"As soon as Labda gave birth they sent ten men to kill the child. They came into the courtyard of Eetion's house and asked to see the child.
Labda, who had no idea why they had come, assumed that they were asking because they were friendly with his father and she handed the baby over to one of them.

Now on their way there, so the story goes, they had plotted as follows. Whoever got hold of the baby first should dash it to the ground.
When Labda brought the child and handed him over, by a stroke of heaven sent luck, he gave a smile. The man who took hold of him could not bring himself to harm the baby but passed it on to a second man. The second man passed it on to a third.

This went on until it had been passed to all ten of them; for not one of them wanted to kill the baby. They handed back the baby to its mother.

Then they stood outside the door arguing and blaming each other, especially the first man who had received the child. This was because he had not done what had previously been agreed.

Some time passed before they decided to go back with a view to all of them taking part in the killing. Labda had heard the men talking as they stood outside her door. She was afraid that the men would change their minds, get hold of the child again and kill him.

So she hid him in a chest, where he was unlikely to be discovered. She knew that once the men started searching they would look everywhere, which they did. They came and looked, but when they did not find him, they decided to go home and tell those who had sent them that they had done what they were told to do.

After this, Eetion's son grew up and because he had escaped from that danger, he was called "Kypselos", after the Greek word for a chest. "