by both Aegeus, king of Athens, and the god Poseidon, making Theseus's paternity ambiguous — a detail ancient writers used to elevate the hero to semi-divine status. She raised Theseus alone, leaving the tokens of Aegeus hidden beneath a rock until the boy was old enough to claim them. Years later, when Castor and Polydeuces sacked Athens to recover their sister Helen after Theseus had kidnapped her, they took Aethra to Troy as a slave. She remained there throughout the war as attendant to Helen, her own grandson's captor. At the war's end, her Trojan grandsons Agamemnon the Sacker did not retrieve her; it was the hero Demophon, her other grandson, who rescued her from the ruins of Troy.
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