Theseus Greek hero

His parents Born in Trozen, near Athens, Greece Aegeus fell in love with Aethra He put a sword and pair of shoes under a boulder “If my son can move it, send him to me”

Journey to Athens  Theseus grew up and moved the boulder easily  Traveled to Athens on land  Killed the bandit Periphetes (“club-bearer”) and took his club  Killed Sinis, the Bender of Pines  Killed Sciron by pushing him over a cliff  Killed Procrustes, who forced people to fit a bed

Arrival in Athens  Didn’t reveal himself to his father at first  Invited to dinner and drew his sword to carve meat  Aegeus recognized it immediately  Theseus captured the Cretan bull

Minotaur  Androgeous, son of Minos (king of Crete) was murdered in Athens  Gods cursed Athens until they made amends with Minos  Minos demanded 7 young men and 7 young women be sent to Crete every 9 years  Went into the labyrinth to be killed by the Minotaur (son of Pasiphae, Minos’ wife, and the Cretan bull)

Minotaur  Two tributes had been sent to Crete already, with black sails on the ship  Theseus volunteers (as tribute!)  Said he would sail with a white sail if he killed the Minotaur, but a black one if not

Ariadne  Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae  Fell in love with Theseus and vowed to help him  Gave him the ball of yarn to get out of the labyrinth  He vowed he would marry her in return

Ariadne  He killed the Minotaur with his bare hands  Escaped with the other tributes, taking Ariadne with him  Theseus abandons Ariadne on Naxos  Ariadne’s lament  Dionysus comes to her rescue

 Ariadne - John William Waterhouse  Private collection

 Ariadne in Naxos - Evelyn De Morgan  The De Morgan Foundation

 Bacchus and Ariadne  Titian   National Gallery, London

 Bacchus and Ariadne - Le Lain Brothers  Ca Musee des beaux-arts d’Orleans

Back in Athens  Theseus forgot to fly white sails  Aegeus thought his son was dead so he threw himself into the sea  Aegean Sea  Theseus became king of Athens  Centralized government  Divided society into classes

Amazons  Gave Hercules refuge after he killed his family  Went with Hercules to see the Amazons  Married an Amazon named Antiope or Hippolyta  Had a son named Hippolytus

Lapiths vs. Centaurs  Lapiths are a group of people from Thessaly (northern Greece)  At King Peirithous, the centaurs got too drunk and tried to steal all the women  “civilization vs. barbarism”

Peirithous  Theseus and Peirithous were originally enemies, but became friends  Theseus kidnapped Helen  Peirithous wanted to kidnap Persephone  Hades invited them to sit down, but the chairs had invisible chains  Theseus was rescued by Hercules

Phaedra  Theseus last wife, sister of Ariadne  Hippolytus refused to worship Aphrodite  Aphrodite caused Phaedra to fall in love with Hippolytus  She decided to starve to death  Her nurse told Hippolytus of Phaedra’s feelings and he went on a tirade about women

Phaedra  Out of shame, Phaedra hanged herself  Left a note saying that Hippolytus had raped her  Theseus immediately sent Hippolytus out of the city and prayed to Poseidon to kill him  Poseidon sent waves that overwhelmed Hippolytus’ chariot

Hippolytus  Near death, Hippolytus was dragged back to Athens  Aphrodite appeared to Theseus to explain the misunderstanding  Hippolytus died in Theseus’ arms

Theseus’ death  Theseus was driven out of Athens  Went to Skyros  King Lycomedes pretended to have him as a guest, but then pushed him off of a cliff  Cimon, leader of the Athenians in the fifth century, brought Theseus’ bones back to Athens