I feel myself a man ! It is now time to make one earnest trial to remove the stone . '' `` Ah , my dearest Theseus , '' replied his mother `` not yet ! not yet ! '' `` Yes , mother , '' said he , resolutely , `` the time has come ! '' Then Theseus bent himself in good earnest to the task , and strained every sinew , with manly strength and resolution . He put his whole brave heart into the effort . He wrestled with the big and sluggish stone , as if it had been a living enemy . He heaved , he lifted , he resolved now to succeed , or else to perish there , and let the rock be his monument forever ! Aethra stood gazing at him , and clasped her hands , partly with a mother 's pride , and partly with a mother 's sorrow . The great rock stirred ! Yes , it was raised slowly from the bedded moss and earth , uprooting the shrubs and flowers along with it , and was turned upon its side . Theseus had conquered ! While taking breath , he looked joyfully at his mother , and she smiled upon him through her tears . `` Yes , Theseus , '' she said , `` the time has come , and you must stay no longer at my side ! See what King Aegeus , your royal father , left for you beneath the stone , when he lifted it in his mighty arms , and laid it on the spot whence you have now removed it . '' Theseus looked , and saw that the rock had been placed over another slab of stone , containing a cavity within it ; so that it somewhat resembled a roughly-made chest or coffer , of which the upper mass had served as the lid . Within the cavity lay a sword , with a golden hilt , and a pair of sandals . `` That was your father 's sword , '' said Aethra , `` and those were his sandals . When he went to be king of Athens , he bade me treat you as a child until you should prove yourself a man by lifting this heavy stone .
That task being accomplished , you are to put on his sandals , in order to follow in your father 's footsteps , and to gird on his sword , so that you may fight giants and dragons , as King XXXXX did in his youth . ''
Aegeus Aethra Athens Theseus cavity coffer earth heart left sinew