Theseus.
A descendant of Erechtheus and Pelops, Theseus was the greatest hero of Athens. He was the son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus of Troezen. According to some legends, Aethra was visited on the same night by Aegeus and by the sea-god Poseidon, making Theseus the child of both a mortal and a god. Aegeus returned to Athens before the birth but left instructions that his child should follow him when he was able to lift a rock under which Aegeus had left his sword and sandals. On reaching young manhood, Theseus accomplished the task and traveled to Athens. There, he was recognized by the sorceress Medea, who feared that he would usurp the position of her own son by Aegeus. She therefore had Theseus sent to challenge the fierce bull of Marathon, and when he returned successful, tried to poison him. Theseus was saved by Aegeus, who finally identified him by the sword he bore.
       Each year, as a tribute demanded by King Minos of Crete, fourteen Athenian youths and maidens were sacrificed to the Minotaur. Determined to kill the Minotaur and end the tribute, Theseus traveled to Crete as one of the intended victims. With the help of Minos’s daughter Ariadne, he was able to find his way through the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur, kill it, and emerge safely. Theseus fled Crete, taking Ariadne with him, but abandoned her on the island of Naxos.
       Before leaving on this dangerous mission, Theseus had promised Aegeus that if he was successfiil he would return home with white sails, but that if he failed the sails would be black. However, approaching Attica, he forgot to change his black sails for white; when his father saw the ship approaching the harbor, he threw himself over a cliff. Now ruler of Athens, Theseus unified various Attic demes (villages and towns) and established Athens as the capital.
       He took part in an expedition with Heracles against the Amazons, returning with Queen Hippolyta (or Antiope) as his bride. The Amazons invaded Athens in an attempt to rescue her but were defeated. After the death of his first wife, Theseus married Ariadne’s sister, Phaedra, who became tragically enamored of Theseus’s son Hippolytus.
       Theseus became the friend of the Lapith king Pirithous and joined in the battle between Lapiths and centaurs that broke out at Pirithous’s wedding feast. The two participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt; in middle age, they abducted the child Helen and, in an attempt to carry off Persephone, descended into the Underworld, where they were trapped until Heracles rescued Theseus.
       Returning finally to Athens, Theseus found his throne usurped and the people corrupt and hostile to him. He fled to Scyros, where he died or was murdered.
       Theseus was celebrated in Athenian drama as a compassionate and just ruler. In Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, he gave sanctuary to the exiled Oedipus; in Euripides’ The Suppliants, he forced Creon to give up the bodies of the fallen Argive chiefs for burial; and, according to Euripides in The Madness of Heracles, he sheltered his old comrade after Heracles murdered his wife and children in a fit of madness.

      
      
       Listings for Theseus are arranged under the following headings:
       Theseus: Coming of Age, Voyage of Theseus, Theseus at Athens, Theseus and the Amazons, Theseus and Achelous, Theseus and Helen.

See also:
Ariadne; Heracles, Madness; Heracles, Labors of; Girdle of Hippolyta; Cerberus; Meleager, Boar Hunt; Oedipus, at Colonus; Phaedra and Hippolytus; Pirithous; Seven against Thebes.