Aristotle tells us
that he was the first who inclined to democracy, and gave up the title
of king; and Homer seems to confirm this view by speaking of the people
of the Athenians alone of all the states mentioned in his catalogue of
ships. Theseus also struck money with the figure of a bull, either
alluding to the bull of Marathon, or Taurus, Minos' general, or else to
encourage farming among the citizens. Hence they say came the words,
"worth ten," or "worth a hundred oxen." He permanently annexed Megara to
Attica, and set up the famous pillar on the Isthmus, on which he wrote
the distinction between the countries in two trimeter lines, of which
the one looking east says,
"This is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia,"
and the one looking west says,
"This is Peloponnesus, not Ionia."
And also he instituted games there, in emulation of Herakles; that, just
as Herakles had ordained that the Greeks should celebrate the Olympic
games in honour of Zeus, so by Theseus's appointment they should
celebrate the Isthmian games in honour of Poseidon.
The festival which was previously established there in honour of
Melikerta used to be celebrated by night, and to be more like a
religious mystery than a great spectacle and gathering. Some writers
assert that the Isthmian games were established in honour of Skeiron,
and that Theseus wished to make them an atonement for the murder of his
kinsman; for Skeiron was the son of Kanethus and of Henioche the
daughter of Pittheus.
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