Theseus Voyage
Traveling to Athens, Theseus chose the longer and more dangerous land route rather than the faster journey by sea. Some sources suggest that this was because he had heard that the land route was beset by dangerous brigands whom he wished, in emulation of Heracles, to challenge and defeat.
       Theseus’s thirst for adventure was satisfied when he met and bested several bandits by using their own weapons and stratagems against them. These included Periphetes, whom he killed with his own club; Sinis, whom he hurled into the air by bending down the tops of pine trees; and Sciron, whom he compelled to wash his feet, and then kicked over the cliff to be eaten by a giant turtle below.
       The most celebrated of Theseus’s challengers was Procrustes, who would invite his guests to lie in a long bed if they were short or in a short bed if they were tall. He then either stretched them on a rack or cut off their limbs to make them fit. Theseus dealt with Procrustes in a like manner: he laid the tall bandit in a short bed and cut off his head. The phrase “Procrustean bed” has come to mean using a rigid pattern to secure conformity at any cost.
       Having dealt with all the villains on his route, Theseus continued to Athens.
      
       Classical Sources. Diodorus Siculus, Biblioteca 4.59. Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.433—52. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 3.15.6—7, 3.16.1-E1.4. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “Theseus” 6ff. Hyginus, Fabulae 38.