Theseus
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Theseus (Greek Θησεύς) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aegeus (or of Poseidon) and of Aethra. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order. As Heracles was the Dorian hero, Theseus was the Ionian founding hero, considered by Athenians as their own great reformer. His name comes from the same root as θεσμoς ("thesmos"), Greek for institution. In The Frogs Aristophanes credited him with inventing many everyday Athenian traditions. He may have originated in, or been based upon, a historical person or persons.
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Birth and the six "labours" of Theseus
Image:Laurent de la La Hyre 002.jpg Aegeus, one of the primordial kings of Athens, found a bride at Troezen, a small city southwest of Athens, in Aethra, daughter of Troezen's king, Pittheus. On their wedding night Aethra waded through the sea to the island Sphairia that lay close to the coast and lay there with Poseidon (god of the sea, and of earthquakes). By the understanding of sex in Antiquity, the mix of semen gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics in his nature. When Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. But before leaving, he buried his sandals, shield, and sword under a huge rock and told her that when their son grew up, he should move the rock, if he were hero enough, and take the weapons for himself as evidence of his royal parentage. At Athens, Aegeus was joined by Medea, who had fled Corinth after slaughtering the children she had born Jason, and took up a new consort in Aegeus. Priestess and consort represented the old order at Athens. Image:Minotaur.jpg Thus Theseus was raised in the land of his mother. When Theseus grew up and became a brave young man, he moved the rock and recovered his father's arms. His mother then told him the truth about his father's identity and that he must take the weapons back to the king and claim his birthright. To get to Athens, Theseus could choose to go by sea (which was the safe way) or by land, following a dangerous path around the Saronic Gulf, where he would encounter a string of six entrances to the Underworld, each guarded by a chthonic enemy in the shapes of thieves and bandits. Young, brave and ambitious, Theseus decided to go by the land route, and defeated a great many bandits along the way.
At the first site, which was Epidaurus, sacred to Apollo and the healer Aesculapius, Theseus turned the tables on the chthonic bandit, the "clubber" Periphetes, who beat his opponents into the Earth, and took from him the stout staff that often identifies Theseus in vase-paintings.
At the Isthmian entrance to the Netherworld was a robber named Siris. He would capture travellers, tie them between two pine trees which were bent down to the ground, and then let the trees go, tearing his victims apart. Theseus killed him by his own method. He then raped Siris's daughter, Perigune, fathering the child Melanippus.
In another deed north of Isthmus, at a place called Crommyon, he killed an enormous pig, the Crommyonian sow, bred by an old crone named Phaea.
Near Megara an elderly robber named Sciron forced travellers along the narrow cliff-face pathway to wash his feet. While they knelt, he kicked them off the cliff behind them, where they were eaten by a sea monster (or, in some versions, a giant turtle). Theseus pushed him off the cliff.
Another of these enemies was Cercyon, King at the holy site of Eleusis, who challenged passers-by to a wrestling match and, when he had beaten them, killed them. Theseus beat Cercyon at wrestling and then killed him instead. In interpretations of the story that follow the formulas of Frazer's The Golden Bough, Cercyon was a "year-king", who was required to do annual battle for his life, for the good of his kingdom, and was succeeded by the victor. Theseus overturned this archaic religious rite by refusing to be sacrificed.
The last bandit was Procrustes, who had a bed which he offered to passers-by in the plain of Eleusis. He then made them fit into it, either by stretching them or by cutting off their feet. Theseus killed him by his own method.
Medea and the Marathonian Bull
When Theseus arrived at Athens, he did not reveal his true identity immediately. He was welcomed by Aegeus, who was suspicious of the stranger. Aegeus's wife, Medea, tried to arrange to have Theseus killed by asking him to capture the Marathonian Bull.
On the way to Marathon, Theseus took shelter from a storm in the hut of an ancient woman named Hecale. She swore to make a sacrifice to Zeus if Theseus was successful in capturing the bull. Theseus did capture the bull, but when he returned to Hecale's hut, she was dead. In her honor Theseus gave her name to one of the demes of Attica, making its inhabitants in a sense her adopted children.
When Theseus returned victoriously to Athens, Medea tried to poison him, but at the last second Aegeas recognized the sandals, shield, and sword and knocked the poisoned wine cup from Theseus's hand, and father and son were reunited.
Ariadne and the Minotaur
In those days, Athens was required to pay tribute to Crete, the controlling power in the region, a situation that sets the myth in the mid-second millennium BCE: each year, seven young men and seven young women were to be sent to Crete as sacrifices to the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus. Theseus, determined to end this horror, volunteered to be one of the sacrifices, and the fourteen chosen sailed to Crete on a ship with black sails, for mourning.
In an episode recounted in Pausanias (Guide to Greece I.17.3), Hyginus (Astronomica 2.5) [1] and Plutarch's vita of Theseus, soon after the Athenians arrived in Crete, Theseus boasted of his parentage, as a son of Poseidon. King Minos, a son of Zeus, demanded he prove his claim by bringing up a golden ring he threw into the ocean, and Theseus descended to the Palace of the Sea, a motif used by the 5th-century Attic vase-painters. In the outcome, Theseus was more than successful: he not only recovered the ring, but also brought up a crown of Thetis that Ariadne was to wear.
Ariadne was a consort of Dionysus. However, she betrayed the old order when she fell in love with Theseus and gave him a sword with which to kill the Minotaur, and a spool of thread. Theseus unwound the thread as he made his way to the center of the Labyrinth searching for the Minotaur, so that he could find his way out of the maze again. In some versions, Theseus found and killed the monster while it slept, but later versions have him taking on the creature in battle, and other versions simply have Theseus beat the creature to death. After killing the Minotaur with the sword, Theseus fled Crete with Ariadne, but then abandoned her, at Athena's demand, on the island of Dia, or possibly Naxos. She was later married to Dionysus
The return to Athens
Sailing back to Athens, Theseus forgot to change the black sails for white ones, as he had promised his father he would do if he survived. His father, watching from the cliffs at Sounion Head, jumped to his death in despair over his son's presumed demise. When he finally reached Athens, Theseus had to put a stop to Pallas, who was organizing a rebellion to take the city away from him. He was successful, killed Pallas, and became king of Athens.
Plutarch reported that Theseus's ship had been preserved into historical times by gradually replacing all the planks, and that philosophers debated whether it was still the original ship. This question is still known as the "ship of Theseus".
Hippolyte
Theseus assists Heracles in his ninth labour - obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. After succeeding in the task, Theseus kidnaps Hippolyte's sister, Antiope, causing the Amazons to attack Athens to rescue her.
In many versions Theseus marries either Antiope or Hippolyta, having a son Hippolytus, or according to Pindar, Demophon. Theseus eventually marries Phaedra, having left his wife, or his wife having died after childbirth. In the version where Theseus is married to, and leaves, Hippolyta, Hippolyte tries to exact revenge by bringing the Amazons into Theseus and Phaedra's wedding to kill everyone, though this fails as she is killed by, in some versions Theseus' men, in others Penthesilea, another Amazon.
Pirithous
Theseus's best friend was Pirithous, Prince of the Lapiths. Pirithous had heard stories of Theseus's courage and strength in battle but wanted proof, so he rustled Theseus's herd of cattle and drove it from Marathon, and Theseus set out in pursuit. Pirithous took up his arms and the pair met to do battle, but were so impressed with each other they took an oath of friendship and joined the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. Later, Pirithous was preparing to marry Hippodamia. The centaurs were guests at the wedding feast, but got drunk and tried to abduct the women, including Hippodamia. The Lapiths won the ensuing battle.
Theseus and Pirithous meet Hades
Theseus and Pirithous pledged themselves to marry daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen and together they kidnapped her, intending to keep her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose Persephone. They left Helen with Theseus's mother, Aethra, and travelled to the underworld, domain of Persephone and her husband, Hades. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and laid out a feast, but as soon as the two visitors sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them fast. Or, in some versions, the stone itself grew and attached itself to their thighs.
Heracles freed Theseus but the earth shook when he attempted to liberate Pirithous, and Pirithous had to remain in Hades for eternity. When Theseus returned to Athens, the Dioscuri had taken Helen and Aethra back to Sparta. When Heracles had pulled Theseus from the chair where he was trapped, some of his thigh stuck to it; this explains the supposedly lean thighs of Athenians.
Phaedra and Hippolytus
Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus, Theseus's son by Hippolyte. According to some versions of the story, Hippolytus had scorned Aphrodite to become a devotee of Artemis, so Aphrodite made Phaedra fall in love with him as punishment. He rejected her out of chastity. Alternatively in Euripides' version, Phaedra's nurse told Hippolytus of her mistress's love and he swore he would not reveal the nurse as his source of information -- before Phaedra killed herself and blamed it on him because she did not believe in Hippolytus' oath. To ensure that she would die with dignity, Phaedra wrote to Theseus on a tablet claiming that Hippolytus had raped her before hanging herself. Theseus believed her and used one of the three wishes he had received from Poseidon against his son. The curse caused Hippolytus's horses to be frightened by a sea monster, usually a bull, and drag their rider to his death. Artemis would later tell Theseus the truth, promising to avenge Hippolytus, her loyal follower, on another follower of Aphrodite. In a third version, after Phaedra told Theseus that Hippolytus had raped her, Theseus killed his son himself, and Phaedra committed suicide out of guilt, for she had not intended for Hippolytus to die. In yet another version, Phaedra simply told Theseus Hippolytus had raped her and did not kill herself, and Dionysus sent a wild bull which terrified Hippolytus's horses.
A cult grew up around Hippolytus, associated with the cult of Aphrodite. Girls who were about to be married offered locks of their hair to him. The cult believed that Asclepius had resurrected Hippolytus and that he lived in a sacred forest near Aricia in Latium.
Theseus and the founding myth of Athens
More broadly, Theseus is the founding hero of Athens. He was responsible for the synoikismos ("dwelling together")—the political unification of Attica, represented in his journey of labours—under Athens. Because he was the unifying king, Theseus built and occupied a palace on the fortress of the Acropolis that may have been similar to the palace excavated in Mycenae. Pausanias reports that after the synoikismos, Theseus established a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos ("Aphrodite of all the People") and Peitho on the southern slope of the Akropolis.
Other stories and his death
According to some sources, Theseus also was one of the Argonauts though Apollonius of Rhodes states in the Argonautica that Theseus was still in the underworld at this time. With Phaedra, Theseus fathered Acamas, who was one of those who hid in the Trojan Horse during the Trojan War. Theseus welcomed the wandering Oedipus and helped Adrastus to bury the Seven Against Thebes. Lycomedes of the island of Scyrus threw Theseus off a cliff after he had lost popularity in Athens. In 475, in response to an oracle, Cimon of Athens, having conquered Skyros for the Athenians, identified as the remains of Theseus "a coffin of a great corpse with a bronze spear-head by its side and a sword." (Plutarch, Life of Cimon, quoted Burkert 1985, p. 206)
Books
Mary Renault's The King Must Die (1958) is a dramatic retelling of the Theseus legend through the return from Crete to Athens. While fictional, it is generally faithful to the spirit and flavor of the best-known variations of the original story. The sequel is The Bull from the Sea (1962), about the hero's later career. Theseus is also a prominent character as the Duke of Athens in William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, ultimately marrying the Amazon known in Greek mythology as Hippolyta. Steven Pressfield's "Last of the Amazons" is a fictional account of Theseus meeting and subsequent marriage to Antiope and the ensuing war.
References
- Plutarch, Theseus online version
- Apollodorus
- Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion 1985
- Kerenyi, Karl, The Heroes of the Greeks 1959
- Ruck, Carl A.P. and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth, ch. IX "Theseus: making the new Athens 1994, pp. 203-222.
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