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Theseus
In
Greek mythology, the greatest Athenian hero, the son of either Aegeus,
king of Athens, or Poseidon, god of the sea, and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus,
king of Troezen. At the age of 16, Theseus, having been brought up in Troezen,
went to Athens to claim Aegeus as his father. The young man chose to make
the hazardous journey by land, clearing the road of bandits and monsters.
Among the villains whom Theseus killed, making each suffer the method of
death he had inflicted on others, were Sciron, Sinis, and Procrustes.
Theseus arrived in Athens wearing a sword and a pair of sandals that
Aegeus had left for his son in Troezen. Medea, Aegeus's wife, attempted
to poison Theseus, but as soon as Aegeus recognized the heirlooms, he proclaimed
Theseus his son and heir and banished Medea. His early adventures included
his encounter with the Minotaur, a monster half human, half bull, who was
confined in a labyrinth under the palace of Minos, king of Crete. With
the help of Ariadne, Minos's daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and
escaped from the maze. On his return to Athens, however, he forgot to hoist
a white sail signaling his success against the Minotaur. Aegeus, seeing
a black sail, believed his son dead and threw himself from a rocky height
into the sea, which has since been known as the Aegean Sea.
As king of Athens, Theseus was wise and generous, but
he retained his love of danger and adventure. He abducted the Amazon Hippolyta,
who bore him a son, Hippolytus. He took part in the Calydonian boar hunt
and in the quest of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece. He was a devoted
friend of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, whom he accompanied to the underworld
to rescue the goddess Persephone. Both men were imprisoned by the god Hades
for their rash deed, but Theseus was subsequently rescued by Hercules.
Returning to Athens, Theseus found his kingdom in disarray,
torn by rebellion and corruption. Unable to reestablish authority, he sent
his children away and sailed to the island of Skyros, where Lycomedes,
king of Skyros, murdered him by throwing him from a cliff into the sea.
Later the Delphic oracle commanded the Athenians to gather Theseus's bones
and bring them back to Athens. The Athenians then paid him great honor
by building him a tomb dedicated to the poor and helpless whom he had befriended. |
All text on "Theseus" are taken from Microsoft Encarta '97 |
