Life and Feats of Theseus

Theseus was a Greek king of Athens in Greek mythology, son of Aegeus and Aethra, the most famous hero in ancient Greece after Heracles.

The mythical route traced by Theseus has as its starting point the town of Troizina where the wise King Pittheas reigned. The childless Athenian king Aegeas resorted to him in order the king to interpret an oracle of Pythia. Aegeas had visited her in order to find out how he could get the coveted successor to his throne, as all his efforts until then had been fruitless. Pythia replied to Aegeas “not to untie the leg that protrudes from the bag before reaching Athens”.

Recognizing the true meaning of the oracle, which was not to meet a woman before arriving in Athens, Pittheus urged him – deceptively according to some accounts – to mingle with Aethra’s daughter. Theseus was captured on the islet of Sfairia, which can be reached on foot by landing on a series of reefs. After the sacred marriage of Aethra the island was named Iera.

The legend that Poseidon wanted to be the real father of Theseus, it is said that while Aethra was passing over the reefs to meet Aegeas, she accepted the sea hug of the god and captured the hero before she mingled with her mortal husband. According to another story, Aethra was taken to Sfairia after a dream sent to her by the goddess Athena, in order to offer a sacrifice to the spirit of the dead driver of Pelops, Sfairos or Myrtilos, whose grave was supposed to be on the island.

The myths about the birth of Theseus occurs both Poseidon and Athena, two gods inextricably linked to the city of Athens. The arrival of a king born from the sea with the consent of the patron goddess, of course, seems very appropriate. Even his mortal parents are mirrors of the two gods on earth.

A Hero is born

The mythical route traced by the footsteps of Theseus starts at Troizena, where the wise Pittheas reigned. The childless Athenian king Aegeus took refuge in him to interpret a Pythian oracle. Aegeus had visited her in order to find out how he could obtain the longed-for heir to his throne, as all his efforts up to that point had been fruitless. She answered him “not to untie the leg that protrudes from the sack before he reaches Athens”. Pytheas recognizing the true meaning of the oracle which was not to consort with a woman before arriving in Athens, urged him – fraudulently according to some accounts – to unite with his daughter Aethra.

The capture of Theseus took place on the islet of Sphaeria, which can be reached on foot from the land by stepping on a series of scopoles. After the holy wedding of Aithra, the island was named Iera. The myth that wants Theseus’ real father to be Poseidon tells that when Aethra was passing over the skopeles to meet Aegeus she received the god’s sea embrace and captured the hero before she joined her mortal husband. According to another story, Aethra was led to Sphaeria after a dream sent to her by the goddess Athena, in order to offer a sacrifice to the spirit of the dead eunuch of Pelops, Sphairos or Myrtilos whose tomb was supposed to be on the islet. Both the orb and the myrtle symbolized the marriage union.

The youth of Theseus

When Theseus was seven years old he met Heracles who was a guest at the palace of his grandfather King Pittheus . On entering the room, Heracles had taken off his lion skin cloak and thrown it to the floor. When the children of the Troezen saw this they became frightened and ran away. Only Theseus stayed and, thinking too that the lion skin was a real lion, took up an axe to kill it.

 Time passed and Theseus grew into a brave and strong young man. When he reached sixteen years old his mother, Aethra, led him to the rock next to the Temple of Zeus and here he raised the rock with ease, retrieved the paternal signs and began his journey to seek his father in the city of Athens. Despite the advice of his grandfather and his mother to travel to Athens using the sea route, Theseus chose to travel overland, which however, was full of dangers.

The Feats of Theseus

On the way to Athens, the Hero met with a series of villains. Firstly, at Epidaurus he met Periphetes, son of Hephaestus and Antikleia. Periphetes was known also as Korynitis because he roamed the region with an iron cudgel killing all who where passing by. The hero killed him and fashioned a weapon from the iron cudgel.

 At Kechrees near Isthmus, he met the next villain, the son of Poseidon named Sinis, who was also known as Pityokamptis. This name derived from his custom of killing people in the most gruesome way as follows: he bent and fastened the tops of two large pine trees to the ground with rope and tied his victims to these uppermost branches. Then, he unfastened the rope that held the two trees down causing them to spring back into the air and, as they did so, their momentum ripped the victim into two. Theseus killed Sinis in the same way.

 Sinis had a very beautiful daughter, Perigoune, who on seeing the fight between her father and the Hero was scared for her own life and, looking around for somewhere to hide noticed a clump of thorn bushes. She begged them to conceal her and in return she would ensure they were never burned. They opened their branches and took her in. However, on completion of his feat, Theseus found her and promised to stay with her and protect her. (Together. Perigoune and Theseus , had a son, Melanippos, who himself later had a son named Ioxos, who settled in Caria. From Ioxos originate the Ioxides who stayed loyal to their grandmother’s promise, never to light a fire with thorns).

 Moving on, Theseus arrived in Krommyona (today the location of Agioi Theodoroi). There he met Faea, a boar daughter of Echidna and Typhon who wreaked terrible damage in the area. Theseus killed her saving the residents.

 The fourth feat was on Skirronides rocks, or the Kakia Scala. Here Theseus met Skiron, the son of Pelops. Skiron was forcing travellers who where passing by to wash his feet. When they bent down in front of him to carry out this chore he kicked them into the sea where they were eaten by a giant tortoise. Theseus threw him into the sea to meet his death in the same way.

 The fifth feat of the hero was in Eleusis. There Cercyon , son of Poseidon, was killing people by forcing them to grapple with him. The hero lifted him up and knocked him to the ground, beating him not only with his strength but also with his cleverness, therefore they say that the fight is an art first coined by the hero.

 Lastly in his path the hero met Procrustes. He lived near the Sacred Way (Iera Odos) from Athens to Elefsis. This villain had a hostel with two beds: one short and one long, supposedly to accommodate travellers. Once he had lured the unsuspecting travellers into his hostel he forced the tall ones to lie on the short bed and the short ones to the long bed. Then, taking up a hammer he repeatedly struck the short victims flattening them until they fitted the dimensions of the bed, with the tall victims he simply cut away the parts of their bodies that hung over the short beds. Theseus punished Procrustes in the same way.

 On his arrival finally in Athens he med the Fytalides, who were the descendants of Fytalos who had taken care of the goddess Demeter when she was searching for her daughter. The Fytalides were willing to purify him of the dreadful killings that he had carried out to rid the citizens of these villains.
Theseus came to Athens on the 8th of Hekatombaion (July).

The labors of Theseus

The twelve labors of Theseus, which are equal in number to those of Heracles, describe the trials that the popular hero went through to get to Athens to meet his father. During this journey, his fame and success became so great that they managed to acquire mythical proportions.

At the end of his adolescence, Theseus learned from his mother, Aithra, his origin and was able to lift the rock, find the things that Aegeus had hidden and immediately set off to Athens to meet his father.

The hero chose to take the land route to reach Athens, despite the exhortations of Pittheus and Aethra, as the land was full of monsters and bandits.

And indeed, Theseus successfully faced so many challenges, that it would be fair to say that he occupies a similar position to the Heracles, whom he was so jealous of.

Theseus and Perifites

The first bandit he encountered was Perifites, son of Hephaestus, who operated on the mountain Arachnaeus, near Epidaurus. He set up a cartel on passers-by and killed them with a large metal club, which is why he was also called Korynitis, from “korini”, which in Ancient Greek meant “club”. Theseus fought him, defeated him, killed him and kept the bat for himself.

Immediately afterwards Cenchreae, near the Isthmus, was the home of Sinis of Pityokamptis (pine-tanalia). As his name suggests, the son of Poseidon killed passers-by in the following cruel way: He took down two parallel neighboring pine trees, to which he tied the passers-by. Once tied tightly, he would let the pine trees return to their original horizontal position, causing them to violently stretch and tear the unfortunate victim in half.
In exactly the same way Theseus killed the heartless robber.

Faya

After passing through Corinth, he arrived at Crommyon, in the area where the settlement of Agioi Theodoros is today, where he killed a wild boar, Faia, daughter of Typhon and Echidna, which was causing terrible damage in the area, with spears and swords.

Phaia was the mother of Calydonius and the Erymanthian boar.

As her name, which means “dark”, indicates, she was a being of the Underworld (female pigs were sacrificed in honor of Demeter and Kore in the Eleusinian Mysteries). His origin, moreover, indicates more a chthonic elemental force than a common animal.

Sinis the torturer

Theseus’ next station was at the Isthmus of Corinth, where he killed Sinis, the so-called Pityokamptis, son of Poseidon or Polypimon (probably another nickname for Hades).

Sinis owed his nickname to his habit of exterminating unfortunate passers-by by tying them to two neighboring pine trees, which, after first being bent, he let return to their original position, resulting in their bodies being torn apart. Theseus, therefore, paid him with the same coin.

Skiron

His next stop – and, perhaps, the most dangerous – was at the “Skironian Rocks”, where the area of Kakia Skala is today, near Megara.

There, the road was a god-narrow path, built just enough to accommodate only one traveler.

On one side there were the precipitous slopes of the mountains, while on the other there was a barren and inhospitable beach.

The mountains were dominated by Skiron, son of Corinth and grandson of Pelops, who forced passers-by to bend down to wash his feet. As soon as they were about to finish, he would kick them and they would fall to the beach, which was occupied by a huge carnivorous turtle, which was furiously devouring the passers-by thrown at it by Skironas. Theseus paid Sciron with the same coin, and later went down to the beach and killed the turtle and made her shell a shield.

At Eleusis, Theseus managed to defeat Cercyon, son of Poseidon and an excellent boxer, who challenged passers-by to a fight to the death. Theseus lifted him up and slammed him down with such force that he was killed by the impact.

Procrustes

Before arriving in Athens in the region of Erineus, where Persephone’s abduction by Hades took place and where the wild fig tree (Erineus = wild fig tree) sacred to the Eleusinian mysteries grew, was Damastis, who by the way he tortured his victims had the nickname “Procrustes”, meaning he who stretches.

Procrustes had two beds, one short and one long. So, he forced the travelers to lie down on one bed and then tried to bring them to the level of the bed. If the unfortunate man was taller, Procrustes sawed off his limbs, while, if he was shorter, he tied weights to his limbs and pulled them to make them longer.
Finally, he killed his victims with a hammer.

Theseus death

After Hercules rescued him from Hades, Theseus returned to Athens where he found that the Athenians had put Menestheas on the throne in place of him.   He was not able to regain his kingdom and instead took refuge on the island of Skyros where he had some estates.  The king of Skyros was  Lycomedes whom Theseus considered as a friend, however, perhaps due to the insecure position that Theseus now held,  Lycomedes feared that he may be usurped and so, whilst out walking together,  pushed him over a steep cliff and killed him. After the Persian Wars, the bones of the hero were brought back to Athens for burial by Cimon in 475BC. They were placed in the Temple of Theseion at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens and this site became a refuge for the weak, for slaves and for all those who are oppressed by the powerful.