Theseus, after burying his father, paid his vow to Apollo, on the
seventh day of the month Pyanepsion; for on this day it was that the
rescued youths went up into the city. The boiling of pulse, which is
customary on this anniversary, is said to be done because the rescued
youths put what remained of their pulse together into one pot, boiled it
all, and merrily feasted on it together. And on this day also, the
Athenians carry about the Eiresione, a bough of the olive tree garlanded
with wool, just as Theseus had before carried the suppliants' bough, and
covered with first-fruits of all sorts of produce, because the
barrenness of the land ceased on that day; and they sing,
"Eiresione, bring us figs
And wheaten loaves, and oil,
And wine to quaff, that we may all
Host merrily from toil."
However, some say that these ceremonies are performed in memory of the
Herakleidae, who were thus entertained by the Athenians; but most
writers tell the tale as I have told it.
XXIII. Now the thirty-oared ship, in which Theseus sailed with the
youths, and came back safe, was kept by the Athenians up to the time of
Demetrius Phalereus. They constantly removed the decayed part of her
timbers, and renewed them with sound wood, so that the ship became an
illustration to philosophers of the doctrine of growth and change, as
some argued that it remained the same, and others, that it did not
remain the same.
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