Theseus Adventures

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The adventures of Theseus are the deeds of the Athenian hero who cleared the road from Troezen to Athens of robbers, survived the plot of Medea, sailed to Crete among the Athenian tribute and killed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Diodorus (4.59.1) says Theseus undertook them in emulation of the labours of Heracles.

The sword and sandals

Theseus was the son of Aethra, daughter of Pittheus of Troezen. Aegeus, king of Athens, lay with her on a visit to Troezen, and in the same night Poseidon also had intercourse with her (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7). Because of this, Theseus was called the son of either god; Diodorus (4.59.1) names Poseidon as his father, and Hyginus (Fabula 37) says Neptune yielded the child to Aegeus. Aegeus left a sword and a pair of sandals under a certain rock and told Aethra that when the boy was able to roll the rock away and take them up, she was to send him to Athens with them. She was to bring the child up without telling whose son he was (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7).

Theseus grew up in Troezen. When he reached manhood, his mother showed him the rock; he pushed it away, took up the sandals and the sword and set out on foot for Athens (Apollodorus, Library 3.16.1; Hyginus, Fabula 37).

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Theseus Journey to Athens

Theseus took the road along the coast and on the way killed the men and beasts who preyed on travellers, because he wished to match the deeds of Heracles (Diodorus 4.59.1). The ancient lists differ slightly in order and detail, but agree on these opponents.

Theseus and Periphetes

The first was Periphetes, who lived in Epidaurus. Apollodorus (Library 3.16.1) calls him a son of Hephaestus and Anticlia, surnamed the Clubman (Corynetes) from the iron club with which he killed passers-by; Theseus took the club from him and carried it from then on. Diodorus (4.59.2) also calls him Corynetes, from the club (korynē) he fought with, and Hyginus (Fabula 38) names him Corynetes, a son of Neptune (Poseidon).

Theseus and Sinis

Sinis, son of Polypemon and Sylea, lived on the Isthmus of Corinth and was surnamed the Pine-bender (Apollodorus, Library 3.16.2). Apollodorus says he forced passers-by to bend pine trees, and when they were too weak, they were tossed up by the trees and perished; Theseus killed him the same way. Diodorus describes it differently: Sinis bent two pine trees down, fastened a traveller’s arms to them and let them go, so that the body was torn apart (Diodorus 4.59.2–3). Hyginus (Fabula 38), who calls him Pityocamptes (“pine-bender”), says he made travellers help him bend a pine to the ground and then let it go, so that they were thrown down and killed.

The Crommyonian sow

Theseus also killed the huge and savage sow that lived near Crommyon and killed many people. Apollodorus (Epitome 1.1) says it was called Phaea after the old woman who reared it, and that some made it the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. Hyginus (Fabula 38) calls the animal a boar.

Theseus and Sciron

Sciron held the cliffs of Megara that were named after him. He made passers-by wash his feet, and while they did so kicked them into the sea to be the prey of a huge turtle (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.2). Apollodorus calls him a son of Pelops or, as some say, of Poseidon. Theseus seized him by the feet and threw him into the sea (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.3; Hyginus, Fabula 38).

Cercyon

Near Eleusis, Theseus killed Cercyon, who forced passers-by to wrestle with him and killed those he defeated (Diodorus 4.59.5). Theseus lifted him up and dashed him to the ground (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.3). Apollodorus makes Cercyon a son of Branchus and the nymph Argiope; Hyginus (Fabula 38) makes him a son of Hephaestus.

Theseus and Procrustes

The last was Procrustes, whom Apollodorus (Epitome 1.4) calls Damastes or Polypemon. He took in travellers beside the road and laid them on a bed. In Apollodorus’ version he had two beds: short men were laid on the big one and hammered out to fit it, and tall men on the little one, where the parts that overhung were sawed off. Hyginus (Fabula 38), who calls him a son of Neptune, also gives him two beds. Diodorus (4.59.5) tells it with a single bed, places him at Corydallus in Attica, and says he got the name Procrustes from hammering out (prokrouein) the legs of those who were too short. Theseus killed him, and having cleared the road, came to Athens (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.4).

Theseus Recognized

In Athens, Aegeus was married to Medea. She plotted against the stranger and persuaded Aegeus to fear him as a traitor, and Aegeus, not knowing his own son, sent him against the bull of Marathon (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.5). Diodorus (4.59.6) says Theseus mastered the bull, which Heracles had brought from Crete, brought it to Athens, and Aegeus sacrificed it to Apollo.

After Theseus killed the bull, Aegeus handed him a cup of poison that Medea had given him that very day. As Theseus was about to drink, he gave his father the sword; Aegeus recognized it and dashed the cup from his hands. Informed of the plot, he drove Medea out (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.6; compare Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.404–424).

Theseus Journey to Minos

Minos, king of Crete, had a son Androgeus, who won all the contests at the Panathenaic festival in Athens and was then killed, either by the Marathonian bull or by plotters, according to different accounts (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.7; Diodorus 4.60.4–5). Minos made war on Athens, and when famine and pestilence struck the city, the god told the Athenians to give Minos whatever satisfaction he asked. He demanded seven youths and seven maidens to be given to the Minotaur (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.8; Diodorus 4.61.1–3). Diodorus, who speaks of drought rather than plague, says the tribute was sent every nine years; Hyginus (Fabula 41) says every year, and makes Androgeus fall in battle in his father’s war with Athens.

The Minotaur, called Asterius, was the child of Pasiphae and the bull of Poseidon. It had a bull’s head and a man’s body, and Minos kept it in the Labyrinth that Daedalus had built (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.4).

When the third tribute was to be sent, Theseus was among those chosen, or, as some say, offered himself (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.7; Hyginus, Fabula 41, says he volunteered). The ship had a black sail, and Aegeus told his son to spread white sails if he came back alive (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.7; Diodorus 4.61.4).

Theseus in Crete

Pausanias (1.17.3) describes a painting by Micon that shows another story told about the voyage. Minos, in love with Periboea and rebuffed by Theseus, insulted him and denied that he was a son of Poseidon, since Theseus could not recover the signet ring Minos wore if he threw it into the sea. Minos threw the ring, and Theseus came up from the sea with it and with a gold crown that Amphitrite gave him. Hyginus (Astronomica 2.5) tells a similar story: Minos wanted the maiden Eriboea, Theseus resisted him as a son of Neptune, and Minos threw a gold ring into the sea and told Theseus to fetch it if he wished to be believed. Theseus leapt in, dolphins carried him to the Nereids, and he brought back the ring of Minos and, from Thetis, a jewelled crown; others, Hyginus adds, said the crown came from Neptune’s wife.

Theseus and Ariadne

In Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus and offered to help him if he would take her to Athens as his wife. He swore to do so, and she asked Daedalus to reveal the way out of the Labyrinth (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.8). On his advice she gave Theseus a clue of thread, which he fastened to the door as he went in (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.9; Hyginus, Fabula 42).

Theseus in the Labyrinth

Theseus found the Minotaur in the innermost part of the Labyrinth and killed it by striking it with his fists. Following the thread, he made his way out again (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.9). Diodorus (4.61.4) says only that, with Ariadne’s help, he killed the Minotaur and escaped, since he had learned from her the way out.

Theseus Return to Athens

Theseus left Crete by night with Ariadne and the rescued young people and reached Naxos, in older texts called Dia. In Apollodorus’ account Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne there and carried her off (Epitome 1.9; Diodorus 4.61.5). Homer tells a different story: Theseus meant to bring Ariadne from Crete to Athens, but Artemis killed her on Dia on the testimony of Dionysus (Odyssey 11.321–324). Hyginus (Fabula 43) says Theseus abandoned her there, afraid of disgrace if he brought her home.

In his grief, Theseus forgot to spread the white sails. Aegeus, watching from the Acropolis, saw the black sail and, thinking his son dead, threw himself down and died (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.10; Diodorus 4.61.6–7). Latin sources say he threw himself into the sea, which is why it is called the Aegean (Hyginus, Fabula 43).

Theseus then became king of Athens. He killed the fifty sons of Pallas and everyone else who opposed him (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.11), and, according to Diodorus (4.61.8), united the many small settlements of Attica into the city of Athens. His later story, including the Amazon Antiope, Phaedra and Hippolytus, and the abduction of Helen, is told on the page of Theseus.