Parallel Myths (31 page)

To a simple visitor from Bronze Age Greece, the vast corridors of the palace must have seemed like a maze; the sight of men riding bulls would have easily given rise to the Minotaur—a half-man, half-bull monster.

One of the best sources for the story of Theseus is the account presented by the ancient biographer Plutarch in his
Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
. Another excellent treatment of the story, by a modern author, is Andre Gide’s
Theseus
.

THE YOUTH OF THESEUS

K
ing Aegeus of Athens had two wives, Melite and Chalciope, neither of whom gave him an heir. Aegeus traveled to Corinth, where he consulted with the sorceress Medea. She agreed to provide him with the magic necessary to sire a son in exchange for his promise that he would offer her protection and asylum in Athens, to which he readily agreed.

At the town of Troezen, en route back to Athens, Aegeus had an affair with Aethra, a woman of the blood of the royal house of Athens. He warned her that if this liaison were to produce a son, she must keep the child in Troezen and secretly raise him there. Aegeus then placed his sandals and sword under a rock sacred to Zeus: His future heir would prove himself by finding this “deposit” [the Greek word is
thesaurus
, basis for the English words
thesaurus
and
treasure]
. The true son of Aegeus would be able to lift the rock and bring the tokens to Athens as a demonstration of his claim to the throne.

Unknown to Aegeus, Aethra gave birth to a boy, naming him Theseus [“deposited”], recalling the tokens of kingship that her lover had deposited under the sacred rock. The child grew strong and wise, showing that he had the favor of the gods. With great ease he lifted the rock and removed the tokens of kingship. He then set out for Athens to make his claim to the throne. But the roads between Troezen and Athens were plagued by bandits, and thus Theseus had his first heroic task to perform.

The first bandit he met was Epidaurus the Lame, reknowned for killing hapless travelers with a brass club and taking their money. When Epidaurus tried to attack Theseus, he had met his match at last. Theseus seized the brass club and slew Epidaurus.

The second bandit was the wretched Sinis Pityocamtes [“Sinis the Pine-bender”]. This psychopath used to bend the tops of pine trees low with his great strength, then ask travelers to give him a hand in his work. When the traveler had a good grip on the tip of the pine tree, Sinis would let go. The traveler would then be flung through the
air only to fall to his death. Theseus killed Sinis in the same manner that Sinis slew his victims.

Then there was Sciron [“parasol”], who forced his victims to wash his feet, then when they were bent down, he kicked them into a steep gorge into the sea, where they were eaten by turtles. Theseus meted Sciron the same fate.

Theseus was considered by the Athenians to be the father of Greek wrestling, after demonstrating his mastery of Cercydon, an evil bandit who challenged every traveler to a wrestling match that always concluded with Cercydon dashing his opponent’s head against a rock. Cercydon met the same fate as his victims at the hand of Theseus. Just as Theseus neared the outskirts of Athens, he also killed a fierce wild boar that had claimed many human lives.

News of Theseus’s exploits preceded him to Athens, where the people were thrilled to be rid of the bandits and the boar.

THESEUS IN ATHENS

M
any years had passed since King Aegeus had been in Troezen where Theseus was conceived. The king did not know that he had such a son. Meanwhile, Medea had been driven out of Corinth and fled to Athens, where Aegeus had assured her asylum. Aegeus took Medea as his third wife and they had a son, Medus, whom Aegeus erroneously considered the son and heir Medea had promised.

News of Theseus had spread to the palace. Aegeus had no idea that this hero might be his son, and he was afraid that Theseus would prove a rival to his rule. Medea knew exactly who Theseus was, and feared that the hero would take the throne away from her son. Aegeus and Medea knew that they had to welcome Theseus to Athens, but they also wanted to kill him. So Medea prepared some poison from the wolfbane plant and placed it in a cup of wine.

During the feasting, Theseus took his sword from the scabbard and used it to cut some meat; it was the sword that Aegeus had deposited under the rock many years before. Aegeus recognized the sword and
knew that Theseus was his son and true heir. He immediately knocked the poisoned wine onto the floor and rejoiced, proclaiming Theseus as his heir. Moreover, as Aethra, Theseus’s mother, was of the royal blood of Athens, there was no way that Theseus’s claim to the throne could be contested. Medea was angry with this and was driven into exile for her treachery.

THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

C
rete is an island off the coast of Greece that was ruled by King Minos. Minos had sent his only son on a diplomatic delegation to Athens. The Cretans were known throughout the world for their skill with bulls, and King Aegeus asked the Cretan prince, Androgeus, for help in killing a particularly fierce bull that plagued the countryside near Athens. In the process, Androgeus was killed.

Minos demanded revenge. He invaded Athens and vowed to destroy the city unless the Athenians offered a tribute. The only tribute that could compensate for the loss of the Cretan heir to the throne was for the Athenians to send their seven finest young men and as many young women to Crete once every nine years. The young Athenians never returned; in Crete they were murdered by a horrible monster, the Minotaur.

The story of the Minotaur is yet another example of human stupidity toward the gods. King Minos had been given a beautiful white bull by the sea god, Poseidon, who expected it to be returned to him as a sacrifice. Instead, Minos prized the bull and refused to let go of it. Poseidon was angry and caused Pasiphae, Minos’s wife, to fall in love with the bull. She later gave birth to the horrible Minotaur, who was half human, half bull, and the fiercest creature alive. Minos did not kill the Minotaur. Rather, the king asked Daedalus, the world’s greatest builder, to construct a Labyrinth, a maze of corridors, in which the monster could be safely kept, and Minos would give the Minotaur human beings to eat. The young Athenians were placed in this hopeless maze and murdered by the fierce man-beast.

Theseus arrived in Athens during the ninth year of this human sacrifice. He stepped forward and offered to be one of the seven young people chosen to go to Crete. His father despaired of sending the heir to the throne on such a mission, but Theseus assured Aegeus that he would kill the Minotaur and end the slaughter of Athenian youth. So Theseus boarded the ship and left for Crete. It was understood by the Athenians that they should watch the sail: If the ship returned with a black sail, then the young Athenians had all perished. However, if the ship returned with a white sail, the young Athenians had been spared and were aboard this ship home.

Upon arriving in Crete, the Athenians were paraded through the streets. Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, fell instantly in love with Theseus and went to Daedalus for assistance in saving the handsome Athenian. She then gave Theseus a ball of string to unwind behind him: By knowing where he had been, Theseus could retrace his steps and escape the Labyrinth. Fortunately for the other thirteen young Athenians, Theseus was the first of their party to encounter the Minotaur, whom the hero easily killed with his bare hands.

Thus the fourteen young Athenians escaped unharmed. Ariadne had received a promise from Theseus that he would take her to Greece with him, where they would marry. On the way, however, she became violently ill and Theseus dropped her off on the island of Naxos.
*
Another version of the story is that she became tiresome and nagging during the voyage and was simply left there. In any case, the ship returned to Athens with all fourteen Athenians on board.

In their haste to return, however, someone forgot to replace the black sail that had graced the ship on its outward journey with the white one that indicated that the young Athenians were safe. For months, King Aegeus had watched the seas for a sign of this ship. When he saw the black sail as the ship returned, he thought that his son and heir had perished in Crete. In despair, he threw himself to his death in the sea, which is now called the Aegean Sea. Thus, upon the ship’s return to Athens, Theseus found himself king.

The hero was acclaimed as the founder of Athenian democracy. Instead
of ruling the people himself, he allowed them to rule themselves. He was a wise and beloved king, the patron of culture. During his reign, skilled artisans and thinkers from throughout Greece moved to Athens to work under his patronage. Things in Athens were happy and prosperous; the Cretans no longer demanded tribute. With affairs in order in his realm, Theseus set out for more adventures.

He went on an expedition against the fierce female warriors, the Amazons,
*
and sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. Theseus’s loyalty to his friends was well known. When Herakles [Hercules] went mad and killed his wife and children, Theseus alone defended him—possibly the world’s first insanity defense. Theseus even gave asylum to the aged Oedipus.

His aid to Oedipus, however, brings to mind a sad irony in Theseus’s own life. Theseus was married to Phaedra, Ariadne’s sister; he also had a handsome son named Hippolytus by an earlier marriage. Phaedra fell hopelessly in love with Hippolytus and repeatedly tried to seduce him. This came about because Hippolytus’s looks had attracted the affections of the goddess Aphrodite, but he was a devotee of the perpetually virgin hunt goddess Artemis and so he was not interested in sex. Hippolytus’s appreciation of Artemis’s patronage angered the jealous Aphrodite, who now vowed to destroy him. It is said that Aphrodite caused Phaedra to fall in love with Hippolytus.

As Phaedra continued to demand the affections of Hippolytus, the boy rebuffed her—it was not right to sleep with one’s stepmother. In despair, Phaedra hanged herself, leaving a suicide note claiming that Hippolytus had caused her death. When Theseus found the note, he was grieved and disgusted. He prepared to send Hippolytus into exile. When the boy protested that he had done nothing to harm his stepmother, Theseus refused to believe him. In his anger, Theseus rashly called on Poseidon, god of the sea, to destroy Hippolytus. As the boy set out on his journey, a sea creature came out of the water
in front of his chariot. The horses were frightened and Hippolytus was fatally thrown from the vehicle.

The dying boy was brought before his father. The goddess Artemis herself appeared to Theseus to tell him that Hippolytus was innocent of any wrongdoing with regard to Phaedra. Artemis explained that Aphrodite had been behind the plot, and that Phaedra had been bewitched; that the jealous goddess had planned to destroy Hippolytus for spurning her as well as all other women in his devotion to chastity. Distraught, Theseus begged the gods for mercy.

The gods were merciful to a point. But Theseus, as justice would have it, later died by the treachery of a friend, because he had believed the lies of Phaedra and cursed his own innocent son.