Theseus was the mythical founder of Athens, the most important hero of Attic mythology.
His father is Aegeus, king of Athens, and his mother is Aethra, daughter of Pithius,
king of Trezene.
In mythology it is said that his divine father was Poseidon and he was conceived at Trezena,
during Aegeus's visit to King Pittheus.
Aegeus had a relationship with the king's daughter, who had been his wife for one night.
When he left the city, he gave her his sword and sandals, hiding them under a huge boulder.
Aegeus told Aethra, if a boy will be born from their union, that would be strong enough
that could lift the boulder and take the sword and sandals, that boy has to go to Athens
with them, for Aegeus to recognize him as his son.
In his childhood spent in Trezena, Theseus distinguished himself from an early age by
his strength and courage.
At the age of seven he met Hercules, who came to visit the palace of Pittheus.
From that moment Hercules became a role model for him.
At the age of 16, he picked up the boulder under which his father's sword and sandals
were hidden and went with them to Attica.
The journey was sprinkled with dangerous events, which he bravely faced, wanting to imitate
the heroic deeds of Hercules.
I will mention the following:
The killing of Sinis and Sciron, the monstrous robbers who terrorized the travelers.
The battle with Cercyon, carried out between Megara and Eleusis, Theseus defeating the
tyrant as Hercules had done with Anteus, lifting him into the air and letting him fall, crushing
him.
Procust's confrontation, which he killed in the same way Procust killed his own victims.
Arriving in Athens, Theseus presents Aegeus with his sword and sandals.
He is recognized as the king’s son and declared the heir to the throne, thus excluding Pallas
and his 50 sons from the reign, who wanted to rule in Attica.
Their attempts to eliminate him were thwarted by Theseus, defeating them.
A legend describes his struggle with the Cretan minotaur of Marathon, who devastated the region
after being captured by Hercules and then left free on Greek soil.
The Minotaur is defeated by Theseus.
After taming him, he brought the bull to the city of Athens, where he sacrificed the animal
in honor of Apollo.
The expedition to capture the minotaur was made at the initiative of the witch Medea,
who had meanwhile become the wife of the Aegeus, and who believed that from the confrontation
with the minotaur, Theseus would be killed.
The hero's victory changed the plans of Medea, who tried to get rid of him by poisoning him,
but this plan also failed.
The marathon minotaur caused many human casualties, including Minos' son, Androgeus.
In one version of the myth, Androgeus is sent by the Aegeus to fight the animal; another
version says that Androgeus himself wanted to fight the minotaur to show his courage.
However, the result of this confrontation is the same: Minos, the king of Crete, demanded
a tribute of 7 boys and 7 girls from Athens, who had to be sent every year to Crete, where
they were sacrificed to the Minotaur.
Theseus was among these young men who were to be sacrificed.
One account shows that Minos himself went to Athens to take the tribute.
In another version, Theseus left with his own ship determined to put an end to the terrible
sacrifice, an adventure that would be the most glorious of his feats.
In the version that places Theseus together with the victims destined to be sacrificed
on the ship of Minos, the Cretan king refuses to believe that Theseus was the son of Poseidon.
He tests Theseus by throwing a gold ring into the sea, after which he asks the hero to retrieve
it.
The hero jumped in waves and sank until he reached the bottom of the sea where he saw
the miraculous creatures that populate it.
After finding the ring, he returned to the ship perfectly dry, to the horror of Minos.
Upon arrival in Crete, Theseus was greeted by Minos' daughter, Ariadne.
She falls in love with him and helps him defeat the Minotaur.
She gave Theseus a sword and a ball of thread with which the hero, unfolding it, could find
the way out of the labyrinth of the prison-palace where the Minotaur lived.
After killing the Minotaur, Theseus goes back to Athens, taking Ariadne with him.
In the best known version of the myth, he abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos.
Theseus continued his journey on his ship, which had at that moment black sails.
On his departure for the Cretan expedition Aegeus gave him white sails, which were to
be hoisted on his return if the action were to be successful, so that the king would find
out the outcome of the expedition sooner.
However, Theseus forgot to change the sails, and Aegeus, when he saw the black sails, thought
that his son was dead and committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
Sea that has since been named after him: The Aegean Sea.
After this tragic event, Theseus took the place of his father on the throne of Athens.
Historical traditions present a lot of adventures made by the hero that consist of various kidnappings
of goddesses or heroines.
The role of seducer suited a character like Theseus, the son of a god, Poseidon, who was
also a great seducer of young goddesses and mortals.
Together with his friend Pirithous, Theseus kidnapped Elena from Sparta, the beautiful
daughter of Zeus.
Elena being very young, she was taken to Afidna and left here in Aetrhra’s care.
In the next adventure, the two friends initiate an extremely dangerous plan that consists
in trying to kidnap Persephone from Hades, the goddess being wanted by Pirithous.
The end of this attempt resulted in the death of Pirithous and the imprisonment of Theseus
in the underworld, where he remained until he was released by Hercules.
The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous was proverbial, the two heroes becoming in
a way the Attic equivalents of two other inseparable characters from mythology, Castor and Pollux.
The close ties between Theseus and Pirithous also determined the presence of the former
at his friend's wedding.
Here, a fight breaks out between the lapiths and the centaurs, in which Theseus is also
involved, fighting alongside with the lapiths, facing the centaurs.
Another heroic adventure of Theseus is the one in which he fights against the Amazons.
Like Hercules, he faces the mythical female warriors of the Amazons who rejected men.
According to the traditional version of the myth, one of his tasks consisted in obtaining
the belt of Hippolyta.
In other variants, the hero is the one who stole the belt, then giving it to Hercules.
The most widespread legend tells us that there were two separate battles with the Amazons:
that of Hercules, where he appears as the protagonist with Queen Hippolyta, and a later
one of Theseus, who kidnapped the queen of the Amazons, Antiope.
The retort of the Amazons came quickly.
They tried to regain their kidnapped queen, by entering Attica, reaching the center of
Athens, where the final battle takes place.
The battle was won by Theseus.
From the union with Antiope he had two sons, Hippolytus and Demophon, and after her death
he married Phaedra.
Theseus is present in leading roles in all the main mythical episodes of the Greek mythology:
Participates in the Calydonian boar hunt.
He takes part in the expedition of the Argonauts.
He appears with Adrastus in the story of the Epigones, receives Oedipus as a guest, kills
the fierce wild pig that ravaged the region around the village of Crommyon.
He also fights Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers who recover in the end their sister,
Elena, kidnapped by him, and his friend, Pirithous.
He has a special role as king of Attica, being considered the initiator of laws and institutions
fundamental to the life of the city.
He is also credited with the unification of the various suburbs of Attica into the Athenian
state.
He is also considered to be the initiator of the Panathenaic holidays, festivities open
to all Athenians, including the inhabitants of the communes around the city.
A legend tells that a revolt was being prepared against Theseus, instrumented by Menesteus,
a descendant of Erechtheus, who provoked the people to revolt against Theseus.
The tense situation forced Theseus to leave Athens and take refuge on the island of Scyros,
where Lycomedes was the king of the region.
But here he was betrayed by Lycomedes, who pushed him off a cliff and caused his death.
For a long time, his bones were forgotten on the island, until they were transported
to Athens and buried with great pomp in a sanctuary named Theseion, which is found near
the Acropolis.
Recognized as the mythical hero of Athens, he became the protector of the city even after
his death.
It was said that his shadow was shown to the Athenians to encourage them in the battle
of Marathon against the Persians.
Some late authors consider that Theseus was not a mythical character, but a king who existed
in reality, and who played a major role in the creation of the oldest and most important
institutions of the Athenian state.
This was the story of Theseus; the semi-mythical, semi-historical hero of ancient Athens.
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