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Theseus, hero of athens.

Terracotta amphora (jar)

Signed by Taleides as potter

Terracotta kylix: eye-cup (drinking cup)

Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Attributed to the Diosphos Painter

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

Attributed to the Briseis Painter

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

Attributed to a painter of the Group of Polygnotos

Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar)

Attributed to the Dwarf Painter

Attributed to the Eretria Painter

Marble sarcophagus with garlands and the myth of Theseus and Ariadne

Andrew Greene Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

August 2009

In the ancient Greek world, myth functioned as a method of both recording history and providing precedent for political programs. While today the word “myth” is almost synonymous with “fiction,” in antiquity, myth was an alternate form of reality . Thus, the rise of Theseus as the national hero of Athens, evident in the evolution of his iconography in Athenian art, was a result of a number of historical and political developments that occurred during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.

Myth surrounding Theseus suggests that he lived during the Late Bronze Age, probably a generation before the Homeric heroes of the Trojan War. The earliest references to the hero come from the Iliad and the Odyssey , the Homeric epics of the early eighth century B.C. Theseus’ most significant achievement was the Synoikismos, the unification of the twelve demes, or local settlements of Attica, into the political and economic entity that became Athens.

Theseus’ life can be divided into two distinct periods, as a youth and as king of Athens . Aegeus, king of Athens, and the sea god Poseidon ( 53.11.4 ) both slept with Theseus’ mother, Aithra, on the same night, supplying Theseus with both divine and royal lineage. Theseus was born in Aithra’s home city of Troezen, located in the Peloponnesos , but as an adolescent he traveled around the Saronic Gulf via Epidauros, the Isthmus of Corinth, Krommyon, the Megarian Cliffs, and Eleusis before finally reaching Athens. Along the way he encountered and dispatched six legendary brigands notorious for attacking travelers.

Upon arriving in Athens, Theseus was recognized by his stepmother, Medea, who considered him a threat to her power. Medea attempted to dispatch Theseus by poisoning him, conspiring to ambush him with the Pallantidae Giants, and by sending him to face the Marathonian Bull ( 56.171.48 ).

Likely the most famous of Theseus’ deeds was the slaying of the Minotaur ( 64.300 ; 47.11.5 ; 09.221.39 ). Athens was forced to pay an annual tribute of seven maidens and seven youths to King Minos of Crete to feed the Minotaur, half man, half bull, that inhabited the labyrinthine palace of Minos at Knossos. Theseus, determined to end Minoan dominance, volunteered to be one of the sacrificial youths. On Crete, Theseus seduced Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, who conspired to help him kill the Minotaur and escape by giving him a ball of yarn to unroll as he moved throughout the labyrinth ( 90.12a,b ). Theseus managed to flee Crete with Ariadne, but then abandoned her on the island of Naxos during the voyage back to Athens. King Aegeus had told Theseus that upon returning to Athens, he was to fly a white sail if he had triumphed over the Minotaur, and to instruct the crew to raise a black sail if he had been killed. Theseus, forgetting his father’s direction, flew a black sail as he returned. Aegeus, in his grief, threw himself from the cliff at Cape Sounion into the Aegean, making Theseus the new king of Athens and giving the sea its name.

There is but a sketchy picture of Theseus’ deeds in later life, gleaned from brief literary references of the early Archaic period , mostly from fragmentary works by lyric poets. Theseus embarked on a number of expeditions with his close friend Peirithoos, the king of the Lapith tribe from Thessaly in northern Greece. He also undertook an expedition against the Amazons, in some versions with Herakles , and kidnapped their queen Antiope, whom he subsequently married ( 31.11.13 ; 56.171.42 ). Enraged by this, the Amazons laid siege to Athens, an event that became popular in later artistic representations.

There are certain aspects of the myth of Theseus that were clearly modeled on the more prominent hero Herakles during the early sixth century B.C. Theseus’s encounter with the brigands parallels Herakles’ six deeds in the northern Peloponnesos. Theseus’ capture of the Marathonian Bull mirrors Herakles’ struggle with the Cretan Bull. There also seems to be some conflation of the two since they both partook in an Amazonomachy and a Centauromachy. Both heroes additionally have links to Athena and similarly complex parentage with mortal mothers and divine fathers.

However, while Herakles’ life appears to be a string of continuous heroic deeds, Theseus’ life represents that of a real person, one involving change and maturation. Theseus became king and therefore part of the historical lineage of Athens, whereas Herakles remained free from any geographical ties, probably the reason that he was able to become the Panhellenic hero. Ultimately, as indicated by the development of heroic iconography in Athens, Herakles was superseded by Theseus because he provided a much more complex and local hero for Athens.

The earliest extant representation of Theseus in art appears on the François Vase located in Florence, dated to about 570 B.C. This famous black-figure krater shows Theseus during the Cretan episode, and is one of a small number of representations of Theseus dated before 540 B.C. Between 540 and 525 B.C. , there was a large increase in the production of images of Theseus, though they were limited almost entirely to painted pottery and mainly showed Theseus as heroic slayer of the Minotaur ( 09.221.39 ; 64.300 ). Around 525 B.C. , the iconography of Theseus became more diverse and focused on the cycle of deeds involving the brigands and the abduction of Antiope. Between 490 and 480 B.C. , interest centered on scenes of the Amazonomachy and less prominent myths such as Theseus’ visit to Poseidon’s palace ( 53.11.4 ). The episode is treated in a work by the lyric poet Bacchylides. Between 450 and 430 B.C. , there was a decline in representations of the hero on vases; however, representations in other media increase. In the mid-fifth century B.C. , youthful deeds of Theseus were placed in the metopes of the Parthenon and the Hephaisteion, the temple overlooking the Agora of Athens. Additionally, the shield of Athena Parthenos, the monumental chryselephantine cult statue in the interior of the Parthenon, featured an Amazonomachy that included Theseus.

The rise in prominence of Theseus in Athenian consciousness shows an obvious correlation with historical events and particular political agendas. In the early to mid-sixth century B.C. , the Athenian ruler Solon (ca. 638–558 B.C. ) made a first attempt at introducing democracy. It is worth noting that Athenian democracy was not equivalent to the modern notion; rather, it widened political involvement to a larger swath of the male Athenian population. Nonetheless, the beginnings of this sort of government could easily draw on the Synoikismos as a precedent, giving Solon cause to elevate the importance of Theseus. Additionally, there were a large number of correspondences between myth and historical events of this period. As king, Theseus captured the city of Eleusis from Megara and placed the boundary stone at the Isthmus of Corinth, a midpoint between Athens and its enemy. Domestically, Theseus opened Athens to foreigners and established the Panathenaia, the most important religious festival of the city. Historically, Solon also opened the city to outsiders and heightened the importance of the Panathenaia around 566 B.C.

When the tyrant Peisistratos seized power in 546 B.C. , as Aristotle noted, there already existed a shrine dedicated to Theseus, but the exponential increase in artistic representations during Peisistratos’ reign through 527 B.C. displayed the growing importance of the hero to political agenda. Peisistratos took Theseus to be not only the national hero, but his own personal hero, and used the Cretan adventures to justify his links to the island sanctuary of Delos and his own reorganization of the festival of Apollo there. It was during this period that Theseus’s relevance as national hero started to overwhelm Herakles’ importance as Panhellenic hero, further strengthening Athenian civic pride.

Under Kleisthenes, the polis was reorganized into an even more inclusive democracy, by dividing the city into tribes, trittyes, and demes, a structure that may have been meant to reflect the organization of the Synoikismos. Kleisthenes also took a further step to outwardly claim Theseus as the Athenian hero by placing him in the metopes of the Athenian treasury at Delphi, where he could be seen by Greeks from every polis in the Aegean.

The oligarch Kimon (ca. 510–450 B.C. ) can be considered the ultimate patron of Theseus during the early to mid-fifth century B.C. After the first Persian invasion (ca. 490 B.C. ), Theseus came to symbolize the victorious and powerful city itself. At this time, the Amazonomachy became a key piece of iconography as the Amazons came to represent the Persians as eastern invaders. In 476 B.C. , Kimon returned Theseus’ bones to Athens and built a shrine around them which he had decorated with the Amazonomachy, the Centauromachy, and the Cretan adventures, all painted by either Mikon or Polygnotos, two of the most important painters of antiquity. This act represented the final solidification of Theseus as national hero.

Greene, Andrew. “Theseus, Hero of Athens.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/thes/hd_thes.htm (August 2009)

Further Reading

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, and Paul T. Barber. When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Boardman, John "Herakles." In Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae , vol. V, 1. Zürich: Artemis, 1981.

Camp, John McK. The Archaeology of Athens . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

Gehrke, Hans-Joachim. "Myth, History, and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond." In The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus , edited by Nino Luraghi, pp. 286–313. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Harrison, Evelyn B. "Motifs of the City Siege of Athena Parthenos." American Journal of Archaeology 85, no. 3 (July 1981), pp. 281–317.

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Neils, Jenifer. "Theseus." In Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae , vol. VII, 1, pp. 922–51. Zürich: Artemis, 1981.

Servadei, Cristina. La figura di Theseus nella ceramica attica: Iconografia e iconologia del mito nell'Atene arcaica e classica . Bologna: Ante Quem, 2005.

Shapiro, H. A. "Theseus: Aspects of the Hero in Archaic Greece." In New Perspectives in Early Greek Art , edited by Diana Buitron-Oliver, pp. 123–40. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991.

Shapiro, H. A. Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens . Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1989.

Simon, Erika. Festivals of Attica . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.

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Theseus is a legendary hero from Greek mythology who was considered an early king of Athens . Famously killing villains, Amazons , and centaurs, Theseus' most celebrated adventure was his slaying of the fearsome Minotaur in the labyrinth of the Cretan king Minos.

In the Classical period, Theseus came to represent the perfect Athenian - the just man of action determined to serve his city as best he could and the staunch defender of democracy. Theseus appears in several Greek tragedy plays and his battle with the Minotaur was a favourite subject of Greek vase painters. He is the subject, too, of one of Plutarch 's Lives biographies.

Early Adventures of Theseus – the Labours

In legend, Theseus' father was considered either the son of the god Poseidon or King Aegeus of Athens. His mother was Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, the king of Troezen, whom Aegeus seduced. Theseus spent his childhood at Troezen in the northeast of the Peloponnese as Aegeus had warned Aethra not to tell her son who his real father was until he came of age, perhaps explaining why Theseus was considered the son of Poseidon in his youth. When a young adult, the hero gathered up gifts of sandals and a sword from his father which had been buried under a heavy rock for when he was old enough to lift it. With these tokens, Theseus set off for Athens to claim, as Aegeus' only son, his inheritance, the kingdom of Athens. Before he could reach the city, though, he first had to battle various villains and monsters.

The first villain to be dispatched was Periphetes, who smashed the heads of anyone he came across with a huge iron club. Theseus killed him without ceremony and took his club as a handy weapon for his future adventures. A similar baddy was Sinis (also Sines) who hung around the Corinth countryside and bent pine trees so that they might strike and kill people who passed through the Isthmus. Our hero killed the troublesome Sinis using, of course, a bent pine tree. According to Plutarch, Theseus had a son, Melanippus, by Sinis' daughter Perigune.

Next came Skiron who blocked the narrow sea passage through the rocks of Megara . He took delight in forcing people to wash his feet and when they bent down to do so he would kick them over the cliff and into the sea. Whether the unfortunate travellers survived the fall or not was irrelevant as, in any case, they were then eaten by a giant turtle that haunted those parts. All this frightful behavior was put to an end by Theseus who kicked Skiron into the sea to be eaten by his own accomplice or, in another version, to be turned into a rock.

Next in line came Kerkyon, the champion wrestler who crushed to death anyone who passed his way, but Theseus beat him at his own sport. The last scoundrel was Prokroustes (also Procrustes or Damastes) who waylaid travellers and forced them onto a bed; if they were too tall for the bed he would chop off the excess, if they were too short he would stretch them using weights or hammer their limbs to increase their length. Theseus swiftly dealt with him too by putting him on his own device.

Finished with littering the Greek countryside with dead villains, Theseus then had to kill a bad-tempered sow called Phaia which was causing trouble, again, in the Corinth area. He finally did arrive at Athens, where he was not helped by his jealous step-mother Medea . She and Theseus' cousins, the Pallantidae, tried several times to do away with our hero but their ambushes and poisonings came to nothing. Medea then sent Theseus off on the dangerous errand of dealing with the bull of Marathon which was terrorizing the countryside. The hero captured the animal and sacrificed it to Apollo . In yet more adventures, Theseus even found time to help Meleager in the Calydonian Boar hunt and to accompany Jason and his Argonauts on their quest to find the Golden Fleece , but his greatest trial was yet to come.

Theseus & the Minotaur

Theseus' most famous adventure was his slaying of the Minotaur of King Minos on Crete . Every year (or every nine, according to Plutarch) Athens was compelled to send seven young men and seven young women to feed this fearsome creature with a man's body and the head of a bull, which dwelt in the mysterious labyrinth at Knossos , built by the famed architect Daedalus . The terrible tribute was, in some sources, compensation for the death of Minos' son Androgeous, killed by jealous competitors after he won at the Athenian Games (in other versions he was killed by the bull of Marathon). The unique Minotaur came from the union of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a bull after the queen was made to fall in love with the animal by Zeus as revenge for Minos' refusal to sacrifice it in the god's honour.

Theseus, seeking to put a stop to this barbarity, enrolled himself as one of the seven youths and sailed to Crete. On the way, our hero, with the help of Amphitrite , Poseidon's wife, retrieved a ring which had been thrown into the sea by Minos. On arrival Theseus fearlessly entered the lair of the Minotaur from which no one had ever come out alive. There, with the help of Ariadne , daughter of Minos, the hero marked his way through the winding passages of the labyrinth using a ball of string. Striking down the beast with his sword, he easily followed the string back to the labyrinth's entrance and freed Athens from her terrible obligation to Minos.

Sailing back to Athens, Theseus rather ungallantly abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos , perhaps on the advice of Athena , but she soon found solace in the arms of the god of wine Dionysos , whom she married. In another version she is killed by Artemis , acting on instructions from Dionysos, who had once been betrothed to the princess and was miffed to have lost her to Theseus. The hero then stopped at Delos , offered a sacrifice to Apollo, and performed what would become a famous dance, the geranos or Crane dance, which mimics the movements inside the labyrinth.

Theseus then sailed on home but was hit by tragedy when he forgot, as he had promised to his father before setting off, to hoist a white sail instead of the usual black one (set as a mark of mourning for the doomed youths) which would signal to his waiting father that all was well. Theseus' father saw the black sail, thought his son had been killed by the Minotaur and, utterly distraught, threw himself off the cliff into the sea below. Thereafter, the sea carried his name, the Aegean . Theseus thus inherited the throne and he settled down to government, unifying the many small settlements of the area into a single political unit (synoecism), and establishing a peaceful and prosperous period for Athens.

Battling Amazons, Centaurs & Hades

This was not the end of Theseus' adventures as he was involved in several other myths too. He fought the Amazons alongside Hercules when they invaded Attica to regain the girdle of their queen Hippolyta , aka Antiope, which Hercules had stolen as one of his labours. In some accounts, Hippolyta was Theseus' first wife and together they had a son, Hippolytos. Next up, Theseus fought the centaurs, the half-man, half-horse creatures, which had disrupted the wedding of Theseus' good friend Pirithous (Peirithoos) of the Lapiths.

Theseus then tried to abduct Persephone from Hades in the underworld so that Peirithous might marry her. Hades was not to give up his bride so easily (especially after the trouble taken to get her down there in the first place) and he tricked the pair into sitting on thrones which entrapped them. Theseus was only rescued by the exploits of Hercules, who had come to capture Cerberos in his final labour, but Peirithous was, alas, left to his fate.

Theseus' second wife was Phaidra, sister of Ariadne, with whom he had two sons, Akamas and Demophon. Unfortunately for family harmony, Phaidra then fell in love with her step-son Hippolytos. Her advances were not reciprocated, though, and scorned, she furiously told Theseus that his son had tried to rape her. Outraged, Theseus called upon Poseidon to punish Hippolytos, and the god of the sea responded by sending a bull from the depths of the ocean. This creature so frightened the horses of Hippolytos' chariot that they tipped the youth into the sea where he drowned. Phaidra, hit by pangs of guilt, then hanged herself to complete a typical cycle of Greek tragedy.

In another abduction, but this time more successful, Theseus captured Helen when she was a child and gave her to his mother to look after until she reached womanhood. The girl was rescued by her brothers, though, the Dioscuri . The latter invaded Attica for the purpose and Theseus was forced to flee to the Aegean island of Skyros. According to legend, the hero was killed there by King Lycomdedes, who pushed him off a cliff. His bones were eventually recovered by the Athenian statesman and admiral Cimon c. 475 BCE, who brought them back to Athens and placed them in a temple , the Theseion. Theseus was subsequently honoured by the Theseia festival held each year in the city and was forever associated with the 8th day of each month, the traditional day the hero had first arrived in Athens as a youth.

What is the Significance of the Theseus Myths?

The myths involving Theseus became prominent in the 6th century BCE, at a time when the city of Athens was entering a period of dominance in wider Greece . Theseus may have been a convenient alternative to that other great Greek hero Hercules, and he gave the city a prestigious heritage which differed from other cities . Theseus was also promoted by the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes , who was arch-rival to the Peisistratids who regarded Hercules as the symbol of Athens' strength. The long list of villains that Theseus deals with is also very similar in nature to the older story of Hercules' twelve labours. In his fight against the Amazons and centaurs, Theseus was likely a metaphor for Athens' resistance against foreign attack.

The requirement of paying a tribute of youths to Minoan Crete may have been based on a real payment of tribute to the Aegean's dominant trading power in the middle Bronze Age . The Minoans were also bull-worshippers as attested by archaeological finds such as bull horn architectural decorations, bull rhytons, and frescoes, and other artwork depicting a sport of bull-leaping. In addition, the palace of Knossos was extremely large for its time and was composed of multiple small adjoining rooms, many with columns and open ceilings acting as light-wells. It would not be at all surprising that Athenian visitors might consider this architectural wonder a labyrinth. In another possible link, the very word labyrinth may be connected to the labrys, a double axe symbol of important religious significance to the Minoans.

How is Theseus Represented Art & Literature ?

Theseus appears, in particular fighting the Minotaur, in Greek art from the last decade of the 6th century BCE. Scenes from the hero's battles on his first journey to Athens were present in relief sculpture on the Hephaesteion of Athens and the Athenian treasury at Delphi - both buildings date to c. 500 BCE - and the temple of Poseidon at Sounion and the heroon at Trysa in Lycia .

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The hero's battles with the bull of Marathon and the Minotaur were particularly popular with black-figure vase painters, the finest example being the Francois Vase , which shows many scenes from the Theseus story. Special mention should be given to a magnificent Attic red-figure Kylix, now in the British Museum, which depicts all of the hero's labours. Theseus is distinguished from similar painted scenes of Hercules fighting a bull and centaurs as the former is usually depicted without a beard.

Theseus appears in the tragedies of both Euripides ( Hippolytus and Suppliant Women – where he criticizes tyranny and defends democracy) and Sophocles ( Oedipus at Colonus ). Finally, the labyrinth appeared on Cretan coins, and the motif was also a popular device in Roman art , especially floor mosaics.

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Bibliography

• Bagnall, R. et al. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012
• Carabatea, M. Greek Mythology. Adam Editions, 1997.
• Carpenter, T.H. Art and Myth in Ancient Greece. Thames & Hudson, 1991.
• Hope Moncrieff, A.R. Classical Mythology. Senate: an imprint of Studio Editions, 1994.
• Hornblower, S. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Kinzl, H. A Companion to the Classical Greek World. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
• Plutarch. The Rise and Fall of Athens. Penguin Classics, 1960.

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Theseus & the Minotaur: More than a Myth?

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In Greek mythology, Thesis , Thesis or Thetis (in Ancient Greek Θεσις or Θετις, "creation") was the primordial goddess of creation, a deity or concept closely related to Fusis, Nature. She alone appears in the Orphic theogonies as the first being to exist, together with the primordial Waters, and later the slime. To further confuse things, Thesis is also equated as the feminine part of another primordial, Fanes, creator demiurge par excellence. Thesis's name, as such, never appears in the texts, where she is named as Thetis and Metis. Both are related in a rather tenuous way to the cosmic creator goddess described in the Theogony of Alcmán and the Orphics, although the characteristics of both divinities are moving away from the concept of first creation.

Theses as Thetis

Alcmán tells us that at the beginning was Thetis (Thesis), Creation, and after her two other primordial gods arose, Poros, the Beginning, and Tecmor, the End (who could be Time and Necessity with other identifications). Thus it is implied that the creation, the beginning and the end designed all things, that they arose simultaneously. All things have their nature resembling bronze, while Thetis is an artisan who molds matter as if she were a potter molding primordial ooze. earlier (silt and Earth)" because of their ineffable nature and instead introduced Phanes. It is believed that Homer, when he says that Thetis and Oceanus are the creators of the gods, is alluding at least to this role of Thetis as goddess of creation. One of the Orphic theogony alludes to this fact, when Oceanus is equated with the primordial Waters and his wife Thetis with the primordial goddess of creation; Nono also seems to agree with this attribution.

Thesis as Metis

Thesis also appears in myths in the guise of Metis, the goddess devoured by Zeus, but here as a male being. This Metis ("wisdom", "inventiveness" or "advice") is a mystical personification of creative power, similar to Phanes and Ericepeus. Plato says that Metis had two children: Poros, Opportunity, and Penía, Poverty; a whole aphorism about ingenuity, which in the mind of man is born as a result of two opposite concepts: the lack of resources and opportunities.

Contenido relacionado

is a primordial goddess of creation in ancient Greek religion. She is sometimes thought to be the child of Khaos, and emerged with Hydros. It is believed that she and her sibling created the world Gaia and the waters that surround her, or either that cooperated with Khaos in the process.

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Theseus, the king of Athens

The semi-mythical, semi-historical Theseus was the great hero of ancient Athens . The numerous heroic deeds ascribed to him were seen by the ancient Athenians as the acts that led to the birth of democracy in the Attic city-state, the cradle of Greek democracy.

Since he is portrayed as the contemporary of Hercules, it can be assumed that he belonged to the generation previous to the Trojan War. His grand exploits against vicious villains and dreadful monsters are said to be an allegorical representation of how Theseus got rid of the tyrants, got the Athenians free from fear and brought an end to the burdensome tribute the city had to pay to foreign powers.

Discover the myth of Theseus, the legendary king

Having two fathers.

Aegeus, one of the prehistoric kings of Athens, although twice married, had no heir to the throne. So he made a pilgrimage to consult the celebrated oracle of Delphi . As he didn't get a clear-cut answer from the oracle, he sought advice from his wise friend Pittheus, king of Troezen (in Argolis). Pittheus happily gave away his daughter Aethra to his friend at a secret wedding.

Aethra, after having lain with her husband on her wedding night, decided to take a walk in the moonlight, which took her through the shallow waters of the sea to the Sferia island, on the opposite coast of Poros . There she found Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes. Aethra, in the middle of the night and under the moonlight, was seduced by Poseidon. Thus she got doubly impregnated with the seed of a mortal and a god, giving birth to our hero, Theseus, blessed to be born with both human and divine qualities.

King Aegeus apparently didn’t need a wife, only an heir. So, he decided to return to Athens after the birth of his son. Before his departure, however, he hid his sword and sandals beneath a huge rock in the presence of Aethra and told her to send Theseus to Athens when he was old enough and had the strength to roll away the rock and retrieve the evidence of his royal lineage.

Theseus grew up in Troezen under the care of his mother and grandfather. From a young age, the brave young man was fired up with ambition to emulate the awesome exploits of his hero, Hercules, who had also achieved fame by destroying many villains and monsters. When, at the right time, Aethra led her son to the rock of his destiny, he easily rolled it away and retrieved the sword and sandals of his father.

As Theseus was about to set out on his journey towards fate, Pittheus advised his grandson to avoid the robber-infested roads and travel by the shorter and safer sea-route to Athens. But our young hero would have none of it: he had already decided to make confronting and overcoming perils his lifetime hobby. So he chose the dangerous land-route around the Saronic Gulf on which he would shortly encounter a series of tremendous challenges.

Adventures on the way to Athens

It wasn't long before Theseus had his first adventure. At Epidaurus , a place sacred to the god Apollo and the legendary physician Asclepius, he met the famous Periphetes, son of Hephestus, who used to dash out the brains of travelers with an iron club. As his grandfather had already given him a description of Periphetes, Theseus immediately recognized him. In the savage encounter that followed Theseus paid back Periphetes in his own coin by dashing out the brains of the scoundrel with his own iron club. The brave youth kept the club as a trophy and soon reached the Isthmus of Corinth without further interruption.

The inhabitants at the Isthmus warned Theseus about another danger to face: Siris (or, Sinnis) the bandit, guarding the passage from Corinth to Athens, had a more interesting method of treating travelers than the previous villain. Siris would tie his helpless victim between two trees which he would bend to the ground and then abruptly release it. This improvised catapult would hurl the victims into the air and then onto the ground, dashing them to their deaths. Well, it didn't take much time for our hero to finish off this task, too. Then Theseus thought this was a good time to lose his virginity, so he raped the daughter of Siris, named Perigune, who would beget him a son, Melanippus.

The next adventure of Theseus occurred near the borders of Megara on a narrow trail leading to the edge of a cliff, where he found the evil bandit Scyron. This scoundrel would compel travelers to wash his feet with their backs to the sea, so that he could conveniently kick them into the waters below, where a sea monster or a giant turtle would eat them. This time, however, it was the villain Scyron who was eaten by the sea monster.

Little farther away from Eleusina, by the banks of the river Cephissus, Theseus encountered his final adventure on the journey to Athens. The last bandit to play dice with his life against our hero was the giant Procrustes, nicknamed "the Stretcher". This amiable scoundrel had an imaginative way of showing his hospitality to travelers, for whom he always kept ready two iron beds, one too long and the other too short. He would offer the too short bed to the tall ones and, to help them to fit comfortably into the bed, would cut off their limbs.

The same happened with the unlucky short men in the long bed: he would stretch their limbs to make a perfect fit, the victims dying in terrible agony when their limbs were ripped off. Theseus gave the Stretcher the same treatment, the giant Procrustes expiring in the short bed like his unfortunate victims. Today, Procrustes is known by the phrase "the Procrustean Bed".

The Marathonian Bull

Theseus finally arrived at his destination, Athens, without encountering any further challenge. He decided to delay the meeting with his father Aegeus until he had a hold on the surroundings. Being a smart and a tough hero, he did some research about the city and its king and gathered some disturbing news, including the intelligence that king Aegeus was in the helpless clutches of the evil sorceress Medea. So, when he came face to face with his father for the first time, he kept the sword and sandals, the tokens of his paternity, hidden.

Medea, however, knew the true identity of the strange young newcomer through her occult powers. That didn't sit well with the sorceress who wanted her own son, Medus, to succeed to the kingdom of Athens. So, she conspired to poison the aged king's mind against the stranger, and suggested, in all innocence, to send the youth to capture the dreadful Marathonian Bull, a menace to the farmers of the countryside, so she could get rid of him easily, without resorting to the usual method on such occasions, murder.

The Marathonian Bull proposal revived the flagging spirit of our hero who was getting rather bored in the absence of any real challenges to face. On his way to Marathon, Theseus had to seek refuge during a storm in the humble abode of an aged woman called Hecale. She promised the brave youth to make a sacrifice to Zeus, chief of the gods, if he succeeded in capturing the bull.

Well, capturing the Marathon Bull was no big deal for our intrepid hero. But Hecale was dead when Theseus returned to her hut with the captured bull. Remembering her kindness to him, he would later name one of the regions of Attica "Hecale" to honor the old woman. This region exists with the same name till today, as Hecalei (Ekali, in modern Greek) in a luxurious area to the north side of Athems close to Kifisia.

When the victorious Theseus returned to Athens with the dead body of the Marathon Bull, Aegeus, goaded on by Medea, became still more suspicious of him. So he had to assent to the plan of the sorceress to poison Theseus during the feast to celebrate his victory.

However, as our hero was about to drink the poisoned wine, the eyes of Aegeus fell upon the sword and sandals the young stranger had just worn. Recognizing his son, Aegeus knocked the cup of poisoned wine off his hand and, embracing the youth with great joy and emotion, named Theseus as his son and successor before his subjects. Evil Medea was perpetually banished from Athens.

Set sail to kill the Minotaur

However, the adventures of Theseus did not end at this point. Soon, the young man learned that Athens was facing a great tragedy. For the past couple of decades, Aegeus had been paying a barbarous tribute to King Minos of Crete after he had been defeated in a long-running war, launched by the Cretans to avenge the murder of Androgens, the younger son of the Cretan king, by the Athenians.

The tribute consisted of seven boys and seven maidens from the noblest families of Athens to be sent at every nine years to Crete to be devoured by Minotaur, the fearful half-man half-beast, who lived in the Labyrinth, an impressive construction with crossed paths from which no man could escape.

Despite his father's objections, Theseus was determined to embark upon the perilous mission as one of the nine boys on the occasion of the third tribute. Before he set sail, he promised his father Aegeus that, should he return victorious from this task, the ship carrying him and the others would hoist white sails instead of the normal black sails.

Theseus set sail with his fellow boys and maidens only after taking some wise precautions. He consulted an oracle which told him to make Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, his patroness. After making the necessary sacrifices to the goddess, he embarked on his fateful journey to confront the dreadful Minotaur.

The love affair with Ariadne: truth or trick?

Theseus and his fellow sacrificial lambs were given an audience by King Minos at the palace where Ariadne, daughter of the Cretan king, fell madly in love with our hero, instigated by Aphrodite. Ariadne somehow managed to meet the noble youth alone where they swore eternal love and fidelity to each other. She also provided him with a sharp sword (to slay the Minotaur) and a skein of thread (to find his way back within the complex maze). Thus armed, Theseus and his company entered the inscrutable Labyrinth.

Following the advice of Ariadne, Theseus fastened the end of the thread at the entrance to the Labyrinth and continued to carefully unwind the skein as he was looking for the great beast. After a while, the brave youth finally found Minotaur in his lair. Their ensued a long and fierce battle which came to an end when Theseus killed the monster with the sword Ariadne had given him.

Following the line of the thread, Theseus and his companions safely came out of the Labyrinth where an anxious Ariadne was waiting for him. Then, the two quickly embarked on the ship to Athens, before king Minos learnt that Minotaur was killed and his own daughter had helped Theseus.

However, the happiness of the young lovers was to live short. At the island of Naxos, where the ship had touched, Theseus had a dream in which the wine-god Dionysus told him that Ariadne had been reserved by the Fates to be his bride and also warned him of innumerable misfortunes if he didn't give up the maiden. Although he had no fear of any monster or villain, Theseus had great respect for the gods and wanted to have their favour. So, Theseus and Ariadne took a tearful farewell of each other and the ship set sail to Athens.

Unfortunately, everyone in the ship was distraught at parting from Ariadne and forgot to change the ship's sails to white. Another more credible version of the story says that Theseus pretended to be in love with Ariadne in order to obtain her help. After they left Crete safely, our hero abandoned the lovely maiden at Naxos , as he had no more use for her. The heartbroken Ariadne cursed Theseus and his companions and they all forgot to change the ship's sail from black to white.

In any case, after Ariadne was abandoned to Naxos, god Dionysus made her his bride, lived together and had three sons, Thoas, Oenopion and Staphylus. Later on, Dionysus brought Ariadne to Mt Olympus to live with the other gods.

In the meanwhile, Aegeus was waiting in anxiety for his son to come back from Crete. Every evening, he was going to Cape Sounion , the southernmost area of Attica, to see the ship coming from Crete. However, months had passed and his son had not returned. One day, as he was standing on a cliff, at Sounion, he finally saw the ship but the sails were black! He immediately thought that his son was dead and, in total despair, he fell into the sea and got drowned. From then on, the Athenians named the sea, the Aegean Sea, in memory of their beloved king.

Becoming the king of Athens

As the eligible heir, Theseus became King of Athens in the place of his father. He won the approval and admiration of the Athenian citizens who saw in him a wise and far-sighted ruler as well as a brave and fearless warrior.

Theseus peacefully unified the disparate Attic communities into one powerful centrally-administered state. Agriculture and commerce flourished and Athens became a prosperous and important maritime port, as Theseus rightfully believed that the sea would give power to Athens. He also established the Isthmian Games to commemorate the tasks he had performed during his journey from Troizen to Athens and inaugurated many new festivals, including the Panthenaea festivals, dedicated to goddess Athena, the protector of the city.

The Amazon Antigone, his first wife

The next adventure of the restless Theseus got him into a lot of trouble and imperiled the safety of his kingdom. On a voyage of exploration, his ship set ashore on Lemnos, the land of the legendary female warriors, the Amazons . The lovely Antigone, sister of the Queen of the Amazons was sent as an emissary to find out whether the intentions of the strangers were peaceful or not.

Theseus took one look at the beautiful emissary and forgot all about diplomatic affairs. He immediately set sail to Athens with the dumbfounded Antigone. The warrior-lady must have been impressed with the intrepid king of Athens, as she apparently didn't object to her own abduction. When they reached Athens, Theseus made her his queen and Antigone bore her husband a son, Hippolytus.

The outraged Amazons did not waste their time and launched their attack towards Athens. Their attack was so strong that they managed to penetrate deep into the Athenian territory. Theseus soon organized his forces and unleashed a vicious counterattack that forced the Amazon warriors to ask for peace. The unfortunate queen Antigone, however, who had courageously fought alongside Theseus against her own people, died in the battlefield and was deeply mourned by her husband.

The next great episode in the life of Theseus was his celebrated friendship with Prithious, prince of the Lapiths, a legendary people from Mt Pelion, Thessaly. Prithious had heard lots of stories about the brave deeds and awesome adventures of Theseus and he wanted to test the renowned hero.

So he made an incursion into Attica with a band of followers and decamped with Theseus' herds of cattle. When our hero, along with his armed men, encountered Prithious, both of them were suddenly struck by an inexplicable admiration for each other. They swore eternal friendship and became inseparable friends.

According to legend, the new friends were said to have taken part together in the famed hunt for the Calydonian Boar as well as the battle against the Centaurs, creatures who were part-human, part-horse. The latter event occurred when one among the Centaurs invited to Prithious' wedding feast got drunk and tried to rape the bride Hippodamia, joined by the other Centaurs, all of whom also tried to rape any woman that was in the celebration. Prithious and his Lapiths, with the help of Theseus, attacked the Centaurs and recovered the honour of their women.

The abduction of Helen

Later on, the two friends decided to assist each other to abduct a daughter of Zeus each. The choice of Theseus was Helen, who was later to become famous as Helen of Troy. The fact that Helen was only nine years old at that timed didn't deter our hero, as he wanted to abduct her and keep her safe until her time to get married would come. The duo kidnapped Helen first and Theseus left her in the safe custody of his mother, Aethra, at Troizen for a few years. However, the brothers of Helen, Castor and Pollux, rescued the girl and took their sister back to Sparta, their homeland.

Phaedra, his second wife

After the death of his Amazonian wife Antigone, Theseus had married Phaedra, the sister of Ariadne, the woman he had once betrayed. Phaedra, a young woman that was to have a tragic fate, gave her husband two sons, Demophone and Acamas. Meanwhile Theseus' son by Antigone, Hippolytus, had grown into a handsome youth. When he turned twenty, he chose to become a devotee of Artemis, the goddess of hunting, hills and forests, and not of goddess Aphrodite, as his father had done.

The incensed Aphrodite decided to take her revenge, for this caused Phaedra to fall madly and deeply in love with her handsome stepson. When Hippolytus scornfully rejected the advances of his mother-in-law, she committed suicide from her despair. However, she had before written a suicide note saying that Hippolytus had raped and dishonored her, which is why she decided to kill herself.

The enraged Theseus prayed to the sea-god Poseidon, one of his fathers, to punish Hippolytus. Indeed, Poseidon sent a monster that frightened the horses drawing the chariot of Hippolytus. The horses went mad overturning the chariot dragging along the youth who had been trapped in the reins. Theseus, in the meanwhile, had learned the truth from an old servant of Phaedra. He rushed to save his son's life, only to find him almost dead. The poor Hippolytus expired in the arms of his grief-stricken father.

This great tradedy has inspired many authors and artists along centuries, starting from Hippolytus , the ancient tragedy of Euripides, till the numerous movies and plays that have been written based on this story.

An end unsuitable for a hero

This incident was the beginning of end for Theseus, who was gradually losing his popularity among the Athenians. His former heroic deeds and services to the state were forgotten and rebellions began to surface all around against his rule. Theseus finally abdicated his throne and took refuge on the island of Skyros.

There Lycomedes, the king of the island, thought that Theseus would eventually want to become king of Skyros. Thus, in the guise of friendship, he took Theseus at the top of a cliff and murdered him, pushing him off the cliff into the sea. This was the tragic end of the life of one of the greatest Greek heroes and the noblest among the Athenians.

Previous myth: Jason and the Argonauts | Next myth: The Amazons

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Theseus, Great Hero of Greek Mythology

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Theseus is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology, a prince of Athens who battled numerous foes including the Minotaur , the Amazons , and the Crommyon Sow , and traveled to Hades, where he had to be rescued by Hercules . As the legendary king of Athens, he is credited with inventing a constitutional government, limiting his own powers in the process. 

Fast Facts: Theseus, Great Hero of Greek Mythology

• Culture/Country: Ancient Greece
• Realms and Powers: King of Athens
• Parents: Son of Aegeus (or possibly of Poseidon) and Aethra
• Spouses: Ariadne, Antiope, and Phaedra
• Children: Hippolytus (or Demophoon)
• Primary Sources: Plutarch "Theseus;" Odes 17 and 18 written by Bacchylides in the first half of 5th c BCE, Apollodorus, many other classic sources 

Theseus in Greek Mythology

The King of Athens, Aegeus (also spelled Aigeus), had two wives, but neither produced an heir. He goes to the Oracle of Delphi who tells him "not to untie the mouth of the wineskin until he arrived at the heights of Athens." Confused by the purposefully-confusing oracle, Aegeus visits Pittheus, the King of Troezen (or Troizen), who figures out that the oracle means "don't sleep with anyone until you return to Athens." Pittheus wants his kingdom to unite with Athens, so he gets Aegeus drunk and slips his willing daughter Aethra into Aegeus' bed. 

When Aegeus wakes up, he hides his sword and sandals under a large rock and tells Aethra that should she bear a son, if that son is able to roll away the stone, he should bring his sandals and swords to Athens so that Aegeus can recognize him. Some versions of the tale say that she has a dream from Athena saying to cross over to the island of Sphairia to pour a libation, and there she is impregnated by Poseidon . 

Theseus is born, and when he comes of age, he is able to roll away the rock and take the armor to Athens, where he is recognized as heir and eventually becomes king.

Appearance and Reputation 

By all the various accounts, Theseus is steadfast in the din of battle, a handsome, dark-eyed man who is adventurous, romantic, excellent with the spear, a faithful friend but spotty lover. Later Athenians credit Theseus as a wise and just ruler, who invented their form of government, after the true origins were lost to time.

Theseus in Myth

One myth is set in his childhood: Hercules (Herakles) comes to visit Theseus' grandfather Pittheus and drops his lion skin cloak on the ground. The children of the palace all run away thinking it is a lion, but the brave Theseus whacks it with an ax.

When Theseus decides to make his way to Athens, he chooses to go by land rather than sea because a land journey would be more open to adventure. On his way to Athens, he slays several robbers and monsters—Periphetes in Epidaurus (a lame, one-eyed club-wielding thief); the Corinthian bandits Sinis and Sciron; Phaea (the " Crommyonion Sow ," a giant pig and its mistress who were terrorizing the Krommyon countryside); Cercyon (a mighty wrestler and bandit in Eleusis); and Procrustes (a rogue blacksmith and bandit in Attica).

Theseus, Prince of Athens

When he arrives in Athens, Medea —then the wife of Aegeus and mother of his son Medus—is the first to recognize Theseus as Aegeus' heir and attempts to poison him. Aegeus eventually does recognize him and stops Theseus from drinking the poison. Medea sends Theseus on an impossible errand to capture the Marathonian Bull, but Theseus completes the errand and returns to Athens alive. 

As the prince, Theseus takes on the Minotaur , a half-man, half-bull monster owned by King Minos and to whom Athenian maidens and youths were sacrificed. With the help of the princess Ariadne, he slays the Minotaur and rescues the young people, but fails to provide a signal to his father that all is well—to change the black sails to white ones. Aegeas leaps to his death and Theseus becomes king.

King Theseus 

Becoming a king does not suppress the young man, and his adventures while king include an attack on the Amazons, after which he carries off their queen Antiope. The Amazons, led by Hippolyta, in turn invade Attica and penetrate into Athens, where they fight a losing battle. Theseus has a son named Hippolytus (or Demophoon) by Antiope (or Hippolyta) before she dies, after which he marries Ariadne's sister Phaedra.

Theseus joins Jason's Argonauts and participates in the Calydonian boar hunt . As a close friend of Pirithous, the king of Larissa, Theseus helps him in the battle of the Lapithae against the centaurs. 

Pirithous develops a passion for Persephone , the Queen of the Underworld, and he and Theseus travel to Hades to abduct her. But Pirithous dies there, and Theseus is trapped and must be rescued by Hercules. 

Theseus as Mythical Politician

As king of Athens, Theseus is said to have broken up the 12 separate precincts in Athens and united them in a single commonwealth. He is said to have established a constitutional government, limited his own powers, and distributed the citizens into three classes: Eupatridae (nobles), Geomori (peasant farmers), and Demiurgi (craft artisans).

Theseus and Pirithous carry off the legendary beauty Helen of Sparta , and he and Pirithous take her away from Sparta and leave her at Aphidnae under Aethra's care, where she is rescued by her brothers the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). 

The Dioscuri set up Menestheus as Theseus successor—Menestheus would go on to lead Athens into battle over Helen in the Trojan Wars . He incites the people of Athens against Theseus, who retires to the island Scryos where he is tricked by King Lycomedes and, like his father before him, falls into the sea. 

• Hard, Robin. "The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology." London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
• Leeming, David. "The Oxford Companion to World Mythology." Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
• Smith, William, and G.E. Marindon, eds. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology." London: John Murray, 1904. Print
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Thesis (goddess)

Thesis ( Greek Θέσις ; Thesis ) is a primordial goddess of creation in ancient Greek religion. [1] She is sometimes thought to be the child of Chaos , and emerged with Hydros . It is believed that she and her sibling created the world Gaia and the waters that surround her, or either that cooperated with Chaos in the process. She is sometimes identified with Physis .

See also [ ]

References [ ].

• ↑ http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Thesis.html

Φυσις

Transliteration

Phusis, Physis

Translation

Origin, Nature ( phusis )

PHYSIS was the primordial goddess of the origin and ordering of nature. The Orphics titled her Protogeneia "the First Born."

Physis was similar to the primordial deities Eros (Procreation), Phanes and Thesis (Creation). The creator-god was regarded as both male and female.

NONE (emerged at the beginning of time) (Orphic Hymn 10, Nonnus Dionysiaca 41.51)

ALTERNATE NAMES

Πρωτογενεια

Prôtogeneia

First Born ( prôtos, genos )

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Physis goddess of nature.

Orphic Hymn 10 to Phusis (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) : "To Physis (Nature), Fumigation from Aromatics. Physis, all-parent, ancient and divine, o much mechanic mother, art is thine; heavenly, abundant, venerable queen, in every part of thy dominions seen. Untamed, all taming, ever splendid light, all ruling, honoured, and supremely bright. Immortal, Protogeneia (First-Born), ever still the same, nocturnal, starry, shining, powerful dame. Thy feet's still traces in a circling course, by thee are turned, with unremitting force. Pure ornament of all the powers divine, finite and infinite alike you shine; to all things common, and in all things known, yet incommunicable and alone. Without a father of thy wondrous frame, thyself the father whence thy essence came; mingling, all-flourishing, supremely wise, and bond connective of the earth and skies. Leader, life-bearing queen, all various named, and for commanding grace and beauty famed. Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway the waters of the restless deep obey. Ethereal, earthly, for the pious glad, sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad: all-wise, all-bounteous, provident, divine, a rich increase of nutriment is thine; and to maturity whatever may spring, you to decay and dissolution bring. Father of all, great nurse, and mother kind, abundant, blessed, all-spermatic mind: mature, impetuous, from whose fertile seeds and plastic hand this changing scene proceeds. All-parent power, in vital impulse seen, eternal, moving, all-sagacious queen. By thee the world, whose parts in rapid flow, like swift descending streams, no respite know, on an eternal hinge, with steady course, is whirled with matchless, unremitting force. Throned on a circling car, thy mighty hand holds and directs the reins of wide command: various thy essence, honoured, and the best, of judgement too, the general end and test. Intrepid, fatal, all-subduing dame, life everlasting, fate ( aisa ), breathing flame. Immortal providence, the world is thine, and thou art all things, architect divine. O, blessed Goddess, hear they suppliants' prayer, and make their future life thy constant care; give plenteous seasons and sufficient wealth, and crown our days iwht lasting peace and health."

Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 3 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) : "[From a description of an ancient Greek painting :] No doubt you see the grove around the spring, the work of wise Nature ( physis ), I believe; for Nature ( physis ) is sufficient for all she desires, and has no need of art; indeed it is she who is the origin of arts themselves."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 650 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "[After the world-shattering battle between Zeus and the monster Typhoeus :] Then Physis (Nature), who governs the universe and recreates its substance, closed up the gaping rents in earth's broken surface, and sealed once more with the bond of indivisible joinery those island cliffs which had been rent from their bed."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41. 51 ff : "Here [Beroe in Lebanon] dwelt a people agemates with the dawn, whom Physis (Nature) by her own breeding, in some unwedded way, begat without bridal, without wedding, fatherless, motherless, unborn: when the atoms were mingled in fourfold combination, and the seedless ooze shaped a clever offspring by comingling water with fiery heat and air [the four elements--Air, Earth, Water, Fire], and quickened the teeming mud with the breath of life. To these Physis (Nature) gave perfect shape . . . now first appeared the golden crop of men [the Golden Race of Mankind] brought forth in the image of the gods, with the roots of their stock in the earth. And these dwelt in the city of Beroe, that primordial seat which Kronos (Cronus, Time) himself builded."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41. 98 ff : "[Aphrodite] newly born from the brine; when the water impregnated from the furrow of Ouranos (Uranus) was delivered of deepsea Aphrodite; when without marriage, the seed plowed the flood with male fertility, and of itself shaped the foam into a daughter, and Physis (Nature) was the midwife--coming up with the goddess there was that embroidered strap which ran round her loins like a belt [the cestus of love], set about the queen's body in a girdle of itself."

NATURA ROMAN GODDESS OF NATURE

Natura was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Physis.

Seneca, Oedipus 23 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) : "Not as a fugitive did I [Oedipus] leave my home; of my own will, distrustful of myself, O Natura (Nature), I made thy laws secure [i.e. he left home to avoid a prophecy that claimed he would kill his father and marry his mother]."

Seneca, Phaedra 959 ff : "O Natura (Nature), mighty mother of the gods, and thou, fire-bearing Olympus' lord [Zeus] . . . why dost thou dwell afar, all too indifferent to men, not anxious to bring blessing to the good, and to the evil, bane?"

• The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
• Philostratus the Younger, Imagines - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.
• Seneca, Oedipus - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.

by Edith Hamilton

Mythology summary and analysis of theseus.

Theseus is the great Athenian hero. His father Aegeus is king of Athens, but Theseus grows up in southern Greece with his mother. When he is old enough, Theseus travels to the city to meet his father and overcomes many obstacles along the way. By the time he reaches Athens, he is known as a hero. Not realizing that Theseus is his son, King Aegeus is about to poison him, but just in time Theseus shows him a sword that his father left for him. Aegeus declares Theseus heir to the throne and sends him on an important journey.

Aegeus recounts the tragedy of Minos , the powerful ruler of Crete, who lost his only son Androgeus while the boy was in Athens. Aegeus had sent him on an expedition to kill a dangerous bull, but it killed Androgeus, and in revenge, King Minos vowed to destroy Athens unless every year seven maidens and seven men were sent to Crete. These sacrificial youth would be fed to the Minotaur , a monster, half-bull and half-human, who lived inside a labyrinth. Theseus comes forward to be offered as one of the victims. He promises his father that he will kill the Minotaur, and upon his successful return, his ship will carry a white sail.

When the fourteen men and women arrive in Crete, they are paraded through the town. Minos's daughter Ariadne sees and instantly falls in love with Theseus. She confers with Daedalus the architect to devise a plan for her beloved to stay safe. Then she meets with Theseus, who promises to marry her if he escapes from the labyrinth. Theseus follows Ariadne's plan, walking through the maze as he lets run a ball of string so he can retrace his steps. Theseus finds the Minotaur sleeping and kills it with his bare hands. Theseus, Ariadne, and the other Athenian youth all escape to the ship going back to Athens.

On the way back, Ariadne dies. Some say Theseus deserted her on an island. Others say he let her rest on an island because she was seasick, then got caught in a storm, and by the time he returned to the island she was dead. In any case, for some reason Theseus forgets to raise the white sail. His father, seeing the black sail, assumes his son has died and jumps into the sea. The sea has been called the Aegean ever since.

Theseus rules in a people-friendly fashion, and Athens becomes the happiest city in the world. In later years, however, sadness ensues after he marries Ariadne's sister Phaedra . Theseus already had a child, Hippolytus . When Theseus and Phaedra visit him, Phaedra falls madly in love with Hippolytus, her stepson. He refuses her advances, but she writes a letter falsely alleging that he violated her, and then she kills herself. Theseus finds the letter and banishes his innocent son. Artemis appears to Theseus and reveals the truth, but it is too late because the boy has already been killed at sea.

The story of Theseus is one of the most famous tales of Greek mythology. Indeed, Theseus is one of the best examples of a Greek hero. Not only does he use cunning and strength to kill the Minotaur, but he also works to reunite his family and his kingdom. He goes on to become a monarch who serves his people well. This myth also illuminates the perception that Athens was, in its day, the most respected and just land. The government of justice that Theseus oversaw became an idealized model for Greek and Roman culture throughout history.

The story's tragic end, however, suggests the fragility of goodness and mortal happiness even for a hero like Theseus. Like Bellerophon , he becomes a more complex character as the end of his life becomes more complex than its clearly heroic beginnings. Between Ariadne's death, Aegeus's suicide, and the Phaedra tragedy, Theseus becomes a complicated figure who outgrows his earlier, simpler role of hero.

The tale of Phaedra and Hippolytus may illustrate some of the gendered power relations in ancient Greek life. It was reasonable to imagine that a woman at that time might kill herself after being raped. Phaedra takes advantage of that expectation in revenge, being so distraught over her failure to seduce Hippolytus that she is willing both to kill herself and to ruin his life. Contrast this relationship to that of Theseus and Ariadne; without her, he could not have escaped the labyrinth.

Indeed, the relationship between Ariadne and Theseus is an interesting one as it speaks to the recurring theme of true love. Although in the beginning it seems as if these two lovers have found the true love that the gods support, Hamilton puts that idea into doubt when she reports the idea that Theseus may have left her on an island to die. Although such an action would seem out of place for his character, the alternative suggestion is that Ariadne died because he left her on an island for too long. When he marries her sister, tragic events unfold, and it seems that fate did not look happily on the affair. True love, it seems, is not simple at all--it can cause all kinds of trouble and lead to all kinds of quests and adventures.

The tragedy of Aegeus brings up the recurring theme of a tragic mistake. When Theseus forgets to raise the correct flag, his carelessness takes a fatal turn against someone he loves. Like Apollo killing his best friend Hyacinthus , Theseus clearly means well but makes a tragic mistake. Unlike the other fathers who lose sons, Aegeus is so distraught that he chooses to die himself.

Like the story of Perseus , the tales of Theseus take on an adventurous tone with epic proportions. From the Labyrinth to the Minotaur, Ariadne to Aegeus, the tales of Theseus have become iconic in the Western canon.

Mythology Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Mythology is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does Perseus respond to people and events in the story? How does this response move the story forward?

Which specific myth are you referring to? Title, please?

What drink is given to Polyphemus ? What is the Effect?

The give Polyphemus wine. He falls asleep.

3 gods of goddness

Whatbparticular myth are you referring to?

Study Guide for Mythology

The Mythology study guide contains a biography of Edith Hamilton, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of the major Greek myths and Western mythology.

• About Mythology
• Mythology Summary
• Character List

Lesson Plan for Mythology

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Mythology
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Mythology Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Mythology

• Introduction

Thetis Transporting Arms for Achilles (detail) by William Theed the Elder (ca. 1804–1812)

Thetis, daughter of Nereus and Doris , was one of the fifty sea nymphs known as the Nereids —probably the most famous and important of them all. She was highly honored by the Olympians , the most powerful gods of the Greek pantheon, and had once saved Zeus himself from an uprising. She married Peleus , a mortal hero who had distinguished himself as one of the Argonauts, and had a son: the warrior Achilles .

Thetis is best known for her role in the mythology of her son Achilles. Reluctant to accept that her son was mortal and had to die, Thetis did everything in her power to stave off his inevitable death—to no avail. Achilles was ultimately killed while fighting in the Trojan War.

Thetis was an important figure in Greek literature, especially Homer’s Iliad . She was also worshipped in some parts of Greece, and some even believe that she was among the most important goddesses of the Greeks in the earliest periods of their history.

There is some obscurity surrounding the etymology of the name “Thetis” (Greek Θέτις, translit. Thétis ). Both ancient and modern scholars have suggested that the name could be connected to the Greek verb τίθημι ( títhēmi ), meaning “to establish, set up.” [1] But others have interpreted the name “Thetis” as an early doublet or alternate for “ Tethys ,” the name of the Titan goddess who married Oceanus and became closely associated with the sea. [2]

Pronunciation

Titles and Epithets

As a daughter of Nereus, Thetis was a “Nereid” (Νηρηΐς, Nērēḯs ). Individually, Thetis’ most important epithets were ἀργυρόπεζα (argyrópeza, “silver-footed”) and ἁλοσύδνη ( halosýdnē , “sea-born”).

Thetis, like her Nereid sisters, was a beautiful sea nymph. She was honored as a goddess and was immortal. Except for a brief period after her marriage to the mortal Peleus—during which she lived in Peleus’ palace in Phthia in northern Greece—Thetis lived with the other Nereids far below the waves, in the luxurious grotto of Nereus. [3]

Thetis, like her father Nereus, was sometimes thought to have had the power to change her shape at will. She tried to use this power to escape Peleus when he came to claim her as his bride, but was unsuccessful. [4]

Several scenes from Thetis’ mythology were popular among ancient artists, especially among vase painters of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. The most common scenes in ancient art were Thetis’ wrestling match with Peleus, her wedding to Peleus, and her presentation of armor to Achilles. [5]

The father of Thetis was Nereus, a son of Gaea and Pontus who was known for his wisdom; her mother was the Oceanid Doris. [6] She was therefore one of the fifty “Nereids,” the sea nymph daughters of Nereus. According to one source, she also had a brother named Nerites, a handsome companion of Poseidon . [7]

Relief sculpture of Nereus, the father of the Nereids, from the Pergamon Altar (2nd century BCE)

But there were other, less familiar traditions about Thetis’ parentage too. In one, Thetis was the daughter of the centaur Chiron , not of Nereus. [8] In another strange account, known only from a fragmentary poem by Alcman, Thetis appears to be one of the first—perhaps even the very first—being to come into existence, together with or just before the abstract personifications Tekmor (“End”) and Poros (“Path”). [9]

Thetis married Peleus, a mortal hero who gained fame as one of the Argonauts, with whom she had a son: Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan War. [10]

Thetis was born to the sea gods Nereus and Doris, one of fifty daughters known as the Nereids. She was said to have been raised by Hera , wife of Zeus and queen of the gods. [11] She lived together with her sisters in the depths of the sea, in the palatial grotto of her father Nereus.

Ever since antiquity, Thetis has been considered the most important of the Nereids: ancient sources invoked her “best of the Nereids,” [12] “first of the Nereids,” [13] and so on. Indeed, Thetis had a much more significant role in Greek mythology than any of her sisters (leading some scholars to argue that there was a time when Thetis was a much more central figure in Greek religion).

Thetis and the Gods

In her relationship with the gods, Thetis often took on the role of nurturer or even savior. 

In one myth, Thetis kindly nursed Hephaestus back to health after he had been cast out of heaven (there were different versions of who exactly cast Hephaestus out of heaven: it was either Zeus or Hera). [14]

In another, similar myth, Thetis took in the young god Dionysus (or, in some versions, Dionysus’ nurses) when he was fleeing the prosecution of the barbarous Thracian king Lycurgus. As a reward, Dionysus gave Thetis a beautiful urn fashioned by Hephaestus—the urn in which Thetis would someday place the ashes of her son Achilles. [15]

Another time, Thetis saved Zeus himself—the most powerful of the Greek gods. Several of the other Olympians, led by Hera, Poseidon , and Athena , wished to overthrow Zeus and take over his power. While he was sleeping, they bound him in chains. But Thetis summoned Briareus , one of the invincibly strong Hecatoncheires (“Hundred-Handers”) to help Zeus: Briareus broke Zeus’ chains and helped Zeus reassert his dominance. [16]

Illustration by John Flaxman (1795) of a myth recounted in Book 1 of Homer's Iliad : Briareus is summoned by Thetis to help Zeus when the other Olympians try to overthrow him

Thetis and Peleus

Though she was a goddess, Thetis was forced to marry a mortal man, the hero Peleus. This myth was known in a few different forms.

Thetis was so beautiful that Zeus (or, in some versions, both Zeus and Poseidon) wanted to sleep with her. In one version, Thetis refused Zeus’ advances because she did not want to offend his jealous wife Hera; to punish her, Zeus vowed that she would marry a mortal. [17] But in another version, it was revealed by an oracle that Thetis was destined to have a son who would be stronger than his father—the last thing a god wanted (when a god had a son who was stronger than they were, that son usually ended up overthrowing their father); to prevent turmoil in heaven, it was decided that Thetis must marry a mortal. [18]

Eventually, Peleus was chosen as a suitable match for Thetis. Though a mortal, Peleus had an impressive lineage—his grandfather was Zeus—and he had a distinguished career as a hero, having sailed with the Argonauts and taken part in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. But before he could marry Thetis, Peleus had to capture her. He found her in a cave and grabbed her. Thetis transformed herself into different shapes in an effort to escape, but Peleus managed to hold on and thus won Thetis as his bride. [19] Thetis and Peleus were married in a lavish wedding, attended by all the great gods and mortals. [20]

Detail from an Attic red-figure kylix showing Peleus capturing Thetis as she changes shape, attributed to Douris (ca. 490 BCE)

There were also other, lesser known traditions about Thetis and Peleus. In one, it was Thetis who pursued Peleus rather than the other way around; [21] in another, Peleus’ wife was not the goddess Thetis but a mortal of the same name; [22] and in another, Peleus was actually married to the mortal Philomela (daughter of the Myrmidon warrior Actor), and his marriage to Thetis was simply a rumor started by the centaur Chiron. [23]

The Birth of Achilles

Thetis could not make peace with the fact that any children she had would be mortals doomed to die; in some traditions, Thetis learned from a prophecy that her son was destined to die in battle. [24]

Thetis went to dramatic lengths to save her son from his inevitable doom. In some traditions, she would throw her children by Peleus into a cauldron of boiling water or fire to test whether they were mortal, killing them all except Achilles, who was saved by Peleus. [25] In other traditions, Thetis tried to make the baby Achilles immortal by either anointing him in ambrosia and putting him into fire [26] or by dipping him into the river Styx. [27]

Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx by Peter Paul Rubens (1630–1635)

In any case, Thetis failed to make her son immortal, either because Peleus walked in on her and caused her to let go of the child before she could complete the process or, alternatively, because the boy remained vulnerable in the part of his body from which Thetis held him—his heel.

In most traditions, Thetis left Peleus soon after the birth of Achilles, unwilling to live as the wife of a mortal or angry at Peleus for interfering with her attempts to make her child immortal. [28] In what became the dominant tradition, Peleus then sent Achilles to be raised and trained by the centaur Chiron. [29]

The Trojan War

When the Greeks were preparing to attack the city of Troy— Helen , the wife of one of the Greek kings, had been carried off by the Trojan prince Paris and the Greeks were bent on getting her back—Thetis wanted desperately to make sure her son Achilles would not fight and die in the war.

In one famous myth, Thetis (or Peleus in some versions) disguised the young Achilles as a girl and sent him to live with the daughters of Lycomedes, the king of the small Aegean island of Skyros. But the clever Greek king Odysseus eventually managed to find Achilles and trick him to come out of hiding. So in the end, Thetis’ plan failed and Achilles joined the Greek army in their war against Troy. [30]

Thetis continued protecting and helping Achilles throughout the Trojan War, even though she knew he was doomed to die. When Agamemnon , the commander-in-chief of the Greek army, insulted Achilles in the ninth year of the war, Achilles vowed to leave the fighting. He asked Thetis to ask Zeus to let the Trojans get the better of the Greeks for a while so that the Greeks would suffer for not giving him the honor he deserved. Thetis did as Achilles asked and Zeus agreed to help. [31]

Jupiter and Thetis by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1811)

Soon afterwards, Achilles' best friend Patroclus went into battle wearing Achilles’ armor and was killed by Hector , the crown prince of Troy and the greatest of the Trojan heroes. Achilles was consumed by grief. Thetis, accompanied by the other Nereids, came to comfort Achilles and mourn with him. She revealed to Achilles that if he tried to avenge Patroclus by fighting Hector, his fate would be sealed: he would die in battle. But when Achilles made it clear that he would not change his mind about returning to the fighting, Thetis promised she would bring Achilles new armor and weapons forged by Hephaestus. [32]

After Thetis brought Achilles his new suit of armor, Achilles marched into battle and killed Hector. [33] Achilles then dishonored Hector’s body for days, until Thetis warned him that the gods had commanded him to return the body to Troy for a proper funeral; Priam, Hector’s father and the king of Troy, came into the camp for the body and Achilles turned it over to him. [34]

Detail from an Attic black-figure hydria showing Thetis and her attendants (right) presenting Achilles (left) with armor (ca. 575–550 BCE)

Thetis continued to help Achilles after the death of Hector. For example, she interceded with Zeus on his behalf when he fought the Ethiopian hero Memnon , who had come to help the Trojans. [35] But soon Achilles fell in battle, just as had been predicted. In the familiar tradition, he was shot in the heel with an arrow shot by Hector’s brother Paris and guided by the god Apollo himself. Thetis and the other Nereids came to help bury and mourn Achilles. [36]

In some traditions, Thetis ultimately had her way and managed to make Achilles immortal, in a sense. After the hero was killed, she took him to the Isles of the Blessed, sometimes also called Leuce or Elysium. There, Achilles lived in eternal bliss with other great heroes and demigods. Some said that there he married the beautiful witch Medea or even Helen. [37]

Other Myths

Though most of Thetis’ mythology surrounded her role as wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles, there were other myths about her too.

In one myth, Thetis and the Nereids helped the Argonauts sail through the Planctae, the “Wandering Rocks,” which crushed most ships that passed through them. [38]

Another myth, found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses , involved Thetis’ husband Peleus. Psamathe—a Nereid and thus one of Thetis’ sisters—wanted to punish Peleus for killing her son Phocus. She sent a monstrous wolf to attack Peleus’ lands and devour his herds. Peleus begged Thetis for help, and Thetis managed to convince her sister to forgive Peleus. [39]

Other myths involved Thetis’ role in the homecoming of the Greeks who had fought at Troy. After the Greeks sacked Troy, Thetis warned Neoptolemus, her grandson, to sacrifice to the gods before sailing home. He and those who stayed with him were able to get home safely, but those who left without sacrificing suffered terrible storms. [40] Some were even shipwrecked and killed—one of these casualties, the hero Ajax the Lesser, was said to have been buried by Thetis herself. [41]

In one strange, little known tradition, Thetis blamed the death of her son Achilles on Helen, who helped cause the Trojan War by running off with the Trojan Paris. Thetis punished Helen—according to Ptolemy Hephaestion at least—by transforming her into a seal after the war was over. [42]

Another obscure myth—also found in the work of Ptolemy Hephaestion—told of how the witch Medea challenged Thetis to a beauty contest. When the Cretan hero Idomeneus judged the contest in Thetis’ favor, Medea was so enraged that she cursed Idomeneus: claiming that his judgment was false, she made him incapable of ever telling the truth. [43]

Thetis was worshiped in some parts of Greece. There is evidence that she had cults in Sparta, [44] Thessaly, [45] and Pharsalus. [46] Her Spartan cult seems to have been particularly important: it was centered around an archaic temple called a Thetideion that contained a wooden cult image of the goddess said to be even more ancient than the temple itself.

Though Thetis was a minor goddess by the Classical Period of Greek history (ca. 490–323 BCE), it is possible that she was a much more important deity before then. For example, she plays a remarkably important role in the Iliad , which was put into writing around 750 BCE. Even more intriguing is a fragment from a poem by Alcman, who lived in Sparta in the seventh century BCE: here, Thetis appears to be named as the first being to come into existence and as one of the creators of the cosmos. [47]

Pop Culture

Thetis continues to appear in some modern adaptations of Greek myths, especially the myths of the Trojan War. Thetis has been a character in films such as Clash of the Titans (1981) and Troy (2004). In the latter, she is reimagined as a priestess rather than as an actual goddess.

Thetis also features in Madeline Miller’s 2011 novel, The Song of Achilles . She is portrayed as a cold character who has a strained relationship with her son Achilles and who strongly disapproves of Achilles friend (and lover) Patroclus.