T PI £ 



tlie capital of the Mbrini, and afterwards an cpifcopal fce, 

 with feveral churches and convents ; but being taken in the 

 year 1553 by the emperor Charles V., he demolilhed it. 

 The diltrift belonging to it, however, was ceded by Spain 

 to France, at the treaties of the years 1559 and 1659 ; 6 

 miles S. of St. Oraer. 



THERSA, or Thapsa, in Ancient Gfography, a royal 

 town of Judea, in the half-tribe of ManafTeh, on this fide 

 of Jordan. Therfa was the feat, capital, and burying-place 

 of the firll kings of Ifrael. 



Thersa, or Thirza, a town of Paleftine, in the tribe of 

 Ephraim. 



THERSARA, a town of Afia, in the interior of Af- 

 fyria. Ptolemy. 



THERSITjE, a people of Spain, in Iberia ; they were 

 of the number of thofe whom Annibal caufed to pafs into 

 Africa. 



THERUINGI, a people who inhabited a part of Dacia, 

 on the other fide of the Danube. 



THESBON, a town of Paleftine, on the other fide of 

 Jordan, in the tribe of Gad. 



THESEA, or TuESiEA, ©no-Eia, in Antiquity, feafts cele- 

 brated by the Athenians in honour of Thefeus. 



In fpite of the important fervices that hero had done his 

 country, in dehvering it from a fhameful tribute of fo many 

 youths, of either fex, fent yearly to be devoured by the Mi- 

 notaur in Crete (as the fable has it), or fent as fiaves to 

 Minos, king of Crete, as the hiftories have it, from which he 

 freed them, by overturning Taurus, Minos's general ; he 

 was banifhed for fome time, and retired to Scyros, under the 

 proteftion of Lycomedes, king of that ifland, where he finally 

 loft his life either by accident, on in confequence of the 

 jealoufy of the king. 



The gods, it is faid, revenged this treatment Thefeus 

 received from the Athenians, by afflitling them with a fa- 

 mine, which the oracle allured them (hould not ceafe till they 

 had avenged his death. Upon this they flew Lycomedes, 

 brought Tliefeus's bones to Athens, placed them in a temple 

 erefted to him, and appointed Thefea to be held every eighth 

 day of each month, in which largeffes were diftributed to the 

 people, and the day was fpent, by the rich, in feafting and 

 rejoicing, and with peculiar folemnlty on the eighth day of 

 the month Pyanepfion. 



Plutarch, however, gives a different account of the origin 

 of this feaft ; he fays that the Athenians, imagining they faw 

 Thefeus at the battle of Marathon under the form of a tute- 

 lary deity, confulted the oracle on this prodigy : and being 

 ordered to colleft his bones in the ifland of Scyros, removed 

 them with great pomp to Athens ; and depofited them under 

 a magnificent monument erefted in the middle of the city, 

 which became afterwards an afylum for flaves, in comme- 

 moration of the fuccour afforded by this prince to the unfor- 

 tunate during his life. They alfo eredled a temple where they 

 offered facrifices, &c. At Rome, Thefeus was held in very 

 different eftimation, for Virgil [Mn. lib. vi.) places him in 

 Tartarus, among thofe who were tormented for their crimes. 



THESEUS, in Biography, a hero celebrated in the fabu- 

 lous ages of Greece, and referred by chronologers to the 

 thirteenth century B.C. was the illegitimate fon of iEgeus, 

 king of Athens, by ^thra, daughter of Pittheus, king of 

 Trcezern ; and as he advanced towards maturity difcovered a 

 vigorous fpirit in an athletic frame. In his journey to 

 Athens by land he met with many adventures and confliiSts, 

 and on his arrival found the city agitated by diffeniions. 

 The fons of Pallas, the brother of ^gous, fufpefting that 

 the aged and childlefs fovereign would adopt this newly 

 arrived ftranger for his heir, fomented his jealoufies, fo that 



T II E 



.^geus prepared poifon for difpatching him ; but before his 

 plan could be accompliflied, he difcovered by certain tokens 

 that he was his fon. The confequence of this difcovery was 

 a revolt of the Pallantides, which Tiiefeus fuppreffed. 



For an account of the further exploits of Tliefeus for the 

 relief of the Athenians, we refer to our article Hifiory of 

 Athens. Thefeus having, in the manner there related, efta- 

 bliflied a conftitution for the Athenians, yielded to the im- 

 pulfe of ambition ; and quitting his throne, and fometiracs in 

 the company of Hercules and fometlmes of Pirithous, fon of 

 Ixion, king of Theffaly, whofe fricndfliip he had fecured, 

 undertook a variety of enterprizes, the account of which is fo 

 intermixed with the fabulous, that it is impoffible fatisfac- 

 torily to develope it. He is faid, however, to have con- 

 quered certain Amazons on the banks of the Thermodon, 

 in Afia, taking a queen from among them for his wife ; to 

 have affifted Pirithous in overcoming the Centaurs in Thef- 

 faly ; and to have ftolen away from Sparta the celebrated 

 Helen ; and afterwards to have joined the fame friend in a 

 fimilar atteinpt upon Proferpina, the daughter of Aido- 

 neus, king of the Moloffians, in which Pirithous loft his 

 life, and Thefeus underwent an impriionment, from which 

 Hercules procured his efcape. Upon his return from this 

 romantic expedition, he found his kingdom and family in 

 confufion. Caftor and Pollux, the brothers of Helen, ra- 

 vaged Attica by way of revenge for the infult offered to 

 their fifter. His queen Phaedra, falling in love with Hip- 

 polytus, his fon by the Amazon, and being rejefted, calum- 

 niated him to his father, and occafioned his death, as his 

 tragedy has recorded. From a variety of circumftances that 

 occurred, Thefeus finding that he had loft the attachment 

 of the Athenians, abandoned the city, and intended to repair 

 to Demetrius, fon of Minos, now reigning in Crete. In his 

 paffage thither he was driven by a ftorm to the ifle of Scy- 

 ros, where he was kindly received by the king, Lyco- 

 medes ; but foon afterwards he loft his life by a fall from a 

 rock. (See Thesea. ) The refentment of the Athenians 

 afterwards fubfided, and they regarded him only as a hero 

 and benefaitor ; and Cimon, fon of Miltiades, having con- 

 veyed his bones, as they were fuppofed to be, to Athens, 

 in confequence of the injunftions of an oracle, a magnificent 

 temple was erefted over them, which was made an afylum for 

 the unfortunate. Its remains ftill fubfift as one of the nobleft 

 relics of ancient art in that famous capital. Plut. in Vit. 

 Thefei. Anc. Univ. Hift. Travels of Anacharfis, vol. i. 



THESIN Per A^m and The/in. See Per Jrfm. 



THESIS, SiTi;, pofttion, formed from ti6d;l«i, I put or lay 

 down, in the Schools, a general propofition, which a perfon 

 advances, and offers to maintain. 



In the college it is frequent to have placards, containing 

 a number of thefe thefes in theology, in medicine, in philo- 

 fopliy, in law, &c. The maintaining a thefis, is a great part 

 of the exercife a ftudent is to undergo for a degree. 



Thesis, in Logic, 8cc. — Every propofition may be divided 

 into thefis and hypothefis ; thefis contains the thing af- 

 firmed or denied, and hypothefis the conditions of the afBrm- 

 ation or negation. 



Thus, in Euclid, if a triangle and parallelogram have 

 equal bafes and altitudes (is the hypothefis), the firft is half 

 of the fecond (the thefis). 



Aifis and Thefis. See Arsis. 



Thesis, 9to-i;, depofitio or remifjlo, the beating down the 

 hand or foot at the beginning of a bar in raufic. See Ahsis, 

 tollo, which is the lifting up the hand or foot in the middle 

 or latter part of a bar. 



THESIUM, in Botany, an ancient name, adopted from 



the Greeks, enumeroted by Linnzus, Phil. Bot. 174, among 



3 U 2 thofe 



